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  • It’s been one month since a freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in Ohio. Here’s what’s happened since | CNN

    It’s been one month since a freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in Ohio. Here’s what’s happened since | CNN

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    Feb. 3 — Around 8:12 p.m., sparks shoot out from underneath the Norfolk Southern freight train as it passes through Salem, Ohio, surveillance video shows.

    Around 8:55 p.m., 38 of the train’s cars derail in East Palestine. The derailed equipment includes 11 tank cars carrying hazardous materials that ignited, fueling fires that damage another dozen cars, the National Transportation Safety Board says.

    Feb. 4 — Members of the US Environmental Protection Agency arrive hours after the derailment and start monitoring the air for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate, which were on the train and can be harmful to people, the agency says.

    EPA contractors install booms and underflow dams to try to restrict the flow of contaminated water and collect floating material to mitigate any possible impacts to Sulphur Run and Leslie Run streams.

    Feb. 5 — Gov. Mike DeWine activates the Ohio National Guard to assist local authorities.

    Officials issue a shelter-in-place order for the entire town of roughly 5,000 people. An evacuation order is issued for the area within a mile radius of the train crash near James Street, due to the risk of an explosion.

    EPA community air monitoring readings do not detect any contaminants of concern, the agency says. Norfolk Southern’s contractor continues to conduct air monitoring, it says.

    The National Transportation Safety Board is on scene to gather evidence and asks the community to submit photos or videos of the incident.

    NTSB conducts a one-mile walk-through of track outside the hot zone and identifies the point of derailment. NTSB Member Michael Graham says the preliminary report is expected in four to eight weeks.

    Aeration pumps – which help treat contamination by injecting oxygen into the water – begin operating at three locations along Sulphur Run and its confluence with Leslie Run. EPA and Norfolk Southern contractors collect surface water samples for analysis.

    The East Palestine water treatment plant, which treats water sourced from public wells, confirms there were no adverse effects to the plant, the EPA says.

    Feb. 6 — To help prevent a deadly explosion of vinyl chloride, crews conduct a controlled detonation involving cars containing the toxic substance. The chemical was drained into a trench and burned off. “The detonation went perfect,” a Norfolk Southern official said.

    After the breach, officials detected “slightly elevated” readings of the phosgene and hydrogen chloride in the burn area and “only one minor hit for the hydrogen chloride downwind of the burn area” within the exclusion zone, an EPA official said. He said such readings were expected after the controlled release.

    Feb. 7 — Residents in the area are told they may smell odors coming from the site because the byproducts of the controlled burn have a low odor threshold – meaning people may smell these contaminants at levels much lower than what is considered hazardous, the EPA says.

    The EPA continues to perform air monitoring and work with Norfolk Southern, health departments and other responding agencies to develop procedures for safely reoccupying the evacuated areas.

    The 52nd Civil Service Team conducts air monitoring in three public administration buildings and collects air samples from each building, according to the EPA.

    The EPA says it is investigating a complaint of odors from the Darlington Township, Pennsylvania, fire station. A team with air monitoring equipment goes to the station, where it does not observe any contaminants above detection limits.

    Feb. 8 — The evacuation order is lifted, five days after the derailment, after water samples are analyzed overnight. The results lead officials to deem the water is safe, East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick says at a news conference.

    The EPA and Ohio EPA find spilled materials in Sulphur Run, the EPA says. Oily product is leaking from a tank car and pooling onto the soil. Norfolk Southern is notified of the spill and begins removing the product using a vacuum truck.

    A local couple and business owner file the first-class action lawsuit against Norfolk Southern, CNN reports. The suit accuses the rail company of negligence, stating it failed to exercise reasonable care for residents, with businesses adversely affected by the derailment and chemical spill.

    Feb. 9 — EPA continues stationary and roaming air monitoring surrounding the derailment scene.

    Despite officials deeming the air and water samples safe, some residents still have concerns. Residents are encouraged to get their homes deep-cleaned and seek medical attention, if necessary, officials say at a news conference.

    The EPA works with Ohio EPA to investigate remaining soil contamination and any impacts to surface water, the agency says. EPA collects samples of spilled material near the derailment site and in Sulphur Run.

    Officials say schools will remain closed until further notice from the superintendent.

    Mayor Trent Conaway ensures that the school building will be scrubbed “head to toe” and air tested before any child walks back into the building.

    Feb. 10 — Some residents say when they returned to their homes in East Palestine, within a half-hour they developed a rash and nausea.

    EPA is assisting with voluntary residential air screening appointments offered by Norfolk Southern, the agency says. Crews have screened indoor air at 46 homes. There are over 400 requests for indoor air screening remaining.

    To increase the rate of screening, Norfolk Southern – with EPA assistance – brings more teams and equipment to East Palestine, according to the EPA.

    Ohio EPA leads efforts to investigate and remediate impacts to water, the agency says. Samples from Sulphur Run and other points of nearby water streams are taken for testing.

    Norfolk Southern contractors install a dam and a water bypass at Sulphur Run to prevent further contamination of downstream waters, the EPA says.

    Feb. 11 — EPA issues a general notice of potential liability letter to Norfolk Southern to document the release or threat of release of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants to the environment. The letter outlines EPA cleanup actions at the site and the potential to hold the railroad accountable for associated costs.

    EPA continues to assist Norfolk Southern and Columbiana County Emergency Management Agency with voluntary residential air screening, the EPA says.

    Feb. 12 — EPA posts a document from Norfolk Southern listing the cars that were involved in the derailment and the products they were carrying.

    Air monitoring throughout East Palestine continues, the EPA says. Monitoring since the fire went out has not detected any levels of concern that can be attributed to the incident.

    Local schools and the library are screened, the EPA says.

    Feb. 13 — Reentry air screenings are underway. Community air monitoring will continue operating 24 hours a day.

    EPA deploys two more Summa air sampling canisters for continuous sampling.

    EPA discontinues phosgene and hydrogen chloride community air monitoring. After the fire was extinguished on February 8, the threat of vinyl chloride fire producing phosgene and hydrogen chloride no longer exists. EPA will continue 24-hour community air monitoring for other chemicals of concern.

    The East Palestine School District “safely” reopens schools.

    Feb. 14 — No vinyl chloride is detected in any of the down-gradient waterways near the train derailment, Tiffani Kavalec, Chief of the Division of Surface Water at the Ohio EPA says. Active aeration of the waterways near the derailment continue, and even though some waterways remain contaminated, the agency says it is confident the contaminants are contained.

    About 3,500 fish across 12 species have died in Ohio waterways, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources says.

    Feb. 15 — Residents pack a high school gym in East Palestine for a meeting with officials to discuss the current state of their community, CNN reports.

    The event hosted by East Palestine officials was supposed to include officials from Norfolk Southern. But the company, which said it had hoped to provide updates on cleanup efforts and results from air and water tests, backed out earlier in the day, saying it was concerned about a “growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event,” stemming from its belief that “outside parties” would participate.

    Instead, local leaders take questions from emotional residents who express distrust of officials’ accounts and anger – including at the transport company’s decision to skip the event.

    Norfolk Southern provides bottled water at its family assistance center, the EPA says.

    Regional Administrator Debra Shore attends a community meeting alongside EPA on-scene coordinators and state and local officials to hear residents’ concerns.

    Gov. DeWine issues a news release stating the municipal water is safe to consume. Test results from the village’s municipal well sampling showed no water quality concerns, the state says.

    East Palestine’s municipal water supply comes from five wells, DeWine’s office says. All the wells are at least 56 feet underground and encased in steel. As of February 15 (12 days after the derailment/initial explosion and nine days after the controlled detonation), test samples from both the raw, untreated municipal water and the treated water showed no dangerous levels of contaminants, the governor’s office says.

    DeWine encourages those East Palestine residents with private wells who have not had their water tested to continue drinking bottled water “out of an abundance of caution.”

    Norfolk Southern has not removed potentially contaminated soil from the site, new documents posted by the EPA show. Norfolk Southern tells CNN it continues to work to clean up the site, including the removal of soil.

    “Contaminated soil will continue (to) leech contaminants, both up into the air, and down into the surrounding ground,” Richard Peltier, an environmental health scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, tells CNN in an email. “Every time it rains, a flood of new contaminants will enter the ecosystem.”

    Feb. 16 — EPA Administrator Michael Regan arrives in East Palestine to assess the ongoing response to the Norfolk Southern train derailment. The administrator meets with city, state and federal leaders involved in the response, hearing directly from residents about the impacts of the crisis and discuss EPA’s work.

    DeWine asks the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for immediate assistance by sending expert medical assistance including doctors and professionals who can evaluate residents who are experiencing symptoms.

    Feb. 17 — DeWine says no derailment contaminants have been found in homes tested for air quality and that there is a section of Sulfur Run near the crash site that remains severely contaminated.

    Requests for medical experts from the federal government have been granted and DeWine says officials should arrive next week to help prop up a clinic for patients.

    Feb. 18 — Air monitoring and indoor air screening continue, according to the EPA. Municipal water samples show no water quality concerns, the agency says.

    Emphasis is being placed on recovery of all pooled liquids, excavation of heavily contaminated soil, and removal of all remaining rail cars, according to the EPA. In order to capture any contamination leaving the site, Norfolk Southern establishes a containment area in a section of Sulphur Creek to divert all upstream water around the containment area. The containment area has effectively cut off the introduction of additional contamination into Sulphur Run.

    Feb. 19 — The village of East Palestine’s municipal well water sample results show no water quality concerns, the EPA says. The Columbiana County General Health District continues to sample private water wells. To date, 52 wells have been sampled, 49 in Ohio, and three across the border in Pennsylvania, the agency says.

    Norfolk Southern continues scrapping and removing rail cars at the derailment location, excavating contaminated areas, removing liquids from affected storm drains and staging recovered waste for transportation to an approved disposal facility, the EPA says. Water continues to be diverted from the upstream wetland area to Sulphur Run.

    Feb. 21 — The state opens up a health clinic for residents who worry their symptoms, such as trouble breathing, rashes and nausea, might be linked to the derailment.

    CNN reports investigators are reviewing videos of the train prior to it derailing. One video shows “what appears to be a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment,” the National Transportation Safety Board says in a statement.

    The EPA announces its legally binding notice ordering Norfolk Southern to handle and pay for all necessary cleanup involved in the derailment.

    As part of EPA’s legally binding order, the agency said, Norfolk Southern will be required to:

    • Identify and clean up any contaminated soil and water resources,

    • Reimburse the EPA for cleaning services to be offered to residents and businesses to provide an additional layer of reassurance, which will be conducted by EPA staff and contractors,

    • Attend and participate in public meetings at the EPA’s request and post information online,

    • Pay for the EPA’s costs for work performed under this order.

    The order will take effect February 23. If the rail company fails to complete any actions ordered by EPA, the agency says it will immediately step in, conduct the necessary work and then seek to compel Norfolk Southern to pay triple the cost.

    After the accusations, Norfolk Southern issues a statement to CNN:

    “We recognize that we have a responsibility, and we have committed to doing what’s right for the residents of East Palestine,” the company said Tuesday.

    “We have been paying for the clean-up activities to date and will continue to do so. We are committed to thoroughly and safely cleaning the site, and we are reimbursing residents for the disruption this has caused in their lives. We are investing in helping East Palestine thrive for the long-term, and we will continue to be in the community for as long as it takes. We are going to learn from this terrible accident and work with regulators and elected officials to improve railroad safety.”

    The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office says it will investigate the train derailment following a criminal referral it received from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, according to a statement from the office.

    Gov. Josh Shapiro first mentions the criminal referral when he was asked what nonfinancial actions are being taken.

    In response to news about the criminal referral, a Norfolk Southern spokesperson says the company has no comment.

    Feb. 22 — EPA Administrator Michael Regan threatens to fine Norfolk Southern if it fails to fully clean up after the mess the derailment left behind, he says, citing the agency’s authority under CERCLA – the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.

    Regan summarizes the EPA’s demands to Norfolk Southern:

    “Number one: They will clean up every single piece of debris, all of the contamination, to EPA specifications and satisfaction,” he tells CNN.

    “Number two: They will pay for it – fully pay for it. At any moment, if we have to step in because they refuse to do anything, we will do the cleaning up ourselves. We can fine them up to $70,000 a day,” the EPA chief said.

    “And when we recoup our total costs, we can charge them three times of the amount of the cost of the federal government. That is what the law provides.”

    The East Palestine School District closes for one day due to former President Donald Trump’s scheduled visit to the area.

    Feb. 23 — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg makes his first visit to East Palestine nearly three weeks after the train derailment and defends the timing of the trip.

    “In terms of the timing of the visit, I’m trying to strike the right balance allowing NTSB to play its role but making sure we’re here in that show of support,” he says.

    Buttigieg says he’s focused on making regulatory changes to prevent future incidents and challenged his critics to do the same.

    Feb. 24 — Officials in Michigan and Texas say they were stunned to learn hazardous waste from Ohio was headed to their states because they received no advance notification.

    Feb. 25 — The EPA orders Norfolk Southern to stop shipments of hazardous waste so it can review the company’s plans for disposal.

    Feb. 26 — Hazardous waste shipments will resume and go to two EPA-certified facilities in Ohio, EPA regional administrator Debra Shore says. The shipments will begin the next day. “Some of the liquid wastes will be sent to a facility in Vickery, Ohio, where it will be disposed of in an underground injection well,” Shore says. “Norfolk Southern will also begin shipping solid waste to the Heritage Incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio.”

    Week of Feb. 27 — A data analysis suggests nine out of the dozens of chemicals that the EPA has been monitoring are higher than what normally would be found in East Palestine, according to scientists from Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon universities.

    If the levels of some chemicals remain high, it could pose a problem for residents’ health over time, the scientists said. Temperature changes or high winds might stir up the chemicals and release them into the atmosphere.

    An EPA spokesperson says monitored chemicals “are below levels of concern for adverse health impacts from short-term exposure.”

    “The long-term risks referenced by this analysis assume a lifetime of exposure, which is constant exposure over approximately 70 years,” the spokesperson says. “EPA does not anticipate levels of these chemicals will stay high for anywhere near that. We are committed to staying in East Palestine and will continue to monitor the air inside and outside of homes to ensure that these levels remain safe over time.”

    Feb. 27 — The EPA announces two more sites will receive toxic waste from East Palestine – one in Indiana, and a third facility in Ohio.

    Feb. 28 — Recent heavy rain may have allowed “a small amount of heavily diluted contaminants” to flow from the Sulphur Run stream to the Leslie Run stream, the Ohio governor’s office said, citing the state’s environmental protection agency.

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  • Ohio toxic train disaster leads to more concerns in other states while scientists say chemical tests in East Palestine are unusually high | CNN

    Ohio toxic train disaster leads to more concerns in other states while scientists say chemical tests in East Palestine are unusually high | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The aftermath of the toxic train wreck in Ohio keeps spreading to more states as scientists say tests in East Palestine unusually high levels of some chemicals.

    Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is the latest out-of-state official to say he was stunned to learn hazardous waste from the Norfolk Southern train derailment and subsequent release of toxic chemicals was headed to his state.

    “After learning third-hand that materials may be transported to our state yesterday, I directed my environmental director to reach out” to the US Environmental Protection Agency, Holcomb said in a written statement Tuesday.

    “The materials should go to the nearest facilities, not moved from the far eastern side of Ohio to the far western side of Indiana,” Holcomb said. “I want to know exactly what precautions will be taken in the transport and disposition of the materials.”

    After surprise shipments of hazardous waste to Texas and Michigan, the EPA approved two sites in Ohio to handle safe disposal of the waste.

    Another two sites – Heritage Environmental Services’ hazardous waste landfill in Roachdale, Indiana, and Ross Incineration Services in Grafton, Ohio – will receive contaminated waste starting Tuesday, EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore said Monday. She said Indiana officials and state partners were notified before the EPA approved “the shipment of any waste from the derailment to their state or district.”

    But US EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the agency is developing measures to give authorities a “heads up” about incoming waste shipments and to keep Norfolk Southern accountable for the material it is moving.

    On the other side of Ohio, the Pennsylvania Department of Health is opening a health resource center in Beaver County so residents “can talk to public health experts, sign up to have their well water tested, and learn about available resources from professionals there to help,” Gov. Josh Shapiro tweeted Tuesday.

    Beaver County is just across the state border from East Palestine, Ohio – a village of 5,000 struggling to understand the full breadth of consequences from the February 3 toxic train wreck that burned for days and led to the release of the dangerous chemical vinyl chloride.

    A new data analysis suggests nine out of the dozens of chemicals that the EPA has been monitoring are higher than what normally would be found in East Palestine, according to scientists from Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon universities.

    If the levels of some chemicals remain high, it could pose a problem for residents’ health over time, the scientists said. Temperature changes or high winds might stir up the chemicals and release them into the atmosphere.

    The chemical with the highest concentration found in East Palestine was a substance called acrolein, the data analysis said.

    Acrolein is used to control plants, algae, rodents and microorganisms. It is a clear liquid at room temperature and is toxic. It can cause inflammation and irritation of the skin, respiratory tract and mucous membranes, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    “It’s not elevated to the point where it’s necessarily like an immediate ‘evacuate the building’ health concern,” said Albert Presto, an associate research professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon’s Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, who is working on the university’s chemical monitoring effort in East Palestine.

    “But, you know, we don’t know necessarily what the long-term risk is or how long that concentration that causes that risk will persist.”

    Some East Palestine residents have reported rashes, headaches, nausea and bloody noses since the derailment and the February 6 controlled release and burning of vinyl chloride.

    During his third visit to the town Tuesday, the EPA chief said ongoing tests of the air and municipal water show both are safe – but urged anyone who is feeling “any kind of adverse health impacts” to seek medical attention.

    Regan returned to East Palestine to mark the opening of the “EPA’s community welcome center,” which will be open daily so “residents and business owners can stop in to get their questions answered, sign up for home air monitoring, and learn more about cleaning services.”

    “We’ve been testing the air from the very beginning, and the state has been testing the water,” Regan said.

    “Every chemical that was on that train and every byproduct from those chemicals have been tested or are part of our testing regimen,” he said. “So we believe firmly that our testing regimen is protective.”

    Still, the EPA is offering cleaning services – which will be reimbursed by Norfolk Southern – to any concerned resident in East Palestine.

    “There have been many residents here who have indicated that they worry about some residual, or some dust or some particles,” Regan said. “While we don’t believe that there are any adverse health impacts in homes or businesses as it relates to the derailment, this is an additional step we’re taking to alleviate concern and lower the angst.”

    Ohio officials have said East Palestine’s municipal water supply is safe to drink, citing multiple tests and the fact that the municipal water comes from five wells encased in steel deep underground.

    But health officials warn those using private well water should get it tested before using it. The Columbiana County Health District is posting test results online.

    Across the border in Pennsylvania, the state Department of Environmental Protection has collected samples from “nearly every private well” in the state within one mile of the derailment site, the governor said.

    The goal is to independently verify the safety of the water in Pennsylvania, Shapiro said.

    He reiterated that “Norfolk Southern will pay for the entire cost of the clean up,” including reimbursing Pennsylvania county fire departments for “equipment that was damaged or contaminated while responding to the derailment.”

    US Transporation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has called for Norfolk Southern and the rest of the freight rail industry to take a number of immediate actions, including committing to phase in safer tank cars by 2025.

    The Department of Transportation also wants Congress to take up legislation that would increase the maximum fines the DOT can issue to rail companies for violating safety regulations, Buttigieg said.

    He also called on the CEOs of major freight rail companies to “join a close-call reporting system that protects whistleblowers who spot issues that could lead to accidents,” Buttigieg told CNN on Tuesday.

    “We’re focusing on lessons learned when it comes to rail safety.”

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  • High levels of chemicals could pose long-term risks at Ohio train derailment site, researchers say | CNN

    High levels of chemicals could pose long-term risks at Ohio train derailment site, researchers say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    An analysis of data from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s measurements of pollutants released from the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, suggests that nine of the dozens of chemicals that the EPA has been monitoring are higher than would normally be found in the area, according to a group of scientists from Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon University.

    If the levels of some of these chemicals remain high, it could be a problem for residents’ health in the long term, the scientists say. Temperature changes or high winds might stir up the chemicals and release them into the atmosphere.

    The highest levels found in East Palestine were of a chemical called acrolein, the analysis says.

    Acrolein is used to control plants, algae, rodents and microorganisms. It is a clear liquid at room temperature, and it is toxic. It can cause inflammation and irritation of the skin, respiratory tract and mucous membranes, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    “It’s not elevated to the point where it’s necessarily like an immediate ‘evacuate the building’ health concern,” said Dr. Albert Presto, an associate research professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon’s Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, who is working on the university’s chemical monitoring effort in East Palestine. “But, you know, we don’t know necessarily what the long-term risk is or how long that concentration that causes that risk will persist.”

    Much of what scientists know about chemical exposure comes from people’s contact with chemicals at work, Preston said, which generally means exposure for about eight hours a day. People now living in East Palestine are in constant contact with the chemicals, he said, and the impact of that kind of exposure on the human body is not fully understood.

    The EPA and local government officials have repeatedly said that their tests show the air quality in the area is safe and that the chemicals should dissipate. As of Sunday, officials have tested air in 578 homes, and they say chemical pollution levels have not exceeded residential air quality standards.

    EPA’s air monitoring data shows that levels of monitored chemicals “are below levels of concern for adverse health impacts from short-term exposures,” an agency spokesperson told CNN on Monday. “The long-term risks referenced by this analysis assume a lifetime of exposure, which is constant exposure over approximately 70 years. EPA does not anticipate levels of these chemicals will stay high for anywhere near that. We are committed to staying in East Palestine and will continue to monitor the air inside and outside of homes to ensure that these levels remain safe over time.”

    However, residents have reported rashes and trouble breathing, sometimes even in their own homes, Presto said.

    “When someone says to them then, ‘everything is fine everywhere,’ if I were that person, I wouldn’t believe that statement,” he said.

    So who’s right? The scientists say it’s not a black-and-white issue.

    “I think it’s important for the public to understand that all sides are right. No one’s lying to them,” said Dr. Ivan Rusyn, director of the Texas A&M University Superfund Research Center and part of the team that did the analysis. “It’s just that every time you’re sharing information, whether it’s Administrator of EPA Michael Regan or Governor [Mike] DeWine or someone from Ohio EPA, when they say certain things are ‘safe,’ they really need to explain what they mean.”

    Rusyn says the EPA and local officials need to do a better job of communicating with the public about the risk to residents when they are exposed to chemicals released in the crash.

    Communication struggles have been a consistent pattern over the years and over numerous environmental disasters, he said. Officials will often do a good job of collecting and releasing data but then fail to give the proper context that the public will understand.

    “That’s what I would like to encourage all parties to do rather than to point fingers,” Rusyn said. “The general public has to trust authorities. Cleanup is continuing. They are doing monitoring. We just need to do a better job communicating the results.”

    Government communication about residents’ real level of risk has been a significant source of frustration in East Palestine, Presto said.

    “People are furious. They feel like they’re getting this black-and-white answer – things are safe or not safe – when it’s not a black-and-white sort of situation,” Presto said.

    The EPA says it will continue to monitor the air quality in the area and in residents’ homes. It is also setting up a community center so residents and business owners can ask questions about agency activity there.

    The agency said it is collecting outdoor air samples for contaminants of concern, including vinyl chloride, a hard plastic resin used to make plastic products like pipes or packaging material that can be a cancer concern; n-butyl acrylate a clear liquid used to make resins and paint products that can cause eye, throat, nose and lung irritation or damage as well as a skin allergy; and ethylhexyl acrylate, another colorless liquid used to make paints, plastics and adhesives that can cause skin and eye irritation.

    The EPA also collected field measurements for hydrogen sulfide, benzene, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen chloride, phosgene and particulate matter.

    Scientists from Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon are monitoring the chemicals in the area using a mobile lab that they’ve used for the past decade to measure air pollution in real time in cities across the country. They expect to release data from their own tests in East Palestine on Tuesday.

    The mobile lab has extremely sensitive equipment that can measure pollution in the parts per trillion. Scientists would then be able to plot them on a graph to show, in real time, where the concentrations of chemicals may be and at what level, Presto said.

    Mobile lab workers will try to determine whether there are chemicals in the air that the EPA isn’t monitoring. They are also looking at pollution levels in places where the agency did not set up monitoring stations.

    “The situation has to be monitored, and the EPA should continue measurements, and they should also communicate to the general public as to what they’re seeing and put this into context of risk, rather than use the numbers and expect people to figure it out for themselves,” Rusyn said.

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  • As crews remove contaminated soil and liquid from Ohio toxic train wreck site, concerns emerge about where it’s going | CNN

    As crews remove contaminated soil and liquid from Ohio toxic train wreck site, concerns emerge about where it’s going | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    After a brief pause, shipments of contaminated liquid and soil from the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, have resumed after cross-country concerns about where the hazardous waste is going.

    Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency previously said they have approved the shipment of contaminated waste to two EPA-certified sites in Ohio: Heritage Thermal Services in East Liverpool and Vickery Environmental in Vickery. Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore said Monday two more sites – one in Ohio and one in Indiana – will also receive waste from the derailment scene.

    The move came after officials in Texas and Michigan complained they didn’t get any warning that waste from the toxic crash site would be shipped to their states for disposal. The EPA ordered the train’s operator, Norfolk Southern, to stop the shipments Friday so that it could review the company’s disposal plans.

    Shore said she spoke with officials from Ohio and Indiana on Monday regarding the shipment of hazardous waste material to their towns.

    Questions about the disposal of toxic waste from the February 3 derailment have added to the controversy surrounding the crash that has also left residents of the town worried about potential long-term health effects.

    The mayor of East Liverpool, one of the Ohio towns set to incinerate the waste, expressed concerns about the process but said the EPA has assured him that everyone has been following necessary guidelines.

    “We have a 2-year-old daughter and of course that’s a concern,” Mayor Gregory T. Bricker said. “But, again, I think this is a state-of-the-art facility that can handle this type of waste.”

    So far, about 1.8 million gallons of liquid waste and 4,832 cubic yards of solid waste have been pulled from the derailment site, according to the office of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

    EPA Administrator Michael Regan is expected to make his third trip to East Palestine on Tuesday to mark the grand opening of a new community center, Shore said.

    US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has given Norfolk Southern and other major rail companies a deadline of this week to say whether they will participate in the Confidential Close Call Reporting System – a voluntary program that allows workers to report safety hazards.

    “This common-sense program encourages employees to report safety hazards, including conditions that could lead to derailments, by protecting these workers from reprisal when they come forward,” Buttigieg wrote in a Monday letter to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw.

    The transportation secretary said “not one major freight rail company participates” in the Confidential Close Call Reporting System, also known as C3RS.

    “By refusing to take this commonsense step, you are sending an undesirable message about your level of commitment to the safety of your workers and the American communities where you operate,” Buttigieg wrote.

    “I am asking you to join the C3RS program now, even as our Department proceeds to take appropriate steps toward making this program mandatory.”

    Buttigieg first called for the change in a letter to railroads dated February 14, but is now going directly to rail CEOs and asking them to reply to the Department of Transportation “by the end of the week.”

    After that, Buttigieg said, he will “present the public with a summary of which companies have agreed to this important safety measure and which have refused.”

    The hazardous waste that has already been sent to Michigan and Texas is being processed, EPA regional administrator Debra Shore said Sunday.

    About 2 million gallons of firefighting water from the train derailment site were expected to be disposed in Harris County, Texas, with about half a million gallons already there, the county’s chief executive said last week.

    In Michigan, contaminated soil from the derailment site was taken to the US Ecology Wayne Disposal in Belleville, Michigan, US Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan said.

    Vickery Environmental will process overflow water from the crash scene, according to the Sandusky County Emergency Management Agency.

    The agency didn’t comment on how much water the facility has received so far, saying only that it has been receiving three to four loads per day, but according to Ohio officials, more than 94,000 gallons have been disposed of at the facility so far.

    Until Friday, Norfolk Southern had been “solely responsible” for disposing of waste from the train derailment, but waste disposal plans “will be subject to federal EPA review and approval moving forward,” Shore said.

    Every aspect of transporting and disposing of the hazardous waste “from the moment trucks and rail cars are loaded until the waste is safely disposed of” will be closely regulated and overseen by federal, state, and local governments, Shore said Sunday.

    After speaking to residents in East Palestine, Shore said “we owe it to the people of East Palestine to move it out of the community as quickly as possible.”

    “At the same time,” Shore added, “I know there are folks in other states who have concerns, legitimate concerns, about how this waste is being transported and how it will be disposed of. EPA will continue to work with our local, state, and federal partners to use our longstanding experience and expertise in these matters to ensure the health and safety, and support the East Palestine community and to hold Norfolk Southern accountable.”

    The fiery derailment and subsequent intentional release of vinyl chloride from train cars left East Palestine residents with anxiety about the safety of their air and water. Some have reported rashes, headaches, nausea and bloody noses.

    So far, tests of East Palestine’s public drinking have found “no indication of risk to East Palestine public water system customers” and “treated drinking water shows no detection of contaminants associated with the derailment,” the EPA said in a Sunday update.

    And air quality tests inside 578 East Palestine homes detected no contaminants linked to the derailment, the EPA said.

    But residents are still concerned, and federal teams are going door-to-door to conduct health surveys and provide informational flyers after President Joe Biden directed the move, a White House official told CNN.

    And new wells will be drilled this week “to determine if ground water immediately below the derailment site is contaminated,” DeWine’s office announced Sunday.

    Four wells have already been installed and up to three more will be drilled this week after the soil under the rails is completely excavated, officials said.

    “These monitoring wells will also support a better understanding of the direction and rate of the ground water flow in the area,” DeWine’s office said.

    As for the wreckage, all rail cars except the 11 held by investigators have been removed from the site of the derailment, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Anne Vogel said Sunday.

    “This is so critically important to moving on to next steps. We can now excavate additional contaminated soil and began installing monitoring wells,” Vogel said.

    The Ohio EPA will oversee the installation of water monitoring wells at the site of the derailment that will measure contaminant levels in the groundwater below.

    While the crash was “100% preventable,” it appears the train’s crew didn’t do anything wrong leading up to the derailment, said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board.

    An NTSB preliminary report found one of the train’s cars carrying plastic pellets was heated by a hot axle that sparked the initial fire, Homendy said last week. Video of the train before the crash showed what appeared to be an overheated wheel bearing, the report said.

    What caused the wheel bearing failure will be key to the investigation, Homendy added.

    The investigation will also look into the train’s wheelset and the bearing, the designs of tank cars and railcars, the maintenance procedures and practices, as well as the damage from the derailment, the NTSB report said.

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  • Shipments of contaminated waste to resume from Ohio train derailment site | CNN

    Shipments of contaminated waste to resume from Ohio train derailment site | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The Environmental Protection Agency has approved resuming shipments of contaminated liquid and soil out of East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed earlier this month.

    The EPA on Friday ordered the train’s operator, Norfolk Southern, to halt the shipments so that it could review the company’s plans for disposal, adding to the controversy surrounding the crash that has also left residents of the town worried about potential long-term health effects.

    That’s as officials in Texas and Michigan complained they didn’t receive any warning that hazardous waste from the crash would be shipped into their jurisdictions for disposal.

    Shipments now will be going to two EPA-certified facilities in Ohio, and Norfolk Southern will start shipments to these locations Monday, EPA regional administrator Debra Shore said at a news conference Sunday.

    “Some of the liquid wastes will be sent to a facility in Vickery, Ohio, where it will be disposed of in an underground injection well,” Shore said. “Norfolk Southern will also beghin shipping solid waste to the Heritage Incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio.”

    Until Friday, Norfolk Southern was “solely responsible” for disposing of waste from the train derailment, Shore said Saturday, but waste disposal plans “will be subject to EPA review and approval moving forward.”

    All rail cars, except for those held by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), have been removed from the site of the derailment, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director Anne Vogel said in an update Sunday.

    The NTSB is currently holding 11 railcars as part of its investigation into the derailment, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement Sunday.

    “This is so critically important to moving on to next steps. We can now excavate additional contaminated soil and began installing monitoring wells,” Vogel said. The Ohio EPA will oversee the installation of water monitoring wells at the site of the derailment that will measure contaminant levels in the groundwater below.

    Every aspect of transporting and disposing of the hazardous waste material “from the moment trucks and rail cars are loaded until the waste is safely disposed of” will be closely regulated and overseen by federal, state, and local governments, Shore said Sunday.

    Shore detailed the federal, state, and local compliance requirements expected from Norfolk Southern.

    “These extensive requirements cover everything from waste labeling, packaging, and handling, as well as requirements for shipping documents that provide information about the wastes and where they’re going,” Shore said.

    The hazardous waste material previously sent to facilities in Michigan and Texas is now being processed at those facilities, Shore said.

    About 2 million gallons of firefighting water from the train derailment site were expected to be disposed in Harris County, Texas, with about half a million gallons already there, according to the county’s chief executive.

    Also, contaminated soil from the derailment site was being taken to the US Ecology Wayne Disposal in Belleville, Michigan, US Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan said Friday.

    The Michigan and Ohio facilities were, in fact, EPA approved sites, but they are not currently accepting any more shipments at this time, and the EPA is “exploring to see whether they have the capacity” to accept shipments in the future, Shore said.

    A spokesperson Gov. DeWine told CNN the governor was not briefed on where in the country the shipments would be sent. But this is typical, as the train company is responsible for the transport of material and the EPA is responsible for regulating that transport, DeWine spokesman Daniel Tierney said Saturday.

    The February 3 derailment of the Norfolk Southern train and subsequent intentional release of vinyl chloride it was hauling first forced East Palestine residents out of their homes, then left them with anxiety about health effects as reports of symptoms like rashes and headaches emerged after they returned.

    Officials have repeatedly sought to assure residents that continued air and water monitoring has found no concerns. The EPA reported last week that they have conducted indoor air testing at a total of 574 homes and detected no contaminants associated with the derailment.

    Federal teams in East Palestine have begun going door-to-door to check in with residents, conduct health surveys and provide informational flyers after President Joe Biden directed the move, a White House official told CNN.

    Also, a 19-person scientific team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been collecting information from residents about symptoms they have experienced since the derailment, said Jill Shugart, a senior environmental health specialist for the CDC.

    The EPA also installed “sentinel wells” near the city’s municipal well field to monitor contaminants in well water as part of the agency’s long-term early detection system “to protect the city for years to come,” Vogel, head of the Ohio EPA, said Saturday.

    In a Saturday update on the removal of contaminated waste, DeWine said 20 truckloads of hazardous solid waste had been hauled away from the Ohio derailment site. Fifteen of those truckloads were disposed of at a licensed hazardous waste treatment and disposal facility in Michigan and five truckloads were returned to East Palestine.

    About 102,000 gallons of liquid waste and 4,500 cubic yards of solid waste remained Saturday in storage on site in East Palestine – not including the five truckloads returned, according to DeWine. Additional solid and liquid wastes are being generated as the cleanup progresses, he added.

    Dingell told CNN on Saturday that neither she nor Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were aware of plans for toxic waste to be delivered to disposal sites in her district.

    “I called everybody,” Dingell said. “Nobody had really been given a heads up that they were coming here.”

    Across the country, Texas Chief Executive Lina Hidalgo expressed frustration that she first learned about the expected water shipments to her state from the news media – not from a government agency or Texas Molecular, the company hired to dispose of the water.

    She added that although there’s no legal requirement for her office to be notified, “it doesn’t quite seem right.”

    Hidalgo said Texas Molecular told her office Thursday that half a million gallons of the water was already in the county and the shipments began arriving around last Wednesday.

    On Thursday, Texas Molecular told CNN it had been hired to dispose of potentially dangerous water from the Ohio train derailment. The company said they had experts with more than four decades of experience in managing water safely and that all shipments, so far, had come by truck for the entire trip.

    Hidalgo’s office had been seeking information about the disposal, including the chemical composition of the firefighting water, the precautions that were being taken, and why Harris County was the chosen site, she said.

    According to a Thursday news release from Ohio Emergency Management Agency, more than 1.7 million gallons of contaminated liquid had been removed from the immediate site of the derailment. Of that, more than 1.1 million gallons of “contaminated liquid” from East Palestine had been transported off-site, with the majority going to Texas Molecular and the rest going to a facility in Vickery, Ohio.

    CNN asked the Ohio agency the location of the remaining 581,500 gallons which had been “removed” but not “hauled off-site” and has yet to receive a response.

    Regarding the causes of the accident, a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report found that one of the train’s cars carrying plastic pellets was heated by a hot axle that sparked the initial fire, said Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the safety board. So far, the investigation found the three crew members on board the train did not do anything wrong prior to the derailment, though the crash was “100% preventable,” she said.

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  • A first report on the Ohio toxic train wreck was released. Here’s what it found — and what investigators are still looking into | CNN

    A first report on the Ohio toxic train wreck was released. Here’s what it found — and what investigators are still looking into | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    After federal officials released an initial report concluding that this month’s toxic train wreck in Ohio was completely preventable, investigators will begin examining procedures, practices and design prior to the derailment that has sparked long-term concerns among hundreds of frustrated residents.

    The National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday released its preliminary report on the investigation into the February 3 train crash in East Palestine, Ohio, where residents have been complaining about feeling sick after hazardous chemicals seeped into the air, water and soil.

    Ohio environmental officials made a civil referral this week asking the state attorney general’s office to begin “legal and/or equitable civil actions” against Norfolk Southern, which could result in a civil complaint if negotiations with the company were to fail.

    The NTSB report found that one of the train’s cars carrying plastic pellets was heated by a hot axle that sparked the initial fire, according to Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the safety board. As the temperature of the bearing got hotter, the train passed by two wayside defect detectors that did not trigger an audible alarm message because the heat threshold was not met at that point, Homendy explained. A third detector eventually picked up the high temperature, but it was already too late by then.

    “This was 100% preventable. … There is no accident. Every single event that we investigate is preventable,” Homendy said during a news conference Thursday. “The NTSB has one goal, and that is safety and ensuring that this never happens again.”

    The next phase of the investigation will examine the train’s wheelset and bearing as well as the damage from the derailment, the NTSB report noted. The agency will also focus on the designs of tank cars and railcars along with maintenance procedures and practices.

    Plus, investigators will review the train operator’s use of wayside defect detectors and the company’s railcar inspection practices. More specifically, determining what caused the wheel bearing failure will be key to the investigation, Homendy said.

    On Friday, Homendy said on “CNN This Morning” that she’s concerned politics could cloud the investigation and prevent safety improvements. Former President Donald Trump visited the site of the train derailment on Wednesday where he criticized President Joe Biden’s administration’s handling of the railway disaster.

    “This is not a time for politics,” Homendy said. “There is a time for politics. It is not this.”

    On Thursday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also visited the derailment site, and when asked how political figures like Trump could help, Buttigieg addressed the former president directly saying he could “express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch.”

    Another key aspect of the investigation will focus on the response to the chemical disaster, particularly the manual detonations of tanks carrying toxic chemicals.

    Five of the 38 derailed train cars were carrying more than 115,000 gallons of vinyl chloride, according to the NTSB’s report. Exposure to high levels of vinyl chloride can increase cancer risk or cause death.

    Those five cars “continued to concern authorities because the temperature inside one tank car was still rising,” indicating a polymerization reaction which could have resulted in an explosion, the report said. To help prevent a potentially deadly blast of vinyl chloride, crews released the toxic chemical into a trench and burned it off on February 6 — three days after the derailment.

    Since then, some East Palestine residents have said they are experiencing headaches, dizziness, nausea and bloody noses — a host of health issues they say they did not have prior to the crash.

    At the same time, officials have been adamant in reassuring residents of the air’s safety and the municipal water supply.

    Around 2 million gallons of firefighting water from the train derailment site are expected to be disposed in Harris County, Texas, according to the county’s chief executive.

    Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said her office was told by Texas Molecular on Thursday that the shipments began arriving around last Wednesday, she said.

    Texas Molecular was hired to dispose of the potentially dangerous water from the train derailment, the company, which said it has more than four decades of experience in managing water safely, has told CNN.

    The company told Hidalgo’s office Thursday that half a million gallons was already in the county.

    Hidalgo expressed frustration that she first learned about the water shipments from the news media – not from a government agency or Texas Molecular,

    “It’s a very real problem we were told yesterday the materials were coming only to learn today they’ve been here for a week,” Hidalgo said.

    She added that although there’s no legal requirement for her office to be notified, “It doesn’t quite seem right.”

    Texas Molecular is receiving the water from trucks, but it’s unclear if trucks are used for the entire trip, Hidalgo said. The company told her office they’re receiving about 30 trucks of water a day, she said.

    CNN is seeking comment from Texas Molecular about how the water is being transported.

    Hidalgo said her office is looking for information about the disposal, including the chemical composition of the firefighting water, the precautions that are being taken, and why Harris County was the chosen site.

    “There’s nothing right now to tell me – to tell us – there’s going to be an accident in transport, that this is being done in such a way that is not compatible with the well, that there’s a nefarious reason why the water is coming here and not to a closer site,” Hidalgo said. “But it is our job to do basic due diligence on that information.”

    A total of 1.7 million gallons of contaminated liquid has been removed from the immediate site of the derailment, according to a Thursday news release from the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.

    More than 1.1 million gallons of “contaminated liquid” from East Palestine has been transported off-site so far, with the majority going to Texas Molecular and the rest going to a facility in Vickery, Ohio.

    CNN has asked the Ohio agency the location of the remaining 581,500 gallons which have been “removed” but not “hauled off-site.”

    Congresswoman Debbie Dingell of Michigan said she was “not given a heads up” that contaminated soil from East Palestine would be transported to the US Ecology Wayne Disposal in Belleville, Michigan.

    “We were not given a heads up on this reported action,” Dingell said in a press release on Friday, “Our priority is to always keep the people we represent safe.”

    Dingell said inquires to the EPA, Department of Transportation, Norfolk Southern, US Ecology, the state of Ohio and others involved are in the process.

    On Friday afternoon, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine released an update on the removal of the contaminated site in East Palestine, saying that soil would be transported to Michigan.

    So far, 4,832 cubic yards of soil have been removed from the ground in East Palestine. Approximately six truckloads of that contaminated soil are on their way to the hazardous waste disposal facility in Michigan, according to a press release from DeWine.

    The 149-car train operated by Norfolk Southern on February 3 had three employees on board: a locomotive engineer, a conductor and a trainee who were all in the head end of the locomotive, Homendy told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday.

    So far, the investigation found the crew did not do anything wrong prior to the derailment, though the crash was “100% preventable,” Homendy said.

    Video of the train before the derailment showed what appeared to be an overheated wheel bearing, according to the NTSB report. Footage showed sparks flying from underneath the train.

    NTSB investigators are now focusing on one train car’s wheel set and bearing to figure out what may have caused the overheating, Homendy said.

    “We have a lot of questions about that,” she said Friday, including the “thresholds and why they vary so much between railroads.”

    Ultimately, it’s the railroads that set the temperature thresholds for the detectors, Homendy said.

    Releasing publicly a probable cause or causes for the derailment could take 12 to 18 months, Homendy said during the news conference.

    “We are very deliberative. We are the gold standard when it comes to investigations globally, and we are methodical in our approach,” Homendy said. “But if we see a safety issue that we need to be addressed immediately, something systemic, we will not hesitate to issue an urgent safety recommendation.”

    In the meantime, here’s what the NTSB preliminary report found so far:

    • One wheel bearing’s temperature reached a “critical” level — 253 degrees Fahrenheit above the ambient temperature — and prompted an audible alarm that instructed “the crew to slow and stop the train to inspect a hot axle,” the report says.
    • The train’s engineer applied the train’s brakes and additional braking after the alert of an overheating axle, the report states. “During this deceleration, the wheel bearing failed,” Homendy explained. “Car 23 derailed, and the train initiated an emergency brake application and came to a stop.”

    Even after reading the preliminary NTSB report, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost told “CNN This Morning” that there’s still a lot of facts he doesn’t know.

    Among his biggest questions are: “Had the train been shorter, had there been additional staff, could this have been averted? Based on the alerts that occurred, how long is the reaction time and how is that influenced by the size of the train?” Yost told CNN.

    The US Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Norfolk Southern to cover the full cost of cleaning up the aftermath of the train crash.

    “EPA has special authority for situations just like this where we can compel companies who inflict trauma and cause environmental and health damage to communities, like Norfolk Southern has done, to completely clean up the mess that they’ve caused and pay for it,” EPA administrator Michael Regan said.

    Norfolk Southern will be required to:

    • Provide a descriptive work plan on how they intend to clean up the water, soil and debris
    • Reimburse the EPA for providing residents a cleaning service of their homes and businesses
    • Show up to public meetings and explain their progress

    If the company does not follow the order, the EPA will step in to complete the duties, while fining Norfolk Southern up to $70,000 a day, Regan said Wednesday during a CNN town hall.

    “And the law gives us the authority to charge Norfolk Southern up to three times the amount that the cleanup will cost us,” he said.

    The company plans to take a series of measures moving forward to minimize the long-term impacts of chemicals on the land and groundwater, including ripping up the tracks where the train derailed and removing soil underneath, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw said.

    Shaw added his company is working with the Environmental Protection Agency on a “long-term remediation plan.”

    Yost, who received the referral from the Ohio EPA to initiate necessary legal civil actions against Norfolk Southern this week, told CNN any criminal referral in Ohio regarding the derailment would be a decision made by local prosecutors.

    “We’ve been in contact with the local county prosecutor, and … we may be assisting him, but at this point, he has not empaneled a grand jury, to my understanding,” he said Friday on “CNN This Morning.”

    Ohio environmental officials made a civil referral Tuesday asking Yost’s office to “initiate all necessary legal and/or equitable civil actions” and “seek appropriate penalties” against Norfolk Southern, according to a copy of the referral provided by the attorney general’s office.

    “I respectfully request that this referral result in the filing of a civil complaint in the appropriate court if efforts on your part to resolve this matter through negotiation fail,” Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Anne Vogel wrote in a letter to Yost.

    Vogel cited potential violations of state laws regarding air and water pollution and solid and hazardous waste.

    Expanding the definition of a high-hazard flammable train – a standard the derailed train did not meet, despite sparking a major fire – is among the changes NTSB advocated for in the past, Homendy said Friday.

    NTSB urged regulators to include in the classification “a broad array of flammable materials,” rather than focusing on crude oil, she said.

    Additionally, NTSB will look at whether vinyl chloride needs to be carried in more fortified cars, Homendy said.

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  • Ohio governor drinks the tap water as the EPA demands Norfolk Southern manage all cleanup of a toxic train wreck — or face consequences | CNN

    Ohio governor drinks the tap water as the EPA demands Norfolk Southern manage all cleanup of a toxic train wreck — or face consequences | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The US Environmental Protection Agency is ordering Norfolk Southern to handle and pay for all necessary cleanup after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.

    The EPA announced its legally binding order Tuesday, 18 days after the freight train derailed. The disaster ignited a dayslong inferno, shot plumes of black smoke into the air and led to the intentional release of vinyl chloride to help avert a more catastrophic blast.

    Some residents have reported health problems, and about 3,500 fish have died in Ohio waterways since the wreck.

    “Norfolk Southern will pay for cleaning the mess that they created and the trauma that they inflicted on this community,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said Tuesday.

    As part of the EPA’s legally binding order, Norfolk Southern will be required to:

    • Identify and clean up any contaminated soil and water resources,

    • Reimburse the EPA for cleaning services to be offered to residents and businesses to provide an additional layer of reassurance, which will be conducted by EPA staff and contractors,

    • Attend and participate in public meetings at the EPA’s request and post information online, and

    • Pay for the EPA’s costs for work performed under the order.

    The order will take effect Thursday. The EPA said it will exercise its strongest authority against the train’s operator under CERCLA – the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.

    “In no way, shape or form will Norfolk Southern get off the hook for the mess that they created,” Regan said.

    If the rail company fails to meet the demands, the EPA said it will immediately step in, conduct the necessary work and then seek to compel Norfolk Southern to pay triple the cost.

    In response to the EPA’s announcement, Norfolk Southern said it has been working to clean up the site and will continue helping residents.

    “We recognize that we have a responsibility, and we have committed to doing what’s right for the residents of East Palestine,” Norfolk Southern said in a statement to CNN.

    “We have been paying for the clean-up activities to date and will continue to do so. We are committed to thoroughly and safely cleaning the site, and we are reimbursing residents for the disruption this has caused in their lives. We are investing in helping East Palestine thrive for the long-term, and we will continue to be in the community for as long as it takes. We are going to learn from this terrible accident and work with regulators and elected officials to improve railroad safety.”

    Hours before the EPA’s announcement, Regan and Gov. Mike DeWine visited an East Palestine home and tried to reassure residents that the municipal water supply is safe.

    They raised two glasses filled with water straight from the tap and toasted before drinking.

    The municipal water supply comes from five wells deep underground that are encased in steel, state officials have said. But residents with private well water should get that water tested before using it, since that water may be sourced closer to the ground’s surface.

    “State and local authorities will continue the water sampling efforts, and EPA will continue indoor air screenings to residents within the evacuation zone,” Regan said Tuesday.

    But “I recognize that no matter how much data we collect or provide, it will not be enough to completely reassure everybody,” the EPA chief said.

    “It may not be enough to restore the sense of safety and security that this community once had. But we’re going to work together, day by day, for as long as it takes to make sure that this community feels at home once again.”

    The soil under the railroad track at the site of the wreck is still contaminated, and the tracks need to be lifted to remove that soil, the director of Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday.

    The governor acknowledged residents’ concerns about the contaminated soil and said 4,588 cubic yards of soil and 1.1 million gallons of contaminated water have been removed from East Palestine.

    “The railroad got the tracks back on and started running and the soil under the tracks had not been dealt with,” DeWine said. “The tracks will have to be taken up, and that soil will have to be removed.”

    To address the growing reports of rashes, headaches, nausea and other symptoms in East Palestine, the state opened a new health clinic for residents.

    The health clinic will have registered nurses, mental health specialists and – at times – a toxicologist, the Ohio Department of Health said.

    Medical teams from the US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention and the US Department of Health are expected to arrive in the community as early as this week to help assess what dangers might remain.

    Authorities have repeatedly assured residents that the air and municipal water supply in the town are safe. Crews have checked hundreds of homes and have not detected any dangerous levels of contaminants, the EPA said.

    Still, life in East Palestine has been uprooted as residents question the findings and wonder whether it’s really safe to drink the water or breathe the air.

    “It will be important to monitor people’s health and the environment around the train derailment for some time to come since health impacts may not emerge until later,” said Dr. Erin Haynes, an environmental health scientist at the University of Kentucky.

    “We should never say we’re done looking at this community for potential exposures and health impacts.”

    Petroleum based chemicals float on the top of the water in Leslie Run creek after being agitated from the sediment on Monday in East Palestine.

    Some waterways were contaminated after the crash, killing an estimated 3,500 fish. But officials have said they believe those contaminants have been contained.

    Norfolk Southern installed booms and dams to restrict the flow of contaminated water from Sulphur Run and Leslie Run – two streams where fish were found dead, the EPA said.

    “The spill did flow to the Ohio River during that initial slug, but the Ohio River is very large, and it’s a water body that’s able to dilute the pollutants pretty quickly,” Ohio Environmental Protection Agency official Tiffani Kavalec said last week.

    Kavalec said the agency is pretty confident that the “low levels” of contaminants that remain are not getting passed on to water customers.

    A series of pumps have been placed upstream to reroute Sulphur Run around the derailment site, Norfolk Southern said Monday.

    “Environmental teams are treating the impacted portions of Sulphur Run with booms, aeration, and carbon filtration units,” Norfolk Southern added. “Those teams are also working with stream experts to collect soil and groundwater samples to develop a comprehensive plan to address any contamination that remains in the stream banks and sediment.”

    Water intakes from the Ohio River that were shut off Sunday “as a precautionary measure” were reopened after sampling found “no detections of the specific chemicals from the train derailment,” the Greater Cincinnati Water Works and Northern Kentucky Water District said Monday.

    A third utility provider – Maysville utility in Kentucky – announced that it temporarily shut off water intakes from the Ohio River on Saturday, when the toxic chemicals released into the river from the derailment were expected to arrive at the water treatment intake in Kentucky, utility general manager Mark Julian said.

    Water measurements have been below the level of concern, Julian said, and Maysville took precautionary measures in temporarily shutting down their Ohio River intake valve due to the public concern.

    “The takeaway is that anyone along the Ohio River where the contaminants made their way can breathe a sigh of relief,” he said.

    A member of Ohio EPA Emergency Response looks for fish at Leslie Run creek and checks for chemicals in East Palestine on Monday.

    Meanwhile, the majority of the hazardous rail cars remain at the crash site as investigators continue to probe the wreck. But about 15,000 pounds of contaminated soil and 1.1 million gallons of contaminated water have been removed from the scene, Norfolk Southern announced Monday.

    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 skepticism spreads about the safety of the air and water, some local businesses say they’ve seen fewer customers.

    “Everybody’s afraid … They don’t want to come in and drink the water,” Teresa Sprowls, a restaurant owner in East Palestine, told CNN affiliate WOIO.

    A stylist at a hair salon told WOIO there’s no doubt the salon lost business and that customers may be worried about what may be in the water washing their hair.

    “I know a lot of our businesses are already suffering greatly because people don’t want to come here,” local greenhouse owner Dianna Elzer told CNN affiliate WPXI.

    Her husband, Donald Elzer, echoed her concerns, saying, “It’s devastating. The longer it goes on, the worse it gets.”

    Dianna Elzer also worried about longer-term economic impacts to the community.

    “Our property values – who is going to want to buy a house here now?” she told WPXI. “It’s going to be a long struggle to get back to where we were.”

    As residents call for accountability from both Norfolk Southern and government officials, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he plans to visit East Palestine “when the time is right” – but did not announce a date.

    He did announce Monday new efforts by the Department of Transportation to improve rail safety.

    “We are accelerating and augmenting our ongoing lines of effort on rail regulation and inspection here at the US DOT, including further regulation on high hazard flammable trains and electronically controlled pneumatic brakes – rules that were clawed back under the previous administration – to the full extent of that we are allowed to under current law, and we will continue using resources from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund projects that improve rail safety,” Buttigieg said.

    A DOT news release said the agency will continue to press for the “Train Crew Staffing Rule,” which would require a minimum of two crew members during most railroad operations. Norfolk Southern has opposed the proposed rule.

    Norfolk Southern has committed millions of dollars’ worth of financial assistance to East Palestine, including $3.4 million in direct financial assistance to families and a $1 million community assistance fund, among other aid, the company said.

    Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw posted an open letter telling East Palestine residents, “I hear you” and “we are here and will stay here for as long as it takes to ensure your safety and to help East Palestine recover and thrive.”

    “Together with local health officials,” Shaw said, “we have implemented a comprehensive testing program to ensure the safety of East Palestine’s water, air, and soil.”

    Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the first name of Ohio Environmental Protection Agency official Tiffani Kavalec.

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  • Feds are sending medical experts to Ohio toxic train wreck site as residents’ safety concerns simmer | CNN

    Feds are sending medical experts to Ohio toxic train wreck site as residents’ safety concerns simmer | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration said it has deployed federal medical experts to help assess what dangers remain at an Ohio village where a train carrying hazardous materials derailed this month, a ramp-up of federal support at the governor’s request as anxious residents point to signs of adverse effects.

    Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday asked the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Health and Human Services to send teams to East Palestine, where the train derailed February 3 and sparked a dayslong blaze.

    “This request for medical experts includes, but is not limited to, physicians and behavioral health specialists,” DeWine wrote in a letter to the CDC. “Some community members have already seen physicians in the area but remain concerned about their condition and possible health effects – both short- and long-term.”

    The Biden administration approved the request and began deploying teams from both federal agencies in part for public health testing and assessments, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday.

    That is in addition to aid the Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing, according to Jean-Pierre, who noted Thursday that the train derailment situation is “much more expansive” than what FEMA can offer.

    The federal support boost to a community of some 5,000 people along the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line comes amid some residents’ growing concerns that some areas may not be safe to live in.

    An evacuation order that was in place for areas near the crash site was lifted February 8 after officials said air and water sample results led them to deem the area safe, officials said.

    But a chemical stench lingered in areas, with some residents saying the odor left them with headaches and pains in their throat. Plus, officials estimate thousands of fish were killed by contamination washing down streams and rivers.

    Further spurring residents’ questions about safety – some of which were expressed at an emotional community meeting Wednesday – were crews’ decision to conduct controlled detonations February 6 of some tanks carrying toxic chemicals to prevent a more dangerous explosion. Though a larger blast was averted, the detonations essentially released chemicals into the air, including vinyl chloride that at high levels could kill and increase cancer risk.

    On Thursday, the head of the federal Environmental Agency Administration visited East Palestine and vowed to use the agency’s enforcement authority to hold the train operator, Norfolk Southern, accountable.

    “I want the community to know that we hear you, we see you, and that we will get to the bottom of this,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said Thursday during a news conference. “We are testing for all volatile organic chemicals. We’re testing for everything. We’re testing for everything that was on that train. So, we feel comfortable that we are casting a net wide enough to present a picture that will protect the community.”

    During the visit, Regan observed some of the ongoing remediation efforts following the hazardous train derailment. While the state EPA has the primary responsibility over the scene, Regan noted the federal arm is ready to provide aid when needed.

    Regan also noted that Norfolk Southern has signed a notice of accountability, acknowledging the company will be responsible for the cleanup.

    Meanwhile, another train operated by Norfolk Southern derailed Thursday morning in Michigan’s Van Buren Charter Township, and local officials said there was no evidence the area was exposed to hazardous materials.

    First responders arrived at the crash location around 8:30 a.m. and found around 30 rail cars had derailed. One of the overturned rail cars contained agricultural grain while the other overturned cars were empty, Van Buren Township Public Safety said.

    One rail car contained liquid chlorine, but it was not part of the overturned section and was removed from the scene, officials added.

    CNN has reached out to Norfolk Southern for comment on the train derailment in Michigan.

    Federal transportation investigators are working vigorously to determine what caused the 100-car freight train to crash in Ohio, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday in a thread of tweets.

    “You have my personal commitment that the NTSB will CONTINUE to share all information publicly as soon as possible following our analysis,” board chairwoman Jennifer Homendy wrote. “Next: NTSB investigators will thoroughly examine the tank cars once decontaminated. As always, we’ll issue urgent safety recommendations as needed.”

    One of the elements under scrutiny is an apparent overheated wheel bearing seen on video before the derailment, the NTSB has said. The apparent overheating began at least 43 minutes before the train derailed, according to a CNN analysis of surveillance videos the network obtained.

    At around 8:12 p.m. on February 3, sparks from an apparent wheel bearing overheating were visible as the train passed through Salem, Ohio, two surveillance videos obtained by CNN show. Bright light and sparks are seen emanating from one of the rail cars.

    No sparks were seen in surveillance video taken 14 minutes earlier as the train passed through Alliance, Ohio.

    The train derailed in East Palestine around 8:55 p.m., about 43 minutes after the sparks were seen in Salem.

    It remains unclear what caused the overheating and whether it is linked to the derailment.

    Homendy, whose agency is responsible for investigating various transportation crashes from aviation to railways, implored the public on Twitter not to speculate about the cause of the crash.

    The train was carrying a range of toxic materials, including vinyl chloride, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, isobutylene and butyl acrylate, the US Environmental Protection Agency has said.

    Of those, the vinyl chloride gas that caught fire could break down into compounds including hydrogen chloride and phosgene, a chemical weapon used during World War I as a choking agent, according to the EPA and the CDC. Vinyl chloride – a volatile organic compound, or VOC, and the most toxic chemical involved in the derailment – is known to cause cancer, attacking the liver, and can also affect the brain, Maria Doa of the Environmental Defense Fund told CNN.

    It’s the dangers these chemicals pose that has put East Palestine residents on edge over the past two weeks.

    During an intense community town hall meeting Wednesday in a high school gym, East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway addressed the February 6 controlled detonations, saying the only option was to release the chemicals manually or risk greater danger to residents.

    “There (were) two options: We either detonate those tanks, or they detonate themselves,” Conaway told a group of reporters at Wednesday’s meeting.

    “Yes, harmful chemicals went into the air. I am truly sorry, but that is the only option we had. If we didn’t do that, then they were going to blow up, and we were going to have shrapnel all across this town.”

    Jami Cozza, an East Palestine resident who attended the meeting and was vocal about the issues her family have been facing since the train derailed, said she will not return home until it’s safe. Cozza told CNN she’s staying at a hotel paid for by the train company due to toxicity in her home cause by the derailment.

    Cozza explained the train company told her it was safe to return home after conducting air testing. However, she insisted the company run soil and water tests, and only then did a toxicologist deem her house unsafe.

    “Had I not used my voice, had I not thrown a fit, I would be sitting in that house right now, when they told me that it was safe,” Cozza said Thursday, adding she’s worried that not all residents are receiving the proper level of testing.

    Cozza noted the company has also offered to pay all of her moving expenses. “It’s not about the money. It’s about our house,” she said.

    Representatives of the train’s operator, Norfolk Southern, did not attend the community meeting Wednesday, citing safety concerns after it said employees were threatened, further escalating tensions.

    Despite the company’s absence, the mayor said the operator has been collaborating with local officials “tremendously.”

    Earlier this week, Norfolk Southern said it plans to create a $1 million charitable fund to support the East Palestine community.

    The company initially said it would make $1,000 payments to residents who lived within a mile of the spill evacuation zone. But the company has since decided to pay each resident in the entire 44413 ZIP code that money, a spokesman for the company told CNN.

    As of Tuesday evening, Norfolk Southern has distributed more than $1.5 million in direct financial assistance to more than 1,000 families and some businesses to cover costs related to the evacuation, the company said Wednesday in a news release.

    Those payments are in addition to the company’s offer to reimburse expenses related to residents evacuating during the incident, which includes the costs of hotels stays, food and more, company spokesperson Connor Spielmaker said.

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  • The evacuation order was lifted a week ago near the toxic train wreck in Ohio, but some aren’t comfortable going home | CNN

    The evacuation order was lifted a week ago near the toxic train wreck in Ohio, but some aren’t comfortable going home | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    An overwhelming stench of chlorine filled the air this week where Nathen Velez and his wife had been raising their two children, quickly burning his throat and eyes.

    The odor has lingered nearly two weeks after a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derailed near the Ohio-Pennsylvania line, igniting an inferno that burned for days and prompted evacuations in surrounding areas while crews managed detonations to release vinyl chloride, which can kill quickly at high levels and increase cancer risk.

    The stay-away order was lifted five days after the derailment, after air and water sample results led officials to deem the area safe, the East Palestine, Ohio, fire chief said at the time. Governors of both states that day said air quality samples had “consistently showed readings at points below safety screening levels for contaminants of concern” – but also advised private well users to opt for bottled water and offered free well testing.

    Now, a week after residents were allowed to return, bottled water should remain the rule until more test results are back, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told “CNN This Morning” on Wednesday, noting water in the first well tested “was fine.”

    Still, he said, “Don’t take a chance. Wait until you get the tests back.”

    As that warning echoes and other worrying signs emerge, many in East Palestine remain plagued with anxiety – and some refuse to return amid fears the water, air, soil and surfaces in the village of 5,000 are not safe from fallout from the freight wreck. Some, like Velez, even are spending small fortunes to try to keep their families safely away from the place they used to call home.

    Plaintiffs’ attorneys have invited residents to meet Wednesday afternoon to discuss the derailment’s impact ahead of an evening town hall meeting hosted by East Palestine officials.

    The 100-car freight train that derailed February 3 was carrying hazardous materials including vinyl chloride, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, isobutylene and butyl acrylate, the US Environmental Protection Agency said. Of those, the vinyl chloride gas that caught fire could break down into compounds including hydrogen chloride and phosgene, a chemical weapon used during World War I as a choking agent, according to the EPA and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Vinyl chloride – a volatile organic compound, or VOC, and the most toxic chemical involved in the derailment – is known to cause cancer, attacking the liver, and can also affect the brain, Maria Doa of the Environmental Defense Fund told CNN.

    Cleanup and monitoring of the site could take years, Kurt Kohler of the Ohio EPA’s Office of Emergency Response said February 8, vowing that after the emergency response, “Ohio EPA is going to remain involved through our other divisions that oversee the long-term cleanup of these kinds of spill.” The federal EPA, too, will “continue to do everything in our power to help protect the community,” Administrator Michael Regan said Tuesday.

    Norfolk Southern, the company that operated the train, said Wednesday it was creating a $1 million charitable fund to support East Palestine.

    “We are committed to East Palestine today and in the future,” Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan Shaw said in a statement. “We will be judged by our actions. We are cleaning up the site in an environmentally responsible way, reimbursing residents affected by the derailment, and working with members of the community to identify what is needed to help East Palestine recover and thrive.”

    But that’s slim consolation to Ben Ratner, whose family worries about longer-term risks that environmental officials are only beginning to assess, he told CNN this week.

    The Ratner home, for instance, was tested and cleared for VOCs, he said. And so far, no chemical detections were identified in the air of 291 homes screened by the EPA for hazardous chemicals including vinyl chloride and hydrogen chloride, it said in a Monday news update, with schools and a library also screened and 181 more homes to go.

    But the Ratners – who played extras in a Netflix disaster film with eerie similarities to the derailment crisis – still are feeling “an ever-changing mix of emotions and feelings just right from the outset, just the amount of unknown that was there,” said Ben, who owns a cafe a few towns over and isn’t sure he still wants to open another in East Palestine.

    “It’s hard to make an investment in something like that or even feel good about paying our mortgage whenever there might not be any value to those things in the future,” he said. “That’s something tough to come to grips with.”

    The Ratner family celebrates Halloween in 2022 their home in East Palestine, Ohio.

    The EPA, with the Ohio National Guard and a Norfolk Southern contractor, also has collected air samples – checking for vinyl chloride, hydrogen chloride, carbon monoxide, phosgene and other compounds – in the East Palestine community, it had said. Air monitoring results posted Tuesday at the EPA’s website include more than a dozen instruments, each with four types of measures – and each stating its “screening level” had not been exceeded.

    But when Velez returned Monday for a short visit to the neighborhood where his family has lived since 2014 to check his home and his business, he developed a nagging headache that, he said, stayed with him through the night – and left him with a nagging fear.

    “If it’s safe and habitable, then why does it hurt?” he told CNN. “Why does it hurt me to breathe?”

    Despite Velez’s experience, air quality does not appear to be the source of headaches and sore throats among people or deaths of animals such as cats and chickens in and around the derailment zone, Ohio Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said Tuesday.

    “In terms of some of the symptoms of headache, et cetera, unfortunately volatile organic compounds share, with a host of other things, the ability to cause very common symptoms at the lower levels – so headache, eye irritation, nose irritation, et cetera,” he said. “I think that we have to look at the measured facts – and the measured facts include the fact that the air sampling in that area really is not pointing toward an air source for this.”

    “Anecdotes are challenging because they’re anecdotes,” Vanderhoff said. “Everything that we’ve gathered thus far is really pointing toward very low measurements, if at all.”

    As to odor, residents “in the area and tens of miles away may smell odors coming from the site,” Ohio EPA spokesperson James Lee told CNN on Wednesday. “This is because some of the substances involved have a low odor threshold. This means people may smell these contaminants at levels much lower than what is considered hazardous.”

    “If you experience symptoms, Columbiana County Health Department recommends calling your medical provider,” the EPA said.

    The Ratner family is limiting its water use because of unknown affects, Ben Ratner said. And Velez worries “every time we turn the water on or give my daughter a bath could potentially be hazardous,” he wrote on Facebook.

    Some waterways indeed have been contaminated – but the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is confident contaminants are contained, said Tiffany Kavalec, the agency’s division chief of surface water.

    No vinyl chloride has been detected in any down-gradient waterways near the train derailment, she said Tuesday. But an estimated 3,500 fish across 12 species are estimated to have been killed by the derailment and spillage, said Mary Mertz, director of Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources.

    “Fire combustion chemicals” flowed to the Ohio River, “but the Ohio River is very large, and it’s a water body that’s able to dilute the pollutants pretty quickly,” Kavalec said. The chemicals are a “contaminant plume” the Ohio EPA and other agencies have tracked in real time and is believed to be moving about a mile an hour, she said.

    The “tracking allows for potential closing of drinking water intakes to allow the majority of the chemicals to pass. This strategy, along with drinking water treatment … are both effective at addressing these contaminants and helps ensure the safety of the drinking water supplies,” Kavalec said, adding they’re pretty confident “low levels” of contaminants that remain are not getting to customers.

    Even so, authorities strongly recommend people in the area drink bottled water, especially if their water is from a private source, such as a well.

    Velez also worries about unknown long-term effects of the burned train contents, he said.

    “My wife is a nurse and is not taking any chances exposing us and our two young children to whatever is now in our town,” he wrote on Facebook. “The risk and anxiety of trying to live in our own home again is not worth it.”

    Velez and his family have been Airbnb-hopping 30 minutes from their home since they evacuated, but rental options and their finances are running out, he said, and a friend set up a GoFundMe to help the family.

    “Unfortunately, many of us residents are stuck in the same situation and the sad truth is that there is no answer,” he wrote. “There is no viable solution other than to leave and pay a mortgage on a potentially worthless home.”

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  • Hazardous chemical spill from commercial truck crash has partially closed Interstate 10 in Tucson, Arizona | CNN

    Hazardous chemical spill from commercial truck crash has partially closed Interstate 10 in Tucson, Arizona | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A crash involving a commercial tractor truck hauling liquid nitric acid has led to evacuation orders as a hazardous spill prompted officials to close a portion of Interstate 10 in Tucson, Arizona, officials said.

    The interstate was shut down in both directions between Rita and Kolb roads Tuesday, and the “extensive closure” is expected to continue impacting the Wednesday morning commute, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said on its website.

    The driver of the truck died in the crash, the department said, without identifying the driver publicly.

    A shelter-in-place order that was in effect earlier was lifted Tuesday night, officials said. Meanwhile, the one-half-mile perimeter around the incident remains under an evacuation order through at least 6 a.m. Wednesday, officials noted.

    Nitric acid is a colorless liquid, has yellow or red fumes and acrid odor, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Exposure to it can cause irritation to the eyes, skin and mucous membrane.

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  • Shelter-in-place order lifted in Harris County, Texas, after anhydrous ammonia leak | CNN

    Shelter-in-place order lifted in Harris County, Texas, after anhydrous ammonia leak | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A shelter-in-place order has been lifted that was in effect for some Harris County, Texas, residents after an anhydrous ammonia leak Sunday, according to Harris County Public Health Department.

    The leak at a warehouse in Katy led authorities to ask nearby residents to stay indoors Sunday morning because of health risks.

    “If anyone is experiencing watery eyes, burning eyes, irritation of the nose or throat, difficulty breathing, we are asking that you proceed to the nearest emergency center to seek care,” Dr. Ericka Brown, director of Harris County Public Health’s community health and wellness division, said earlier Sunday.

    The county health department tweeted the areas affected by the shelter-in-place advisory.

    Anhydrous ammonia is a pungent gas with suffocating fumes that is used as a fertilizer, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Anhydrous means “without water.” If anhydrous ammonia combines with water in the human body, it can cause rapid dehydration and severe burns.

    “There is no antidote for ammonia toxicity,” the CDC’s website says.

    Symptoms of anhydrous ammonia exposure include breathing difficulty; irritation of the eyes, nose or throat; burns or blisters.

    Those who get anhydrous ammonia in the eyes should wash the eyes with large amounts of water for 15 minutes.

    Exposure to high concentrations of anhydrous ammonia can lead to death.

    As of Sunday morning, no injuries had been reported in connection with the leak, the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office tweeted.

    The cause of the leak was not immediately clear.

    CNN has reached out to the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office, the Texas Department of State Health Services and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office for more information.

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  • 5 derailed train cars carrying hazardous material at risk of exploding are no longer burning, official says | CNN

    5 derailed train cars carrying hazardous material at risk of exploding are no longer burning, official says | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Five train cars that contained vinyl chloride, a potentially explosive chemical, are no longer burning after a train derailment in Ohio, a Norfolk Southern official said Tuesday.

    The burning stopped after a controlled release of the unstable, toxic chemical Monday at the train derailment site in East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania border.

    Four of those five cars have been cleared from the wreckage, and crews are working to remove the fifth car, Norfolk Southern official Scott Deutsch said Tuesday.

    The train, which partially derailed Friday, had more than 100 cars. About 20 of those cars were carrying hazardous materials, said the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident.

    “There have been no reports of significant injuries – either in the initial derailment or in the controlled detonation last night,” Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson said Tuesday.

    But it’s not yet clear when residents who were ordered to evacuate can return home, East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick said Tuesday.

    “Once the Ohio Department of Health, the United States Environmental Protection Agency in conjunction with the East Palestine Fire Department and Norfolk Southern Railroad have determined that this is safe for East Palestine residents to return to their homes – and, quite frankly, once I feel safe for my family to return – we will lift that evacuation order and start returning people home,” Drabick said.

    Three days of anxiety about a potentially deadly explosion culminated in a loud boom Monday, when crews started the controlled release of vinyl chloride into a pit to burn it away.

    A large plume of black smoke shot up toward the sky and the operation went as planned.

    “The detonation went perfect,” Deutsch said. “We’re already to the point where the cars became safe. They were not safe prior to this.”

    Vinyl chloride is a man-made chemical used to make PVC and it burns easily at room temperature.

    It can cause dizziness, sleepiness and headaches; and has been linked to an increased risk of cancer in the liver, brain, lungs and blood.

    Breathing high levels of vinyl chloride can make someone pass out or die if they don’t get fresh air, the Ohio Department of Health said.

    The train derailment Friday led to a massive inferno and increased pressure inside the hot steel.

    By Sunday evening, the burning wreckage threatened a catastrophic explosion capable of spewing toxic fumes and firing shrapnel up to a mile away, officials said.

    Mandatory evacuations were ordered over several square miles straddling the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.

    After the breach, officials detected “slightly elevated” readings of the phosgene and hydrogen chloride in the burn area and “only one minor hit for the hydrogen chloride downwind of the burn area” within the exclusion zone, the EPA’s James Justice said Monday evening.

    Such readings were expected after the controlled release, Justice said.

    As for East Palestine’s water supply, no impacts to the waterway were detected as of Monday evening, an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency official said.

    A team will continue to monitor the air and water quality in the area, officials said.

    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who had also called for evacuations, said Monday evening that air and water quality is being monitored closely and no concerning readings had been detected so far.

    But he told Pennsylvanians who live within 2 miles of the East Palestine derailment to keep sheltering in place with their windows and doors closed Monday evening.

    Derailed train cars smoldered Monday in East Palestine, Ohio.

    The derailment has upended life in East Palestine, a village of about 5,000 people. Schools have been closed for the rest of the week, and some residents haven’t been home since the initial evacuation orders Friday.

    When the Norfolk Southern train crashed in East Palestine, about 10 of 20 cars carrying hazardous materials derailed.

    One rail car carrying vinyl chloride became a focus of concern when its malfunctioning safety valves prevented the release of the chemical inside, a Columbiana County Emergency Management Agency official said.

    That meant “the car’s just building pressure inside the steel shell, and that’s a problem,” Deutsch said Monday.

    But after the controlled release, “There’s no pressure now in the cars,” he said.

    On Monday afternoon, charges were used to blow small holes in each rail car, allowing the vinyl chloride to spill into a flare-lined trench.

    While the cause of the derailment remains under investigation, National Transportation Safety Board Member Michael Graham said Sunday that there was a mechanical failure warning before the crash.

    “The crew did receive an alarm from a wayside defect detector shortly before the derailment, indicating a mechanical issue,” Graham said. “Then an emergency brake application initiated.”

    Investigators also identified the point of derailment and found video showing “preliminary indications of mechanical issues” on one of the railcar axles, he said.

    The NTSB has requested records from Norfolk Southern and is investigating when the potential defect happened and the response from the train’s crew, which included an engineer, conductor and conductor trainee.

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  • A freight train derailment in Ohio puts US infrastructure back in a bruising spotlight | CNN Politics

    A freight train derailment in Ohio puts US infrastructure back in a bruising spotlight | CNN Politics

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    A version of this story appears in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.


    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    On the eve of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, American infrastructure is back in the worst kind of spotlight.

    The fiery derailment of train cars carrying hazardous chemicals on the eastern edge of Ohio has led to an evacuation zone across both Ohio and Pennsylvania.

    Five of the derailed train cars are carrying vinyl chloride – a chemical that is currently unstable and could explode, hurling toxic fumes into the air and shooting deadly shrapnel as far as a mile away, officials said.

    “There is a high probability of a toxic gas release and/or explosion,” Columbiana County Sheriff Brian McLaughlin warned. “Please, for your own safety, remove your families from danger.”

    The derailment is, of course, felt most acutely in the surrounding community, where residents who don’t evacuate face arrest. But the incident also highlights the exact kind of concern that led to a considerable investment in rail projects as part of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure law passed in late 2021.

    To better understand the derailment in Ohio, and how current or future legislation could help avoid similar situations, we turned to Najmedin Meshkati, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Southern California.

    Our conversation, conducted over the phone and lightly edited for flow and brevity, is below.

    Since the fire in Ohio is still burning, investigators haven’t been able to walk around the crash site.

    But officials have identified the point of derailment and found video showing “preliminary indications of mechanical issues” on one of the railcar axles. The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating when the potential defect happened and the response from the crew.

    LEBLANC: What are the investigators going to be looking into here?

    MESHKATI: This accident will be investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is an independent federal safety investigation organization. They do a very good job and thorough job, independently.

    They will look at this accident from an interdisciplinary standpoint. They’ll look for equipment failure, they’ll look for mental fatigue, the signaling electronics, and also they will look at the human factors and organizational safety culture.

    The other organization that most probably will do an investigation is the Federal Railroad Administration, which is a regulatory agency, part of the Department of Transportation.

    NTSB typically does an excellent job, and the FRA. Hopefully they will come up with some recommendations to proactively address this issue.

    LEBLANC: How often do these recommendations actually turn into new policies or guidance?

    MESHKATI: That’s an excellent question without an excellent answer.

    The National Transportation Safety Board, they issue a report at the end of the year. They have something which is called the “most wanted list” that they put their recommendations for safety improvement for railroads on based on accident investigations.

    And then it’s up to these different organizations or private sector regulatory agencies to implement recommendations. Again, NTSB doesn’t have enforcement power. They can make recommendations.

    Rail travel is recognized as the safest method of transporting hazardous materials in the US, according to the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration.

    “The vast majority of hazardous materials shipped by rail tank car every year arrive safely and without incident, and railroads generally have an outstanding record in moving shipments of hazardous materials safely,” FRA says on its website.

    LEBLANC: How common is it for freight trains to carry hazardous material? Is it unusual?

    MESHKATI: No. They do that, and they do it fairly safely. Unfortunately, this type of thing happens, but they’re preventable because these are the types of accidents, if it’s a derailment – the causes of derailment are fairly understandable.

    It could be due to the mental fatigue or the tracks or it could be the speed or not following the procedures.

    Passenger and freight rail received $66 billion in the sprawling bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2021. Implementation, however, will take years.

    LEBLANC: Once fully implemented, will the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package help prevent derailments similar to this one? Is there other legislation that could help?

    MESHKATI: I think money and funding is important, but what we need – this is my personal opinion based on my 38 years of research – what we need in the railroad industry is dedicated, committed leadership to safety.

    You can throw around as much money as much as you want. But see, here is the thing – technological systems are composed of three subsystems: a human subsystem, organizational subsystem and technological subsystem.

    And they are like the three links in a chain. A chain breaks at its weakest link. We can put all the money that we have on the technological subsystems, get the better tracks, get better computers, get better positive train control and everything.

    But what about the human and organizational subsystems? We need to give adequate attention to them. And that’s where a committed, informed leadership comes into play.

    When a freight train travels across the country, two people are in the cab of the locomotive working to keep the train, its often hazardous and flammable contents, and the communities they are passing through, all safe.

    Now the railroads are saying that, given today’s modern technology, just one person is enough. But the rail unions say single-person crews pose a tremendous safety risk, not just to the engineer working alone in the cab for hours on end, but to all the communities the trains pass through.

    LEBLANC: What are your thoughts on this proposal to staff freight trains with just one person?

    MESHKATI: I have studied this issue for many, many years.

    I’ve seen the disastrous impact that the consolidation and crew reduction could have on the safety of technological systems. This is something that we need to learn from other industries and just curb our irrational exuberance for this because the technology is available.

    Yes, there is an AI technology that can monitor the routine pattern.

    “That’s why we don’t need a human” – this is a very simple-minded, irrational exuberance.

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  • Residents not yet allowed to return to homes near site of fiery train derailment in Ohio | CNN

    Residents not yet allowed to return to homes near site of fiery train derailment in Ohio | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Residents of the Ohio village of East Palestine remain unable to return home after a controlled release Monday of a toxic chemical from cars that were part of a train derailment three days ago, Mayor Trent Conaway said during an evening news conference.

    An operation to drain vinyl chloride – a chemical that officials said was unstable and could explode – from five Norfolk Southern rail cars began just after 4:30 p.m. ET.

    Scott Deutsch of Norfolk Southern had earlier said small, shaped charges would be used to blow a small hole in each rail car. The vinyl chloride would then spill into a trench where flares would ignite and burn it away.

    As of 7 p.m., the flames were reduced and a small fire continues in the pit, Deutsch said at the news conference.

    It is “still an ongoing event so we just ask everybody to stay out,” the mayor said. “We have to wait to the fires die down.”

    An evacuation zone of 1 mile around the train’s crash site remains in place, Conaway said. Authorities will reassess the zone Tuesday morning, he added. “We really don’t have a time frame right now” for the return of residents, he said.

    A team from the Environmental Protection Agency will monitor the air and water quality in the area, officials said.

    The remaining fires will go out on their own and won’t be extinguished by crews, Deutsch said.

    The five cars from the train, which derailed in a fiery accident Friday, were hurling toxic fumes into the air and shooting deadly shrapnel as far as a mile away, officials said earlier.

    One rail car in particular had been a focus of concern because its malfunctioning safety valves had prevented the car from releasing the vinyl chloride inside, a Columbiana County Emergency Management Agency official and a Norfolk Southern spokesperson told CNN earlier Monday.

    Ahead of the controlled release, the evacuation zone surrounding the fiery derailment site expanded to two states, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said.

    DeWine and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro had ordered evacuations for a 1-mile-by-2-mile area surrounding East Palestine, a village of about 5,000 people near the Pennsylvania border, DeWine said.

    This followed evacuations that took place just after the massive inferno began Friday night.

    According to East Palestine resident Eric Whiting, police knocked on his door about an hour after the derailment and asked the family to evacuate.

    “They told me they didn’t know anything yet, but they just needed us to evacuate,” Whiting told CNN.

    Officials begged residents for several days to leave the area as fears about air and water quality have mounted.

    Mayor Conaway said Monday he was “proud of the citizens” as everyone cleared out when officials went door-to-door and there were no arrests.

    Here’s the latest on the ground:

    • Police shift communications hub: The scene was so dangerous by Monday morning that the East Palestine Police Department had evacuated a communications center for safety reasons, a spokesperson told CNN by phone Monday. “911 service will not be affected,” the department posted online.

    • Schools are closed: The East Palestine City School District will be closed for the rest of the week, citing a local state of emergency.

    • A mechanical issue was detected: The crew was alerted by an alarm shortly before the derailment “indicating a mechanical issue,” a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member said. An emergency brake was applied, but about 10 cars carrying hazardous materials derailed.

    Whiting, the East Palestine resident, said he, his wife and three children took nothing with them when they evacuated Friday.

    “We live right by the railroad, so we heard the train come to an abrupt stop. But by the time I got dressed to check out what was happening, I heard emergency vehicles rushing towards us,” Whiting told CNN on Monday.

    The family returned home Saturday and stayed overnight. But law enforcement officers knocked on the door Sunday morning telling them to leave due to the potential for an explosion.

    So, they packed up clothes for a few nights and, along with their dog, headed to a hotel 20 minutes away.

    An Ohio state trooper tells residents to evacuate Sunday in East Palestine, Ohio.

    “It’s difficult. I’m in a cheap motel because I’m afraid of how much they’ll be willing to reimburse me for. It’s hard to take my laptop out (to work) and focus when I’m worried about getting food for the family throughout the day,” Whiting said.

    He’s also worried what the environmental impact on East Palestine will be, he said.

    A “drastic change” was detected Sunday related to the vinyl chloride, Fire Chief Keith Drabick said.

    Breathing high levels of vinyl chloride can make someone pass out or die if they don’t get fresh air, the Ohio Department of Health said.

    The man-made chemical used to make PVC burns easily at room temperature; can cause dizziness, sleepiness and headaches; and has been linked to an increased risk of cancer in the liver, brain, lungs and blood.

    “If a water supply is contaminated, vinyl chloride can enter household air when the water is used for showering, cooking, or laundry,” the National Cancer Institute says.

    While air and water quality remained stable Sunday, “things can change at any moment,” James Justice of the EPA’s Emergency Response warned.

    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Vinyl chloride in water or soil evaporates rapidly if it is near the surface. Vinyl chloride in the air breaks down in a few days, resulting in the formation of several other chemicals including hydrochloric acid, formaldehyde, and carbon dioxide.”

    The agency also warns that liquid vinyl chloride that touches skin will numb it and produce redness and blisters.

    There was a mechanical failure warning before the crash, NTSB Member Michael Graham said Sunday. About 10 of 20 cars carrying hazardous materials – among more than 100 cars in all – derailed, the agency said.

    “The crew did receive an alarm from a wayside defect detector shortly before the derailment, indicating a mechanical issue,” Graham said. “Then an emergency brake application initiated.”

    Investigators also identified the point of derailment and found video showing “preliminary indications of mechanical issues” on one of the railcar axles, Graham said.

    NTSB is still investigating when the potential defect happened and the response from the crew, which included an engineer, conductor and conductor trainee, Graham added.

    Investigators have also requested records from Norfolk Southern, including track inspection records, locomotive and railcar inspections and maintenance records, train crew records and qualifications, Graham said.

    Rail travel is recognized as the safest method of transporting hazardous materials in the US, according to the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration.

    “The vast majority of hazardous materials shipped by rail tank car every year arrive safely and without incident, and railroads generally have an outstanding record in moving shipments of hazardous materials safely,” the administration said.

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  • 3M will stop making hazardous ‘forever chemicals’ starting in 2025 | CNN Business

    3M will stop making hazardous ‘forever chemicals’ starting in 2025 | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    3M, the conglomerate behind Post-It notes and Scotch tape, will stop making controversial per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) by the end of 2025.

    The chemicals, commonly known as “forever chemicals,” are found in hundreds of household items and used to make coatings and products that can repel water, grease, heat and oil. The most recent science suggests that these chemicals are much more hazardous to human health than scientists had initially thought and probably more dangerous at levels thousands of times lower than previously believed.

    In a statement Tuesday, 3M said its decision is “based on careful consideration and a thorough evaluation of the evolving external landscape,” acknowledging that regulations are cracking down on the chemicals.

    For example, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposal earlier this year to label “forever chemicals” as hazardous substances. California also announced a lawsuit recently to recoup the clean-up costs from PFAS.

    “While PFAS can be safely made and used, we also see an opportunity to lead in a rapidly evolving external regulatory and business landscape to make the greatest impact for those we serve,” said 3M CEO Mike Roman in a statement. “This action is another example of how we are positioning 3M for continued sustainable growth by optimizing our portfolio, innovating for our customers, and delivering long-term value for our shareholders.”

    The company expects to take a financial hit of about $1.3 billion to $2.3 billion over the next few years because of the PFAS discontinuation. Yet 3M

    (MMM)     said PFAS represents a “small portion” of its revenue.

    Over the past decade, chemical manufacturers have voluntarily stopped producing two of the most commonly used forever chemicals, including PFOS and PFOA.

    At the federal level, the US Food and Drug Administration phased out the use of certain PFAS chemicals in 2016. The FDA and manufacturers agreed in 2020 to phase out some PFAS chemicals from food packaging and other items that came into contact with food. However, FDA monitoring of the environment showed that the chemicals tend to linger.

    – CNN’s Jen Christensen contributed to this report.

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  • High levels of toxic chemical found in sports bras, watchdog warns | CNN Business

    High levels of toxic chemical found in sports bras, watchdog warns | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    New testing on a variety of popular branded sports bras and athletic wear has revealed high levels of BPA, a chemical compound that’s used to make certain types of plastic and can lead to harmful health effects such as asthma, cardiovascular disease and obesity.

    Sports bras sold by Athleta, PINK, Asics, The North Face, Brooks, All in Motion, Nike, and FILA were all tested for BPA in the past six months, and the results showed the clothing could expose wearers to up to 22 times the safe limit of BPA, based on standards set in California, according to the Center for Environmental Health. The CEH, which conducted the testing, is a non-profit consumer advocacy group focused on exposing the presence of toxic chemicals in consumer products.

    Under California law — specifically Proposition 65, enacted in 1986 — the maximum allowable dose level for BPA via skin exposure is 3 micrograms per day.

    The group also tested athletic shirts from brands that included The North Face, Brooks, Mizuno, Athleta, New Balance, and Reebok and found similar results.

    The CEH said Wednesday it has sent legal notices to the companies, which will have 60 days to work with the center to remedy the violations before the group files a complaint in California state court requiring them to do so.

    To date, the watchdog said its investigations have found BPA only in polyester-based clothing containing spandex. “We want brands to reformulate their products to remove all bisphenols including BPA. In the interim, we recommend limiting the time you spend in your activewear by changing after your workout,” the group said.

    Athleta, Nike, Reebok, The North Face and Victoria’s Secret (which owns PINK) did not immediately provide a comment.

    BPA (Bisphenol A) is found in a large number of everyday products, from water bottles and canned foods to toys and flooring. In adults, exposure to BPA has been linked to diabetes, heart disease, cancer, obesity and erectile dysfunction.

    Premature death was also associated with BPA exposure, a 2020 study found. More recently, BPA has also been linked to asthma in school-age girls.

    “People are exposed to BPA through ingestion, from eating food or drinking water from containers that have leached BPA, or by absorption through skin,” Kaya Allan Sugerman, CEH’s illegal toxic threats program director, said in a statement.

    “Studies have shown that BPA can be absorbed through skin and end up in the bloodstream after handling receipt paper for seconds or a few minutes at a time. Sports bras and athletic shirts are worn for hours at a time, and you are meant to sweat in them, so it is concerning to be finding such high levels of BPA in our clothing,” Allan Sugerman said.

    Over the past year, the group has asked more than 90 companies, including Walgreens and socks and sleepwear brand Hypnotic Hats, to reformulate their products to remove all bisphenols, including BPA. Some have already agreed to do so.

    “Even low levels of exposure [to BPA] during pregnancy have been associated with a variety of health problems in offspring,” said Dr. Jimena Díaz Leiva, science director with CEH.

    Although CEH litigates under California’s Clean Drinking Water and Toxics Enforcement Act of 1986, it says the repercussions of its settlements extend beyond California “as it is most often economically infeasible for companies to reformulate for just the California market.”

    “Our legal action has been successful in pushing entire industries to remove certain chemicals from products like children’s candy or toys,” the group said in a statement to CNN Business. “These cases not only serve to protect California consumers but also consumers throughout the country.”

    – CNN’s Sandee LaMotte contributed to this story

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  • Two very different points of view on nuclear energy in the US | CNN Politics

    Two very different points of view on nuclear energy in the US | CNN Politics

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    A version of this story appears in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.



    CNN
     — 

    Two distinct and unrelated stories this week convinced me it was a good moment to look at nuclear power in the US.

    Those developments, which might give anyone pause about the future of nuclear power, are counteracted by other headlines.

    The opening of a new nuclear plant in Georgia, for example, will bring carbon emission-free energy at exactly the time worldwide temperature records drive home the reality of climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

    Germany made the decision to decommission all of its nuclear plants after disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima. The last nuclear reactor there was taken offline earlier this year, a decision some might have regretted after Germany’s access to Russian natural gas was threatened by the war in Ukraine.

    Next door, France is the worldwide nuclear leader. Most of its electricity is generated by nuclear power.

    Russia, while it has been ostracized from the world economy in almost every way since its invasion of Ukraine, remains a major player in nuclear power. It enriches and sells uranium through its state-controlled nuclear energy company, Rosatom, which builds and operates plants around the world, according to a March report from CNN’s Clare Sebastian that explains why the West has largely left Russia’s nuclear power industry alone.

    But it is China that is moving the quickest toward nuclear power production, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

    As of 2022, about 18% of US electricity is generated by nuclear power, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Most large US nuclear reactors are old – averaging 40 years or more.

    In addition to the Georgia reactor coming online, a new reactor began operating in Tennessee in 2016. But otherwise, the US nuclear power portfolio is old, and much of it is in need of improvement.

    For an idea of the money and corruption that can revolve around energy production, look at the sentencing last week of Ohio’s former House Speaker Larry Householder to 20 years in prison for his involvement in a bribery scheme meant to get the utility company FirstEnergy Corp. a billion-dollar taxpayer bailout for two nuclear plants.

    The bipartisan infrastructure law signed by President Joe Biden in 2021 included a $6 billion program to provide grants to nuclear reactor owners or operators and stave off closing them.

    More than a dozen reactors have closed early in the US over the past decade, according to the Department of Energy. At least one reactor, the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, will be kept open after a more than $1 billion grant.

    Nuclear power – and how aggressively the US and other countries should be pursuing it – is a topic that splits scientists as well.

    I talked to one nuclear expert who said the US should be slow and methodical about nuclear power and another who argued there are multiple, public misperceptions about nuclear power that should be corrected.

    The more circumspect voice is Rodney Ewing, a Stanford University professor and expert on nuclear waste who was chairman of a federal review of nuclear waste procedures. I was put in touch with him by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which aims to “reduce man-made threats to our existence.”

    Despite his decades spent focused on nuclear issues, he said something I found remarkable:

    “I don’t have yet, although I’ve tried for years, a well-formed position for or against nuclear energy,” Ewing said.

    “Too often in the enthusiasm for nuclear energy, a carbon-free source of energy – and in the present situation of the issue of climate change, really a very important existential crisis – it’s easy to say, well, we’ll solve the problems later.”

    He said the issues with nuclear energy – from the potential for disaster to the issue of how to store nuclear waste – should be compared with the potential for renewable alternatives like solar and wind energy.

    The University of Illinois energy professor, David Ruzic – who has a lively YouTube channel, “Illinois EnergyProf,” with multiple videos meant to dispel concerns about nuclear energy – has a much more positive view of nuclear energy’s future.

    Illinois, by the way, generates more nuclear power than any other state. Lawmakers there recently voted to lift a moratorium on new reactor construction that was in place until the federal government can develop a technology for disposing of nuclear waste. That new policy must still be signed by the state’s governor.

    Ruzic argues nuclear waste takes up such little space it should simply be encased in yards of solid concrete and kept at the site of nuclear reactors. The concrete, he argued, can be repaired every 70 years or so as it degrades.

    “Over the 60 years we’ve been doing this commercially, we have learned so much about how to do it extremely safely and very well,” Ruzic said, arguing that the new plant in Georgia would not be affected by an earthquake and tidal wave in the way that Fukushima was, because the new reactor in Georgia is cooled by air in case of an emergency.

    He argued that even in Fukushima, it’s important to note that there were no deaths associated with the radiation due to the failure of the plant, although many thousands were evacuated.

    Any concern you can find to raise about nuclear power, Ruzic has a ready answer. He said no one should worry about the radioactive water Japan plans to release into the ocean from Fukushima because there is a level of radioactivity in everything already.

    “You are adding something trivial and inconsequential, which will be diluted even more,” Ruzic said.

    Even the Russia-Ukraine standoff over the Zaporizhzhia plant does not concern Ruzic; the biggest threat he sees, assuming it is not targeted by bunker-busting bombs, is that the plant ceases making electricity – not that it could turn into another Chernobyl.

    “It’s really unfortunate that it’s in the middle of a war zone. But it’s also really unfortunate that chemical plants or coal plants or other plants are in the middle of a war zone as well,” he argued.

    Both professors brought up the push toward small, modular nuclear technology for which there are numerous companies speculating there will be a major market. That market could grow exponentially if the government decides to put a tax on carbon emissions to account for the harm they cause.

    Ewing argued there is not a clear US national energy strategy, and that means numerous state and federal agencies and private companies are searching, often at odds with each other, for something new. The expense and difficulty of developing nuclear technology will be a roadblock. The new Georgia plant took more than a decade to build and came in over budget.

    Ruzic said that after the initial capital expenditure, the relative low cost of fuel for nuclear plants makes them a good, long-term investment.

    When I came back to Ewing about his comment that he has no clear preference for or against nuclear energy, he said the broad question overlooks too much.

    “The nuclear landscape is, from a technical and social point of view, complicated enough that broad general positions really don’t serve us very well,” he said.

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