The Ohio Village of East Palestine is Safe. The evacuation order lifted after a train derailed near the Pennsylvania state line, according to Fire Chief Keith Drabick

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Evacuated residents can safely return to the Ohio village where crews burned toxic chemicals after a train derailed five days ago near the Pennsylvania state line, East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick said Wednesday.

There was a warning from the authorities in East Palestine that burning vinyl chloride would release hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosgene into the air. They said Wednesday subsequent air monitoring hasn’t detected dangerous levels inside or outside the mile-radius evacuation zone, which stretched into Pennsylvania. The order to leave is lifted after air and water samples show it’s safe. He thanked all the state and federal officials who helped out with the emergency response.

James Justice said around-the-clock monitoring of air quality showed normal levels. Hundreds of data points from that “show that the air quality in the town is safe,” he said.

“I want the community to know that we hear you, we see you, and that we will get to the bottom of this,” Regan said. “We are testing for all volatile organic chemicals, we’re testing for everything. We are testing everything that was on that train. So we feel comfortable that we are casting a net wide enough to present a picture that will protect the community.”

The decision to conduct controlled detonations of some tanks carrying toxic chemicals that has the potential to kill at high levels and increase cancer risk is causing residents questions about safety.

The commander of the Ohio National Guard previously said that members wearing protective gear would take readings inside homes, basements and businesses as officials aimed to ensure the air was safe before lifting the evacuation order.

Class-action lawsuits against Norfolk Southern for toxic spilled air and water caused by a fire on the outskirts of East Palestine

There were no injuries when about 50 cars derailed in a fiery mess on the outskirts of East Palestine. The area was evacuated and a toxic vinylchloride from rail cars was released, causing a huge fire and black smoke as it flew into the sky.

At least one lawsuit has been filed over the derailment. An East Palestine business owner and two other residents sued the rail operator in federal court on Tuesday, alleging negligence by Norfolk Southern and exposure to toxic substances as a result. They’re seeking to make it a class-action case for residents and businesses in the evacuated area and people who were physically harmed because of spilled chemicals at the site.

Hundreds of worried people gathered to hear state officials tell them — as they did earlier in the day — that testing so far has shown local air is safe to breathe and to promise that safety testing of the air and water would continue.

But residents had many questions over health hazards and they demanded more transparency from the railroad operator, Norfolk Southern, which did not attend the gathering, citing safety concerns for its staff.

In a statement, Norfolk Southern said it was not attending Wednesday’s open house gathering with local, state and federal officials because of a “growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event.”

There were questions over the health of pets, the odor of smoke and the impact on drinking water at Wednesday’s meeting, as well as concerns over the mess that was being made.

Why aren’t they hiding what’s going on the train? Residents of East Palestine are concerned about the railroad’s impact on public water wells

Why are they hiding what they are doing? Kathy said about the railroad. “They’re not out here supporting, they’re not out here answering questions. For three days we didn’t even know what was on the train.”

In and around East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania state line, residents said they wanted assistance navigating the financial help the railroad offered hundreds of families who evacuated, and they want to know whether it will be held responsible for what happened.

“The pollution, which continues to contaminate the area around East Palestine, created a nuisance, damage to natural resources and caused environmental harm,” Yost said in a letter to the company.

The state’s Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that the latest tests show water from five wells supplying the village’s drinking water are free from contaminants. But the EPA also is recommending testing for private water wells because they are closer to the surface.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates the spill affected more than seven miles (11.2 kilometers) of streams and killed some 3,500 fish, mostly small ones such as minnows and darters.

Norfolk Southern announced Tuesday that it is creating a $1 million fund to help the community of some 4,700 people while continuing remediation work, including removing spilled contaminants from the ground and streams and monitoring air quality.

Alan Shaw of Norfolk Southern said in a statement that they will be judged by their actions. The site has to be cleaned up in an environmental way and residents of East Palestine are being compensated for their losses.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it has video of a wheel bearing overheating before the train derails, and that there is a mechanical issue with a rail car axle. The preliminary report is expected in about two weeks.

Investigation of the East Palestine train wreck occurred after the December 6 train explosion and the state’s air pollution probed by state and federal officials, with the help of the US Environmental Protection Agency

Misinformation and exaggerations spread online, and state and federal officials have repeatedly offered assurances that air monitoring hasn’t detected any remaining concerns. Even low levels of contaminants that aren’t considered hazardous can create lingering odors or symptoms such as headaches, Ohio’s health director said Tuesday.

The head of the US Environmental Protection Agency went to East Palestine, Ohio, on Thursday and said that they would hold the train company accountable for its involvement in the train derailing.

The EPA has the power to use its enforcement powers over the crisis according to Administrator Michael S. Regan.

The company signed a note of accountability that said they would be responsible for the clean up, Regan told CNN. “But as this investigation continues, and as new facts arise, let me just say, and be very clear, I will use the full enforcement authority of this agency, and so will the federal government, to be sure that this company is held accountable.”

Hundreds of East Palestine residents attended a town hall Wednesday night to talk about their issues. The train operator decided to pull out of the event because of safety concerns.

Regan was in the town Thursday and saw some of the issues following the train wreck. He said the state has primary responsibility over the scene but the EPA was prepared to partner and provide necessary resources.

State and federal officials have said repeatedly that they have yet to detect dangerous levels of chemicals in the air or municipal water, citing preliminary data from hundreds of homes in the town of roughly 4,700 people. Teams of experts from top environmental and health agencies have been fanning out across the region to test whether chemicals carried by the Norfolk Southern train or burned off days after the derailment have contaminated the air or water.

Ohio River Train Derailment, East Palestine, and Public Health Concerns: State of the State and Possible Exposure to Disease Symptoms

Meanwhile, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday he has requested the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immediately send medical experts to East Palestine to evaluate and counsel community members with questions or health symptoms.

According to DeWine, emergency response teams are prepared to prevent contaminated water from entering local waterways during the storms.

The governor said a chemical plume of butyl acrylate in the Ohio River is currently located near Gallipolis, Ohio, and will be near Huntington, West Virginia, sometime tomorrow. Testing results indicate that the chemical is currently well below a level the CDC considers hazardous, he said. Agencies will continue to sample the water of the river out of an abundance of caution because no vinyl chloride has been found.

The risk of livestock remains low and the Ohio Department of Agriculture is assuring people that their food supply is safe, according to DeWine.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/us/ohio-train-derailment-east-palestine-thursday/index.html

The East Palestine train derailment: Are you still here? Do you think you are safe? Tell us what happened at the Detonation Meeting

“Is it OK to still be here? Are my children safe? The people are safe. Is the future of this community safe?” The East Palestine resident told the reporters what happened at the meeting. We all know what is at stake when it comes to that question. Some people think they are downplaying; some people don’t think so – let’s find out.”

“There (were) two options: We either detonate those tanks, or they detonate themselves,” Mayor Trent Conaway told a group of reporters at Wednesday’s meeting. “Yes, harmful chemicals went into the air. I am truly sorry but we had only one option. If we didn’t do that, then they were going to blow up, and we were going to have shrapnel all across this town.”

“I need help,” Conaway told reporters Wednesday night. “I have the village on my back, and I’ll do whatever it takes … to make this right. I am not leaving, I am not going anywhere.

The company has become concerned about a growing physical threat to employees and members of the community as a result of the increased likelihood of outside parties at the event.

Nate Velez, who said he lives less than half a mile from where the train derailed, told CNN on Wednesday night that the company’s absence from the meeting was “a slap in the face.”

The family is staying in rentals away from the town. He told CNN that a chemical smell gave him headaches, and that when he visited the town he had burned his eyes and throat.

They had to, but most people did not want to leave. He said most of the people that had to leave were complaining of smells, headaches, nausea and other symptoms. I have gone back a number of times and the smell is making me sick. It hurts your head.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/us/ohio-train-derailment-east-palestine-thursday/index.html

East Palestine residents complain about the safety of air tests and water, and why they should stay in the public interest: a media interview with CJ Guglielmo

“I was extremely disappointed that they didn’t show up at the town hall meeting last night. He said that the public deserves transparency. “The public deserves to have the latest information. And so it’s our job, as the federal government, to hold this company accountable, and I promise you we will.”

The Cozza family have lived in East Palestine for generations and now they are staying at a hotel because of the toxicity caused by the train wreck.

Speaking to CNN’s Don Lemon, Cozza said the railroad company told her it was safe to return home after conducting air testing. However, she insisted the railroad company run soil and water tests, and only then did a toxicologist deem her house unsafe.

“Had I not used my voice, had I not thrown a fit, I would be sitting in that house right now, when they told me that it was safe,” Cozza said Thursday.

Reflecting the fundamental mistrust residents have in the railroad company Norfolk Southern and the government, Ms. Guglielmo is one of several people who live in the region who are seeking independent tests or are looking for ways to conduct their own.

There is still a smell of chemicals in some parts of town and Ms. Guglielmo and others who live on the outskirts of East Palestine have not found much comfort in the assurances given to them.

The threat of possible long-term exposure to the chemical cocktail released into the air and water, coupled with a deep fear that the town and its neighboring villages will be forgotten in the coming months, has also left many residents feeling as if they are on their own to prove that it is safe to remain or return through means that include paying out of pocket for their own tests. Some have become novice chemists, rattling off the names and effects of chemical compounds that had no meaning to them two weeks ago.

She is keeping a close eye on the maple syrup in her yard, saying she wants to stay. But as she ran through the questions she had about planting a garden, eating the fruit from her trees and letting her horses drink from the nearby creek in the wake of the chemical burn, Ms. Mibuck conceded: “I don’t feel completely safe doing that. I don’t like that.

When the Norfolk Southern freight train careened off the tracks in East Palestine, Ohio, a town of 4,700 people, it upended an area where generations of families could afford to buy acres of land, raise horses and plant gardens. Although farming provides only a small number of jobs in the immediate area, many residents say that raising livestock and working the land are profoundly important to their way of life.

The land, the water and the fresh air have been a source of safety and comfort through a long global Pandemic. But the chemical threat spreading through the region has shattered many landowners’ confidence. The Environmental Protection Agency said that Vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate, and ethylene glycol monobutyl are some of the substances that were released into the air.