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Health & Safety

Remediation And Testing Process

Thanks to the efforts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and many other federal, state and local agencies, a great deal of progress has been made over the last year to clean up the environmental impact and test for health and safety concerns due to the Norfolk Southern train derailment on February 3, 2023.

Information provided by the EPA and Norfolk Southern.

Findings Report

The Village of East Palestine contacted the subject matter experts and asked the U.S. EPA for assistance to review the findings and help make sense of the scientific data collected. The EPA provided its Technical Assistance Services for Communities (TASC) program. In coordination with East Palestine officials, TASC prepared a report titled “East Palestine Train Derailment and Controlled Burn: Environmental Data Review.” It describes the types of environmental monitoring gathered to understand the contamination released during the train derailment and subsequent controlled burn accomplished as of August 1, 2023. It also summarizes assessment of chemical exposure (ACE) studies focused on public health. TASC compiled as much data as possible from publicly available resources for the report, which was presented in December 2023 and is linked below.

This graphic represents all the environmental elements the groups examined to make sure all possible areas (air, soil, surface water, sediment and biological [plants, fish]) were being appropriately tested.

Updated Environmental Results Summary

On Tuesday, September 24, 2024, an updated report was presented with the information collected from August 2023 – April 2024. Here is a summary of the report.

  • Air results continue to show minimal detection of VOCs associated with active removal action activities. In general, the air quality is good.
  • Monitoring of public water supplies (drinking water and groundwater) continues to show that there are no derailment/controlled burn chemicals of concern impacting these sources. Results for private wells are shared with well owners. They are not publicly available.
  • Surface water, sheen and sediment sampling took place next to the derailment and along streams that may carry spilled materials toward drinking water supplies. More results have become available since TASC’s October 2023 environmental data review report. Results indicate that the streams are recovering to pre-derailment conditions, although occasional sheen may be present.
  • Soils information continues to be made available to the public. Results indicate that soil cleanup activities can be verified and soils in residential and commercial areas are safe.
  • Biological samples of fish show signs of recovery to pre-derailment conditions. Crops do not contain any detectable levels of derailment-related SVOCs.

TASC REPORTS

TASC Environmental Data Review Update (August 2023 – April 2024) – Sept. 2024
TASC Independent Studies Review – Sept. 2024
TASC Updated Environmental Data Presentation – Sept. 2024
TASC Environmental Full Data Review – Oct. 2023
TASC Environmental Data Review Summary Sheet – Oct. 2023
TASC Environmental Data Presentation – Dec. 2023

Summary Of Findings

Continuing Progress

Here is the November 2024 EPA update:

As the cleanup nears completion, EPA’s October newsletter includes updates on confirmatory sampling, site restoration, and stream assessments. The newsletter also discusses areas with low levels of contamination at the East End of the derailment site. Norfolk Southern is preparing a workplan to clean up the final areas, which EPA will review. Cleanup is expected to start in late November or early December. For questions on newsletter topics, or the cleanup in general, please contact EPA’s information line at 330-775-6517 or the response email at r5_eastpalestine@epa.gov.

Dismantling Tanks