City of Nowata water service shut off after Kansas explosion

NOWATA, Okla. (AP) – Water service has been turned off to residents of a northeastern Oklahoma city due to possible contamination of its water supply following a chemical plant explosion in southeastern Kansas.

Stacy Guffey, a dispatcher at the Nowata County Sheriff’s Office, said Thursday that water service was discontinued shortly after midnight in the city of Nowata, located 20 miles south of the Kansas state line and 150 miles northeast of Oklahoma City.

The Tulsa World reports (http://bit.ly/2gjOcFB ) the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality is conducting tests to see what chemicals may be contaminating the water following an explosion and fire on Tuesday at the Airosol, Inc., chemical plant in Neodesha, Kansas.

Erin Hatfield, spokeswoman for the agency, says Nowata stopped pulling water from the Verdigris River on Wednesday afternoon as a precaution.