The Clean Up of the East Palestine Toxic Train Derailment: The EPA should do what it can to do, and when they should do it
The nation’s top environmental official promised to support East Palestine, Ohio, throughout the cleanup of a toxic train derailment there that fueled anxiety about potential health effects and said the train’s operator must pay to clean “the mess that they created.”
Norfolk Southern will have to identify any contaminated soil and water resources, learn how to clean them up, reimburse the EPA, attend and participate in public meetings, post information online, and provide cleaning services to residents and businesses, among other requirements.
President Joe Biden echoed the sentiment Tuesday, calling the EPA’s order “common sense.” “This is their mess. They should clean it up,” the president said of Norfolk Southern in an Instagram post.
The nightmare that families in this town have been living with cannot be undone by this order. But it will begin to deliver much needed justice for the pain that Norfolk Southern has caused,” Regan said.
As part of the continued fallout, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said state environmental officials made a “criminal referral” against Norfolk Southern. The Ohio attorney general is also reviewing all actions the law “allows him to take,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/us/ohio-train-derailment-east-palestine-wednesday/index.html
Air and Water Quality Monitoring after a Cleveland-Salt-Water-Spouting Train Decay in East Palestine Wednesday
The backlash comes as locals of the small village are worried about the health of their water and air after a train wreck in February caused a fire that burned for days and led to the intentional release of vinyl chloride to prevent an explosion.
Skepticism further spread in the community as some residents have reported health problems, like rashes and headaches, and after thousands of fish died in Ohio waterways after the train derailed.
Officials have repeatedly assured residents that tests show no dangers lurking in the air or water. Crews have checked hundreds of homes and have not detected any dangerous levels of contaminants, the EPA said.
After drinking tap water from an East Palestine, Ohio, resident’s home, Regan and DeWine tried to appease people’s concerns about the safety of the water.
The governor of Pennsylvania said that the train operator gave inaccurate information to officials and refused to explore alternative courses of action after the toxic wreck.
“In sum, Norfolk Southern injected unnecessary risk into this crisis,” Shapiro said, adding he plans to hold the company accountable for their actions.
Since the train crash in East Palestine, Alan Shaw has said that his company has worked with the EPA and local officials.
“From day one I’ve made the commitment that Norfolk Southern is going to remediate the site,” Shaw told CNN Tuesday. “We’re going to do it through continuous long-term air and water monitoring. We’re going to help the residents of this community recover and we’re going to invest in the long-term health of this community and we’re going to make Norfolk Southern a safer railroad.”
Shaw said his company continues to monitor air and water quality and that all of the tests they’ve done have come back clean.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/us/ohio-train-derailment-east-palestine-wednesday/index.html
State Sensitivity to the Danger of East Palestine Rail Safety After the DeWine Trapper During a Train Accident, Reply to Vice President Biden
After the toxicity of the train accident, which destroyed the life in the community, calls for better rail safety and questions about the laws regarding the movement of toxic substances have arisen.
According to DeWine, the law did not require Norfolk Southern to let officials know that a train was carrying hazardous materials through the state.
President Biden called on Congress to help implement rail safety measures and accused the Trump administration of limiting the government’s ability to strengthen rail safety measures.
Biden wrote in the post that this is more than just a train wreck or toxic waste spill, it is an opposition to safety measures coming home to roost.
The contaminated soil became a point of contention last week after a public document sent to the EPA on February 10 did not list soil removal among completed cleanup activities. It is not yet known what significance or impact the soil that was not removed before the railroad reopened on February 8 will have had on the surrounding areas.
As crews continue cleanup efforts and officials promise accountability, East Palestine residents are still dealing with fears surrounding potential impacts from the toxic wreck.
Still, as worries remain, the state opened a new health clinic for East Palestine residents to address the reports of rashes, headaches, nausea and other symptoms.
The EPA administrator asked anyone concerned about the symptoms to seek medical attention, because he wasn’t dismissing what they were experiencing.
“I believe people when they say that they’re facing adverse impacts. And what we’re doing is we’re asking them to seek medical attention … then we can take that information and add that as part of our response,” Regan said. “We’re not discounting what people are experiencing at all. We just ask that they seek medical help while we conduct all of our investigations.”
The town needed to be cleaned up and the residents needed to feel safe in their homes, Conaway said at the news conference. “That’s the number one thing. Your home is your sanctuary: if you don’t feel safe in your home, then you’re never going to feel safe anywhere.”
A Stock Sale That Came With Less Money Than Shaw And What He Paired During His High-Energy Career at Norfolk Southern
The share price of Norfolk Southern has fallen 9% since the February 3 accident, but he received less money from the most recent sale than he did from his December sale.
Shaw’s stock sale came the same week the company announced Shaw had personally set up a $445,000 scholarship endowment fund for seniors at East Palestine High School that an unspecified number of students will be able to use to attend college or vocational schools.
The stock sale was completed just after he was promoted to CEO. Company insiders often have such plans in place so that they can sell stock and not worry about trades being made with the benefit of insider information, which would be illegal.
Company insiders must report their stock purchases or sales, or the exercise of stock options, to the Securities and Exchange Commission so they are known to other investors.
Shaw paid him less than the other person, even though the company made a record amount of money last year. That’s in part because Shaw served only eight months as CEO. The base salary that Shaw is paid is $950,000 less than what Squires got in his last full year on the job in 2021, as well as the $4.7 million target for bonuses and supplemental stock grants.