One Year Since the Norfolk Southern Train Derailment, but Still No Answers
On February 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, igniting a fire and setting off fears of an explosion. While the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Norfolk Southern both claimed that their response to this environmental and public health disaster was appropriate and the area was safe, in the past year it has become clear that is not the whole truth.
Shortly after the derailment, 1,500 to 2,000 residents were told to evacuate. For three days, the authorities released toxic materials from five tankers, and the contents were burned off. The train was carrying chemicals and combustible materials, with vinyl chloride, a toxic flammable gas, being of most concern to investigators.
Shortly after, the EPA said that it had not detected contaminants at “levels of concern” in and around East Palestine and that it had found no breaches of quality standards after testing hundreds of homes. After April testing for dioxins, toxic pollutants that could have formed after the chemical burn-off, both the EPA and Norfolk Southern announced that residents could return to their homes despite surface level testing only. While some residents said they were still living in hotels, others who did return started experiencing serious health problems, like coughing up blood, rashes, seizure-like symptoms, and other conditions that were unusual and unprecedented before the disaster. That is when citizens hired an independent scientist, Scott Smith, to conduct more in-depth testing of the area.
What Smith found was levels of dioxins and related furans in East Palestine’s air, water, soil, and in the homes of its residents that were notably higher than baseline samples common to unaffected communities. This means that the EPA and Norfolk Southern have been disingenuous and reckless with lackluster testing methods while residents became sicker.
In July, we launched our investigation in support of Scott Smith and the people of East Palestine. In September, we filed a lawsuit against the EPA for denying expedited processing and a fee waiver for our FOIA requesting data and communications on dioxins and other chemicals spilled and burned during the derailment. In our 46 years, we have never been turned down for a fee waiver.
We filed a second FOIA request in October looking into the records of and qualities of the test results, chemicals that were spilled and burned, and any communication surrounding dioxins and acrolein. In the original FOIA request, the EPA estimated the request would not be fulfilled until April 2024 while residents continued to live amongst these chemicals. However, after filing a second request for expediated results, the general counsel of the agency granted the request in November, despite denying there is an imminent threat to the life and safety of the East Palestine residents.
In January of this year we filed a third FOIA request about communications between the EPA and Facebook after East Palestine residents had posts where they shared information on toxic chemicals and their personal experiences flagged and removed despite violating no community guidelines. One resident received a text from Mark Durno, EPA Region 5 leader on the ground and Homeland Security Advisor, telling her to remove her Facebook post where she posted critically about answers the EPA was giving residents regarding their health.
Most recently, we widened our search to other federal agencies as well. We submitted a FOIA request to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) seeking records related to cancer screenings, biomonitoring sampling, and directives by the CDC to health officials to discontinue or discourage testing of residents for chemicals spilled or burned on the derailed train cars. We also filed a FOIA request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) seeking access to records related to the federal disaster recovery coordinator tasked to oversee long-term recovery efforts in response who reportedly ignored residents’ efforts to communicate and still has not reported findings.
Lastly, Smith recently discovered dioxin and related testing done by Norfolk Southern paid consultant, Arcadis and involving the EPA that began on February 9, 2023. Despite the EPA claiming the dioxin levels on East Palestine were at first non-existent and then safe for residents, these documents are evidence that concerning levels of these chemicals were known to the EPA. By burying them in thousands of pages of responsive documents, the EPA continued to deny the need to test for dioxins.
This disaster happened a year ago, and yet the effects are still being felt stronger than ever as government agencies continue to dodge accountability and refuse to give residents the answers they deserve. Because of this, residents continue to be at risk in their own homes as they have been for the past year. We are continuing our work to hold the EPA and Norfolk Southern accountable as well as support those searching for the truth.