Bright green water unrelated to Wacker chemical explosion
Creek water at Schimmels Park was a bright green at 12:00 last Thursday afternoon.
Courtesy of Matthew Taylor
Cleveland Utilities officials say the neon green water that appeared on campus and in Schimmels Park last Thursday had no relation to the chemical explosion that happened earlier the same day.
When news of the explosion at Wacker Chemical Plant in Charleston reached campus, many people campus said the two events were correlated. But Cleveland Utilities Waste Water Collections Manager Greg Clark was quick to dispel those rumors.
“They were two totally separate incidents,” said Clark. “It was an unfortunate coincidence that they occurred on the same day.”
The dyed water was one part of a routine smoke test Cleveland Utilities performs on the city’s sewer system.
Smoke is blown through the sewer lines to look for cracks in the concrete. Since the water is too dark to see clearly, it is dyed a bright green color to track its movement.
According to Clark, the dye used for the smoke test is nontoxic and environmentally friendly.
“We flood the dyed water into the storm drain where we saw the smoke come out,” Clark said. “Then we televise the sewer lines to see if we see any of that green dye show up.”
Many students were worried the shockingly green water was a product of the Wacker explosion. The explosion Thursday was the third incident the plant has experienced in two weeks.
Matthew Taylor, a freshman English literature major, joined in the online fervor, tweeting several pictures of the creek that runs through Schimmels Park.
“I look at the stream each day on my way to class,” Taylor said. “That’s not what it’s supposed to look like.”
According to Cleveland Utilities officials, the dye in the water should disappear within the next few days.
