How is Grand Prairie coping with contamination? Bottled water, baby wipes and dirty dishes

GRAND PRAIRIE — Steven Hernandez could wait no longer. The 17-year-old grabbed a stack of towels and soap and set out in his family’s minivan Thursday morning with his mother and three sisters. He was desperate for a hot shower.
“That felt really, really good,” Hernandez said while leaving the Tony Shotwell Life Center in Grand Prairie, which offered free showers this week. “I’m just worried about how long this is going to last.”
Two days after a foaming agent used to fight fires contaminated the city’s water supply, Grand Prairie residents were coping with cases of bottled water, baby wipes and packaged food.
The contamination, which occurred Tuesday, affected roughly 60,000 residents in Grand Prairie who live north of Interstate 20. Residents are urged to avoid drinking the water, bathing, cooking, brushing teeth or washing dishes and clothes in tap water. Boiling water does not help.
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City officials say they do not know how long the advisory will remain in place and are waiting for clearance from the state’s environmental regulators. Grand Prairie schools are closed, as well as many restaurants in the contaminated zone. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which is testing the water, declined to provide a timeline.
Hernandez, who attends Dubiski Career High School, said his family has made multiple trips to the grocery store to fill gallon bottles of water so they can brush their teeth and wash their hands. For dinner, they picked up a pizza and are trying to avoid dirtying dishes.
“It’s been a pain,” he said. “We’ll feel better when this is all over.”
Marileysis Longoria, who lives with her husband and 1-year-old son, has spent the past two days driving back and forth from her home in Grand Prairie to her aunt’s house in Arlington, where she showers, washes baby bottles and prepares meals.
That has not prevented what she considered a near-catastrophe: Longoria glanced at her son just as he dipped his hand into the toilet water, sending her and her husband into a panic.
“It makes us nervous. The baby gets into everything,” Longoria, 24, said. “We started scrubbing his hands with bottled water.”
Longoria is not the only one who has reported a close call. Her sister, who also lives in Grand Prairie, said she absentmindedly brushed her teeth with tap water.
On a Grand Prairie Facebook page, residents offered recommendations for their favorite baby and bathing wipes, and one resident said they covered bathroom and kitchen faucets with plastic cups as a reminder.
Grand Prairie Mayor Ron Jensen said the city has not received any reports of illnesses, nor has there been an increase in the number of emergency calls.
City officials received the first reports of foamy tap water late Tuesday afternoon and worked with state environmental officials to identify the source: a foam used to extinguish a fire earlier in the day at an industrial warehouse.
Firefighters used the foam to help penetrate the blaze, complicated by hoarder-like conditions at the warehouse in the Great Southwest Industrial District. A backflow caused the contaminant to enter the water supply.
The firefighting foam comes from the brand Micro-Blaze and touts itself as environmentally friendly. According to its website and city officials, it does not contain PFAS, a group of synthetic chemicals known as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down in the environment.
Foaming agents can give water a bitter, oily taste, cloudy appearance and odor. High dosages can cause gastrointestinal issues if ingested. Some Grand Prairie residents said their water looked normal, but others said it appeared cloudy or foamy.
Reuben Nigo, 52, who lives in Grand Prairie, said he is not drinking the water but is showering and brushing his teeth normally.
“It can’t be any worse than what we grew up drinking,” Nigo said.
Others were not quite as relaxed. Diana Osborn said she has relied on pre-packaged food since she was notified of the issue and is driving to a grocery store outside the contaminated zone to avoid fruits or vegetables that may have been rinsed in tainted water. She said she has spent more on food the past two days than in a typical week.
“This is creating a financial issue,” Osborn said.
On Thursday, Valerie Varga, 31, and her husband, Jacob, 30, drove to the Tony Shotwell Life Center with their three daughters, ages 4, 5 and 11, to take much-needed showers. The family used bottled water to cook Frito chili pie this week, but with no way to wash dishes, the kitchen sink is overflowing with dirty bowls and plates.
Varga said she is growing worried about how long the advisory will last and her family’s health. Shortly before learning about the contamination, her husband took a shower at his Grand Prairie home.
“I’m fine,” Jacob Varga said, shrugging. “So far.”