Philadelphia Chemical Spill Class Action Says Residents Struggled to Find Bottled Water, ‘Continue to Live in Fear’

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Three Philadelphia residents have filed a proposed class action lawsuit in the wake of a massive chemical spill that sent thousands of gallons of latex emulsion solution into a tributary of the Delaware River. 

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The 15-page lawsuit in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas says defendants Altuglas LLC and Trinseo PLC have admitted that the March 24 chemical spill into Otter Creek stemmed from an “equipment failure” at the companies’ Bristol, Pennsylvania facility. In the wake of the chemical spill, the case says, the city began to monitor its water supply given that the incident occurred roughly eight miles upstream from the Baxter Drinking Water Treatment Plant, which supplies approximately 58 percent of Philadelphia residents with drinking water from the Delaware River. 

Per the suit, the roughly 8,100 to 12,000 gallons of latex emulsion leaked from the facility contained the chemicals butyl acetate, ethyl acetate and methyl methacrylate, all of which can cause headaches, respiratory irritation, dizziness, nausea and other health problems. 

According to media reports, Philadelphia’s drinking water was declared safe as of Sunday, March 26, when the city rescinded its bottled-water alert for residents. The lawsuit says that the publication of the following public safety alert to residents’ cell phones sparked a rush to buy bottled water as proposed class members “had no knowledge of how long the environmental effects would last” and feared they would need to stock up on water for an indeterminate period of time:

The suit says Philadelphia residents would not have needed to spend money on bottled water, or incur other “economic damages,” if not for the Altuglas chemical spill. 

“Plaintiffs and Class Members went to any store they could find that still had water and purchased as much as they could. Many stores were entirely sold out of bottled water within hours of the news of the chemical spill from Defendants’ facility. Some stores even implemented and announced limits on the amount of water that customers could purchase at one time.” 

The lawsuit says that Philadelphia residents “continue to live in fear that their tap water is not or will no longer be safe,” requiring them to continue to buy bottled water or take other actions that they would not need to take if not for the chemical spill. Moreover, the case relays that it is well known that the plastic used for making water bottles is harmful to the environment and, as such, many consumers who do not ordinarily buy bottled water for this reason were forced to do so in response to the chemical spill. 

The filing adds that Philadelphia businesses also incurred economic damages from the spill in the form of “lost business opportunities, lost revenues, and lost profits.” 

Altuglas operates an acrylic resins manufacturing plant and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Trinseo PLC. According to the complaint, the facility from where the chemical spill originated has had at least four prior leaks dating back to 2010, with the most recent occurring in early 2020. 

The filing accuses Altuglas and Trinseo PLC of “negligently and recklessly” causing the spill and the resulting economic damages incurred by Philadelphia residents and businesses. 

The lawsuit looks to cover all persons and entities that reside in the area served by the Baxter Drinking Water Treatment Plant. 

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