EPA Orders Norfolk Southern To Test For Toxic Chemicals In Wake Of Fiery Derailment

In the weeks since the disastrous Norfolk Southern train derailment on Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio, experts have sounded the alarm about the likelihood that dioxins a family of extremely toxic compounds were released into the environment when authorities intentionally burned onboard chemicals to prevent a potentially massive explosion.

In response to growing public pressure and concern, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will require Norfolk Southern to sample for this class of pollutants.

This action builds on EPAs bipartisan efforts alongside our local, state, and federal partners to earn the trust of this community and ensure all residents have the reassurances they need to feel safe at home once again, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.

Many have celebrated the announcement as a step in the right direction.

This is why we organize, River Valley Organizing, an Ohio community nonprofit, wrote on Twitter. Coming together and demanding action is the only way we will create change and get what our community needs.

This is huge: because of community pressure and demands, the @EPA will now require Norfolk Southern to test for dioxins.

This is why we organize. Coming together and demanding action is the only way we will create change and get what our community needs. https://t.co/6F4gnPU0Sz

River Valley Organizing (@RiverValleyOrg) March 2, 2023","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"River Valley Organizing","author_url":"https://twitter.com/RiverValleyOrg","cache_age":86400,"description":"This is huge: because of community pressure and demands, the @EPA will now require Norfolk Southern to test for dioxins.This is why we organize. 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This is huge: because of community pressure and demands, the @EPA will now require Norfolk Southern to test for dioxins.

This is why we organize. Coming together and demanding action is the only way we will create change and get what our community needs. https://t.co/6F4gnPU0Sz
River Valley Organizing (@RiverValleyOrg) March 2, 2023

But others have serious concerns about letting Norfolk Southern, the company responsible for the environmental disaster, lead the search for dioxins especially after Ohio officials relied on a railroad contractors flawed water sampling to initially declare the villages municipal water safe to drink, as HuffPost first reported .

Sri Vedachalam, a water policy expert whose work includes public trust and communications, told HuffPost that although he could see a reason to involve Norfolk Southern in the dioxin testing because the company knows the chemicals and materials involved in the accident, the optics of trusting their process enough to hand over testing of a dangerous chemical are bad.

A fox guarding the henhouse! he said.

Ross Grooters, a longtime locomotive engineer and co-chair of Railroad Workers United, wrote on Twitter that dioxin testing needs to be completely independent of Norfolk Southern.

We cannot trust the railroad in this matter, especially after concerns have already been raised about sloppy water quality testing, Grooters wrote.

The optics of trusting their process enough to hand over testing of a dangerous chemical are bad.
- Sri Vedachalam, water policy expert

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) and the Ohio EPA have faced scrutiny over Norfolk Southerns involvement in testing the water in East Palestine and state officials have given contradictory statements about what data it had when it declared the water safe to drink on Feb. 15.

The nearly 2-mile Norfolk Southern train was passing through East Palestine, a town of approximately 5,000 people on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, when 38 cars careened off the tracks and caught fire. Of the 50 train cars that either derailed or were damaged in the resulting fire, 20 contained hazardous material. The primary concern has been the hundreds of thousands of pounds of vinyl chloride, a common organic chemical used in the production of plastics.

Vinyl chloride has itself been linked to several types of cancer . But it is what happens when vinyl chloride is burned, as it was three days after the train wreck, that has residents particularly terrified.

While the so-called controlled release may have prevented an explosion, it released black clouds of phosgene, hydrogen chloride and other gases into the air. Phosgene was used as a chemical weapon during World War I, and exposure to it can cause vomiting, eye irritation and difficulty breathing.