DTen days following the disaster, they remain unable to determine the ecological consequences of the derailment of a freight train carrying toxic materials in rural Ohio.
About 50 train cars derailed on February 3 in the small town of East Palestine, including regarding 20 cars carrying dangerous substances.
No one died following a broken axle sent the Norfolk Southern train off the tracks, investigators reported. More than 2,000 residents were evacuated due to health problems from the chemical leak, but have since been allowed to return.
Some of the crashed cars were carrying toxic chemicals (vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate, and ethylene glycol monobutyl ether) that were released into the air, soil, and surface waters.
Crews intentionally broke up five vinyl chloride tank cars and diverted the substance into a dug trench. A controlled detonation was then carried out to prevent an explosion, during which noxious black clouds billowing into the area were ejected. One of the substances released was phosgene, a gas used as a chemical weapon in World War I.
Norfolk Southern reported last week that environmental remediation work was ongoing, along with air, soil and water monitoring in coordination with state and federal agencies. Regulators have said that, so far, air quality remains safe and drinking water supplies have not been affected in surrounding communities.
But in the ten days since the disaster, several worrying reports have surfaced. Some residents have reported headaches and nausea, Associated Press reported.
East Palestine resident Melissa Henry told the AP that she had taken her two children to their parents’ home outside the evacuation zone following her youngest son’s eyes turned red as tomatoes and he coughed profusely.
She noted that since she returned home, she had been doing laundry, cleaning, and changing filters in the furnace.
“I don’t know if that will work, but we have to do something,” he said.
Vinyl chloride, or vinyl, used to make plastic pipes, cables and packaging, is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer (hepatic angiosarcoma), along with primary liver cancer, brain cancer and lung, lymphoma and leukemia, reports Cancer.gov.
A drone image of the ongoing cleanup of parts of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio
( 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
A North Lima, Ohio, resident reported that her chickens died in the days following a chemical fire sparked by a train derailment regarding 10 miles away.
(WKBN)
A resident of the city of North Lima, regarding ten miles (16 km) from the train derailment, reported that her six chickens died in the days following the explosion.
“My video camera footage shows that my chickens were perfectly fine before they started the burn, and as soon as they started the burning, my chickens went torpid and died,” Amanda Breshears told the local television station. WKBN27.
It was not the only report of sick animals. Taylor Holzer, a registered fox keeper who lives outside the evacuation perimeter, told WKBN that all his foxes got sick and one died. Dead fish were also observed floating in local streams.
A legal notice that the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) sent to the train operator contained more details regarding the contamination.
Hazardous materials were found in samples taken from several waterways in the area: Sulfur Run, Leslie Run, Bull Creek, North Fork Little Beaver Creek, Little Beaver Creek, and the Ohio River.
Materials related to the incident were also observed entering storm drains, the EPA noted. The agency noted that areas of contaminated soil and free liquids were observed and possibly covered or filled during the reconstruction of the railway.
Environmental activist Erin Brockovich criticized the EPA and state legislators for telling people it was safe to return home while at the same time sending a legal notice to the rail operator regarding the threat of environmental contamination.
“This is why people don’t trust the government,” Brockovich tweeted Monday.
“You can’t tell people that there have been and are still dangerous pollutants polluting the environment and at the same time say ‘everything is fine.'”
A water company in the neighboring state of West Virginia said Sunday it would take precautionary measures for its water supply.
West Virginia American Water said there have been no changes to its intake from the Ohio River, but that the utility would establish a secondary source on the tributary, the Guyandotte River.
A lawsuit was filed last week once morest Norfolk Southern, seeking unspecified damages and to require the railroad company to pay for medical exams and related care for residents within a 30-mile (48 km) radius of the explosion. train.
The derailment also raised questions regarding the frequent use of rail transport to move large quantities of toxic and dangerous substances in the vicinity of communities.
Pollution crews place barriers in a stream in East Palestine, Ohio, Thursday, as cleanup continues following the derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train.
( 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Rail unions believe the industry has become riskier in recent years following widespread job cuts left workers scattered, it reported. AP. Hazardous materials make up regarding 7-8% of the 30 million shipments that railroads deliver across the country each year.
“It raises all kinds of questions,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told Fox & Friends when asked if the materials are too dangerous to transport by rail.
“We’ve seen it up close in recent days,” Governor DeWine said. “It’s a big, big problem.”
On July 6, 2013, a 73-car freight train derailed in the city center of Lac-Mégantic in Quebec, Canada, causing a large explosion. Some 47 people were killed and regarding half the city burned down.
In February 2020, a landslide in Kentucky caused a freight train carrying ethanol to derail, sparking a fire and a chemical leak into a river. A 2005 derailment in Graniteville, South Carolina, left nine dead and more than 250 injured following the release of toxic chlorine fumes.
Translation of Michelle Padilla
