August 18, 2025
FOIA Documents Show EPA Surveilled East Palestine Residents
WASHINGTON—Government Accountability Project has obtained records of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) surveillance of East Palestine residents following the Norfolk Southern train derailment via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. These records of communication between EPA personnel show a pattern of tracking and monitoring private citizens for the purpose of public relations while the residents of East Palestine, Ohio suffered with the aftermath of the train derailment with their needs going unmet by the government agencies sworn to help them.
When the Norfolk Southern train derailed on February 3, 2023, hundreds of thousands of pounds of vinyl chloride and other toxic and flammable materials spilled into the soil. Since the disastrous train derailment, residents of East Palestine have experienced intense health concerns including blood in the urine, bloody noses, rashes, headaches, a seizure cluster, and stroke-like symptoms. When EPA, the Center for Disease Control, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to provide aid to the town, they began organizing within their community.
However, the recently obtained emails between senior EPA officials, including a Region 5 On Scene Coordinator, and EPA employees assigned specifically to help this community showed that residents who were most vocal about the health impacts were being tracked by EPA. Meanwhile, the town’s needs were being ignored, residents continued to get sick, and the full extent of risk was kept from them. Key revelations from the FOIA documents include:
- EPA routinely monitored and routed Facebook posts from East Palestine activists, residents and whistleblowers directly to EPA senior leadership.
- FEMA shared its own “Social Listening Reports” with EPA.
- EPA monitored East Palestine Off the Rails and other Facebook community groups, frequently focusing on outspoken critics such as Dr. Rick Tsai, Jami Wallace of Unity Council, and other named residents, indicating a systematic effort to track specific community critics and their public statements regarding EPA’s East Palestine response and testing methodology.
- EPA leadership actively restricted discussion of East Palestine communications at professional conferences, directing staff to change presentation topics when East Palestine was proposed for discussion.
Lesley Pacey, Senior Environmental Officer at Government Accountability Project, said, “These records confirm EPA was more concerned with protecting its public image than protecting the public’s health. EPA leadership went so far as to track and internally distribute Facebook posts from concerned residents—ordinary citizens voicing fears about contamination and safety—while downplaying mounting scientific evidence of serious chemical exposure. This is a textbook case of inappropriate message manipulation during a public health emergency.”
Over the course of two years, serious questions have arisen about EPA’s lack of accurately collecting contamination data, sharing risk information with residents, and ensuring the town is able to recover from this disaster. However, these new FOIA documents show that EPA personnel have spent their time tracking private residents to defend their image instead of fulfilling their duties.
Government Accountability Project is continuing its ongoing investigation into agency wrongdoing in the aftermath of the Norfolk Southern train derailment and will continue to advocate on behalf of justice and transparency.
Contact: [email protected]
Government Accountability Project
Founded in 1977, Government Accountability Project is the leading international whistleblower protection organization. Through litigating whistleblower cases, publicizing concerns and developing legal reforms, Government Accountability Project’s mission is to protect the public interest by promoting government, corporate, and international organization accountability. Government Accountability Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
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