“Who tells us that we won’t have cancer in 5 years? »

Reserved for subscribers

REPORTING. East Palestine Park, where a contaminated river flows, is among the most exposed places. But the population, with limited incomes, cannot move.

From our special correspondent in East Palestine, Claire Meynial

A crew works to clean up Sulfur Run, a creek that runs through East Palestine Township, Ohio, on February 23, 2023.
© The New York Times-Redux-Réa/Maddie MCGARVEY/NYT-REDUX-REA

Published on 02/28/2023 at 18h25

I subscribe to 1€ the 1st month

D’first, tarpaulins appeared, in front of the house. “After an hour or two, they brought a blue container, then regarding sixty. Then we saw two, four, fifty trucks transporting waste from the creek,” describes Pamela Kline. It was February 4 in the morning, in the park of East Palestine (Ohio). The night before, a few minutes from here, a freight train had derailed, spilling toxic substances into the air, land and water. A neighbor said the trucks were also bringing in debris from the crash. Pamela isn’t sure. What she sees is that the workers “work 24 hours a day, especially at night, with big semi-trailers”.

Through the living room window, we can see them, in orange vests, busying themselves on the bank. THE…