No chemical contaminants were ever found in any of the 115 water samples taken from the Corpus Christi water system during four days of a no-use ban on tap water, said officials with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency. The question, they told members of the media during a Dec. 19 press briefing in the Austin office of State Rep. Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi), was not “if” there was a chemical spill, but how far into the system that chemical went.
City and state officials declared the no-use, tap-water ban, which was in place Dec. 14-19, after there were four reports of dirty water in the industrial section of the city Nov. 23, Dec. 1, Dec. 7 and Dec. 13. The chemical Indulin AA-86, an asphalt emulsifier, had washed into the system from an asphalt plant on Up River Road. (See ‘Attorney General,’ page 16.)
The ban was put in place out of “an abundance of caution,” said Richard Hyde, executive director of TCEQ. 
“We have not identified a contamination that would cause our health experts to be concerned,” Hyde said when asked if the public was ever in any danger. “All the laboratory results that we have seen so far are non-detect.”  
The first problem the agencies faced was in developing a test for that particular chemical. 
“This is the first time we ever had to analyze drinking water for that chemical,” said Sam Coleman, deputy regional administrator for the EPA in Dallas. “Chemists worked around the clock screening for the chemical in concern.”
A second problem occurred when the chemical was identified: It was a patented, therefore, proprietary formula. TCEQ and EPA came to what is called a Confidential Business Information agreement with the company that developed the chemical. A CBI releases the formula to the agencies, but is kept under wraps from the public. The last time the Houston-based EPA lab had to deal with a similar problem was during the BP oil spill in 2010, Coleman said. 
“We had to develop a method to test for what BP was using in the Gulf,” Coleman said. “So our lab has had some experience doing that.” 
Testing will continue as the investigation into how the spill occurred and who is responsible continues, said Hyde. 
Included in the 115 water samples taken were tests run on two locations in the central city where 12 residents had reported health symptoms common from exposure to Indulin AA-86. Those tests also came back as “non-detect.”
When asked about causes and culprits, both the EPA and TCEQ representatives answered, “we are investigating that,” or “it’s under investigation,” or “we cannot comment on that.”
TCEQ also reported that it is going through a “lessons learned” process that could lead to changes in the rules and procedures governing similar chemical spills. Any proposed changes would go before the TCEQ board of commissioners for approval. 
“I don’t think we’ve come to a conclusion at all that the rules need to be change,” Hyde said. 
Changes in the rules would be important in the event of another occurrence of a chemical spill, whether in Corpus Christi or elsewhere in the state. When ordering something as drastic as a no-use water ban in such a highly populated area, the amount of information known is crucial, Hyde pointed out.
“The more you know, the more you can narrow your restriction,” he said. “The less you know, the wider your restrictions.” 
TCEQ had to look at the number of elderly and sick in the city’s population of 320,000 that would be effected by a possible contaminant in the water before making a decision. 
“We have the authority to protect the public health,” Hyde said. “In this case we advised the city very strongly that this was needed and the city complied.”