© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: An environmental company is removing dead fish downstream from the site of a train derailment that forced people to be evacuated from their homes in East Palestine, Ohio, U.S., February 6, 2023. REUTERS/Alan Freed./File photo
by Brad Brooks
(Reuters) – Hundreds of angry residents of the Ohio city where a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals filled a high school gymnasium on Wednesday, seeking answers to the health dangers they face.
East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway, looking angry and weary, told Wednesday’s town hall that he wanted to help reassure his city’s 4,700 citizens and hold those responsible for the train derailment to account.
“We need our citizens to feel safe in their own homes,” Conaway said at the start of the meeting. “I need help. I’m not ready for this. But I’m not leaving, I’m not going anywhere.”
conaway said norfolk south (NYSE:), which operated the toxin-laden train that derailed on February 3 in eastern Palestine, was working closely with him. “They ruined our town, they’re going to fix it,” Conway said.
Conaway addressed the citizens seated in the bleachers, speaking through a bull’s horn as he paced across the gymnasium floor.
Norfolk Southern officials did not attend the meeting because they feared violence.
“After consulting with community leaders, we are increasingly concerned about the increasing physical threat to our employees and community members surrounding this event stemming from the increasing likelihood of third-party involvement,” the company said in a statement. send by email.
The derailment of the train operated by the Norfolk Southern Railroad sparked a fire that sent a cloud of smoke over eastern Palestine. Thousands of residents were forced to evacuate. After rail crews drained and burned a toxic chemical from five tank cars, residents were able to return to their homes on February 8.
Much remains unknown about the dangers posed to residents by the spilled toxins, experts said. Many in the area have complained of headaches and irritated eyes, noting that chickens, fish and other wildlife have died. Despite that, state health officials have insisted to residents that East Palestine is a safe place to be.
Erik Olson, senior strategic director of health and food at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit group focused on the environment and public health, said the unknown dangers from the derailment far outweigh the assurances that officials have given about security.
“This is clearly a very toxic mix of chemicals,” Olson said. “And I haven’t seen any public accounting of how many pounds or gallons of any of these chemicals were released.”
The air and water tests that have been done so far seemed limited and “not that reassuring,” Olson said.
He said much more needs to be understood about how soil and groundwater were contaminated by this spill, which he said posed a more significant long-term hazard than air pollution.
Ohio state officials have said a plume of pollution in the Ohio River is moving at a mile per hour. But they say cities in the plume’s path may shut off their drinking water intakes as it floats past. They also said that drinking water tests have not raised concerns and that normal water treatment would remove any small amounts of contaminants that may exist.
Gerald Poje, a toxicologist and former founding member of the Chemical Safety Board, an independent federal agency that investigates industrial chemical accidents, said it could be months or years before the full scale of the damage is known.
“This is a terrible tragedy in Ohio, it is very painful to see so many lives at risk,” Poje said. “There is a long challenge ahead of everyone on how to discern the risks that are unknown at this time.”
Poje and Olson said an underground plume of contamination could eventually contaminate drinking water and even irrigation wells that farmers can pump up and spray on crops.
The train of three locomotives and 150 freight cars was en route from Illinois to Pennsylvania when it derailed. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said 20 of the cars were carrying hazardous materials, including 10 that derailed.
The NTSB said a total of 38 cars left the tracks and the resulting fire damaged 12 others. The NTSB has not commented on the cause of the derailment.
Railway union officials have said they have been warning that such an accident could occur because the railway’s cost cutting undermined safety measures. But Norfolk Southern said his record has been on a “safer trend.”
