Operation Blessing Delivers Fresh Water to Corpus Christi Residents

Operation Blessing is delivering fresh, clean water to about 300,000 residents of Corpus Christi, Texas, who can’t drink their own water due to contamination.

Earlier this week, residents were sent an advisory bulletin urging them to not drink, cook, or bathe with city water. According to state officials, the city's water system is believed to have been contaminated by a chemical used in asphalt.

Grocery stores ran out of water on Wednesday and people have been standing in line daily waiting for more to arrive.

Operation Blessing moved quickly to deliver more than 20,000 bottles of water at First United Methodist Church of Corpus Christi.

Ministry leaders “quickly jumped into action to see how we could get a truck load of water into Corpus Christi as soon as possible," Jody L. Gettys, Vice President of Operation Blessing's U.S. Disaster Relief Programs, said.

Some residents saw restrictions lifted Friday, but hundreds of thousands are still without water.

A news release from the city stated that anywhere from three to 24 gallons of asphalt emulsifier known as Indulin AA-86 entered the city's water.

A Texas Commission on Environmental Quality report obtained Friday indicates that a combination of Indulin AA-86 and hydrochloric acid leaked into the water supply, The Associated Press reported. Indulin is an asphalt-emulsifying agent that's corrosive and can burn the eyes, skin, and respiratory tract if a person comes into contact with concentrated amounts. It is considered a hazardous material by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

City officials are still investigating how the chemical entered the water system.

"We don't know what happened," Assistant City Manager Mark Van Vleck said.

What has been determined is that an incident occurred in the Corpus Christi industrial district.  City officials have met with the industrial district property owner and property users to gather information regarding how the chemical may have entered into the water system.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokesman Terry Clawson said Friday that they are "working cooperatively to provide all information to ensure state officials can remedy the situation as quickly as possible."