Frustration mounts over reaction to Ohio train derailment as officials urge patience

The cleanup process following a derailment and explosion of a train carrying hazardous chemicals in Ohio is frustrating local residents and environmentalists, who are concerned that the response from the state and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been insufficient and confusing.

On February 3, a freight train belonging to the Norfolk Southern Railroad and carrying several wagons of hazardous materials derailed in the city of Eastern Palestine on the border with Pennsylvania. Two days later, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) ordered the evacuation of the city, and the following day, the emergency crew carried out a controlled fire to prevent a possible explosion.

Local residents and activists say they have since received mixed messages from both federal and state officials about the safety of the area.

For example, the federal EPA allowed residents to return to the area as of Feb. 9, but the agency indicated in a letter to Norfolk Southern this week that hazardous chemicals remain and that new ones may be released.

“They talk on both sides,” activist and environmental whistleblower Erin Brockovich said of the Environmental Protection Agency in a conversation with The Hill. “[They] clearly indicate in [their] the first paragraph is that it is a known toxic substance that continues to be in the air, water and soil, but on the other hand, you are telling everyone that it is safe to return. So we are still not getting full information.”

“EPA has spent or is considering spending public funds to investigate and control releases of hazardous substances or potential releases of hazardous substances at the facility,” the agency wrote in a letter to Norfolk Southern. The Hill has reached out to the EPA for comment.

Substances identified in the release include: vinyl chloride, a flammable gas used in the plastics industry; butyl acrylate, a flammable liquid used for paints and sealants; and ethylhexyl acrylate, which is used in the manufacture of paints and plastics.

Additionally, EPA government counterparts have said the city’s drinking water is safe, but several officials appear to have undermined that confidence by advising residents to drink bottled water for the time being.

DeWine maintained that officials were continuing to monitor the situation, but expressed confidence that the danger was minimal, saying at a CNN briefing Wednesday: “We have told people in a certain area that they need to leave that area, and outside of that area we will never didn’t see anything really significant.” changes in the air in general.

The governor, along with other officials, also advised affected residents to drink bottled water. Asked about the seemingly mixed message, DeWine said officials remain optimistic but cannot be sure until testing is complete. “We are testing [and] when we test, we will tell people exactly what we find,” he said.

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, DeVine’s office said municipal tests showed no “detection of contaminants in raw water from five wells that feed East Palestine’s municipal water supply.”

Gregg Brown, who lives outside East Palestine but works in the city and has children in his school district, said residents have so far been disappointed with the pace and transparency of the response.

“It was very bad; I think that’s the best way to put it,” Brown told The Hill. “You have people testing the air and water and you get air quality updates and say this is what we found how many particles are in the air. [but] without specifying what they find in the air.”

He also pointed to the delay in the public release of the derailed train’s manifestos, which took more than a week after the accident.

Brown compared the reaction to that which followed a similar accident in Paulsboro, New Jersey in November 2012, which also resulted in a vinyl chloride leak. In this case, evacuation orders remained in effect longer than in East Palestine, despite the smaller amount of chemical spill.

Emily Wright, director of organizational development for the River Valley Organizing, who lives a few miles from the Columbia rail crash site, suggests that officials have been focusing on air quality so far because the level of risk of other potential areas of contamination, such as water is less clear.

“When the governor tells you in a press conference that he would drink bottled water if it was him or his family, but there are no boil orders in effect and no one was [formally] advised to buy bottled water … so all the attention is focused on the air,” Wright said. “It’s focused on the air, but we’ve got all these other contagion points that are just starting to really show up, so we need a federal emergency here.”

The River Valley Organizing is among several organizations that have approached DeVeen to formally declare a state of emergency and request FEMA funds from the White House.

But DeWine has turned down such requests so far.

“The president called me and said, ‘Whatever you need.’ I won’t hesitate to call him if we see a problem, but I don’t see one,” DeWine said at a press conference on Wednesday. Devine’s office did not respond to The Hill’s request for comment on whether it would consider imposing a state of emergency.

Brown suggested that the nature of Eastern Palestine itself probably contributed to officials showing less of a sense of urgency than they might if the crash had occurred in a major state population center such as Cleveland or Columbus.

“The fact that it happened on the state line, in a low-income area… especially in the area where the crash itself happened. [occurred], it is not densely populated, there are no casualties. … It won’t be an immediate “oh what happened,” he said. “When there are reports of people finding these fish dead, [the state] giving us a sort of cop-out, it really didn’t sit well with a lot of people, especially in the community.”

EPA administrator Michael Regan, meanwhile, defended both the state and the agency’s handling of the situation on CNN airing Wednesday morning. Asked if he thinks DeWine was irresponsible in allowing residents to return home before testing was complete, Regan said: “I don’t think it was irresponsible. I think we engaged a lot of assets right from the start.”

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However, Regan supported DeWine’s recommendation that residents drink bottled water in the meantime. “We also support the state in its monitoring of water quality, and I agree with the governor’s assessment,” he said. “Stay on bottled water until these tests are complete.”

“We understand the concern, but rest assured, local, state and federal officials are dedicating massive resources to [and] responding very quickly to these concerns to ensure that communities are protected,” he said.

“I think it’s terrible that this community is scared [and] not getting any responses,” Brockovich said. “They worry about their soil, they worry about water, they worry about chemicals, they worry about breathing it. … [They’re] worried about their animals, they worry about the future outcome, and no one seems to be able to tell them anything.”

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