Anamosa bottled water advisory ends

ANAMOSA - An advisory that residents in the Jones County community should drink only bottled water was lifted Monday evening.

While mixing chemicals Friday afternoon to treat drinking water, a city employee noticed the mixture looked differently than it usually does, officials said.

He shut down the pump, preventing the mixture from entering the water supply. But the automated system later opened a valve and mixed the chemical into the water supply anyway.

Officials with the city and the state Department of Natural Resources were working with the chemical supply company to determine what substance it had mistakenly delivered to Anamosa.

During the day Monday, the city was flushing the water distribution system and contacted hospitals, schools, restaurants and other public facilities advising them to use bottled water.

A toxicologist from the supplier, Viking Chemical, identified the substance as triethanolamine. The DNR said the substance is typically used in the cosmetic and drug industries and is not hazardous at the volume it entered the water system.

According to the DNR, between 1 and 3 gallons of the chemical was mixed into a diluted solution, which was then mixed into the city's water storage of about 750,000 gallons.

'The chemical's manufacturer confirmed that the chemical is safe at those levels,” the DNR said in a statement.

The chemical apparently was wrongly labeled at Viking's distribution plant, the DNR said.