QCOSTARICA — The Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) – University of Costa Rica – reported that Xylene (Xileno in Spanish) is the main contaminant polluting water in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) cantons of Moravia, Tibás, and Goicochea.
In a brief statement to the press, the UCR indicated that the research carried out by several of their laboratories determined that the contaminant tends to disappear and it will be increasingly safer to drink and use the water.
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The UCR has called a press conference of today, February 1 at 9:30 a.m. to provide more details of the results.
Various of the public university research centers participated in the analysis work.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC), xylene is a colorless, sweet-smelling liquid that ignites easily. It is found naturally in oil and tar. Chemical industries produce it from petroleum. Xylene is used as a solvent in printing and in the rubber and leather industries. It is also used as a cleaning agent, paint thinner, and in paints and varnishes. Small amounts are found in jet fuel and gasoline.
The affected population can now use water to wash their hands and bathe
In a statement to the press, the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillado (AyA) – Water and Sewer Utility – issued a statement Wednesday night, January 31, that 100% of the residents of Goicoechea, Moravia and Tibás can now use water to wash their hands and bathe.
The announcement came after AyA received the results of the latest water quality tests. They added that these studies also allowed them to incorporate water sources that are completely free of hydrocarbons and in this way distribute more liquid to neighbors.
They added that until the situation is completely resolved, they will continue with the supply of drinking water for human consumption through tanker trucks.
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For its part, the regulatory authority, Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (ARESEP), ordered the water utility to suspend billing to the affected areas starting from January 22, and until the water is completely safe for human consumption.
On Wednesday, following a session of Cabinet, the government of Rodrigo Chaves ordered an intervention of the AyA and announced the new executive president of the utility, the third in less than 2 years, Juan Manuel Quesada, who had headed Costa Rica’s refinery that refines nothing, the Refinadora Costarricense de Petroleo (RECOPE).
The task now is to find the source of contamination in the identified source called Quebrada Honda 2, one kilometer from the collection point of the AyA) intake, in San Jerónimo de Moravia.
“Quebrada Honda 2 is the source of the pollution,” Health Minister Mary Munive said Wednesday afternoon. “It is already known that from the catchment, more or less 1 kilometer away, the teams are there doing the tracking.”
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