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Tag: Ohio

  • 2/17: CBS News Weekender

    2/17: CBS News Weekender

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    2/17: CBS News Weekender – CBS News


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    Catherine Herridge reports on a deadly shooting in Mississippi, hears from Erin Brockovich on Ohio’s train derailment, and discusses the military operation that killed an ISIS leader.

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  • Opinion: This writer put her Ohio town on the map. Now it’s reeling from the rail disaster | CNN

    Opinion: This writer put her Ohio town on the map. Now it’s reeling from the rail disaster | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    One well-known resident of East Palestine, Ohio, is book author Judith A. Lennington, who has published nearly 20 works of fiction, almost all of which can be found, she says, in the town’s library.

    Lennington, 75, attended area schools from elementary to high school. And before striking out as a writer late in life, she worked for more than three decades in factories a stone’s throw from East Palestine. The community of nearly 5,000 is in northern Appalachia, about an hour from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and about 30 minutes from the Rust Belt city of Youngstown, Ohio.

    On February 3, a Norfolk Southern train carrying 20 cars of hazardous materials slid off the rails and caught fire, threatening to explode and prompting mass evacuations. State officials complied with the company’s request to intentionally burn off some of the chemicals at the site.

    East Palestine has been through difficult times over the years, as its population has dwindled and industry moved away. But residents say nothing as cataclysmic has befallen the town as the train derailment that emitted a noxious plume of smoke and put the future of the community in question.

    The derailment was just three miles from the farm where Lennington and her husband reside — far enough to avoid the evacuation that was ordered in parts of East Palestine, but well within range of the fumes. She spoke to CNN Opinion’s Stephanie Griffith about the disaster and its ongoing impact on her community.

    CNN: You live a few miles from the site of the derailment. What has been your personal experience of the initial disaster and its ongoing impact?

    Lennington: The railroad trains go right by here. We can see the train tracks from our house. They run right by my home to go into the center of East Palestine.

    The cloud that went up in the sky was like nothing I’ve ever seen in my life. It looked like a huge black cloud with a tornado coming down from it. It was just awful. After the accident, we put quilts over the doors and over the windows, sealed the cracks and just stayed inside.

    I can still smell it outside. Luckily the fumes are not strong here — the wind blows in the other direction — but I can, still, if I go from the house to the garage, I can feel my eyes burning. And I lose my voice after a while.

    I know a lot of the people in town who were evacuated. My sister was evacuated. She lives two blocks from the wreck. And there are a lot of people in town who already have health issues — and then this happens.

    CNN: You came to writing professionally later in life. How did that come about?

    Lennington: I worked for 38 years in a factory on an assembly line. The first factory I worked in made filing cabinets, desks and fireproof security boxes. I was a welder there. I met all kinds of people. I heard all kinds of stories and it was just when I retired, I was just kind of stuck.

    I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. My husband was still working and I was retired. So I just started writing the story for him. And he would come home every night and he would read maybe five or six pages that I wrote in my first book. And when it was done, he said, ‘Oh my gosh, you have to publish it.”

    I said, “You know I am not a college professor. I am a factory worker. I can’t publish a book.” But he said, “You have to.” So I sent the file on a Friday to I think four publishers, and Monday morning I got a call from a publisher.

    And after that, I was writing.

    CNN: You’ve lived in or near East Palestine all your life. Tell me what it’s like — and how it has changed over the years.

    Lennington: East Palestine used to be quite the community. I grew up on a farm (one town over) in Negley, Ohio. I first moved to East Palestine in 1967. At that time, there was so much industry in the town. There were little mom and pop stores. There was a skating rink.

    And then everything just left. Little by little, the shops closed down and then the industry started to go.

    And over time, people just started leaving. When their parents died, young people stayed behind. But there was no work around here, so they all just moved away.

    You know, there are no homeless people on our streets, no hypodermic needles lying about, and our citizens opened up their own independent businesses and have kept this community going. Every neighbor watches out for the next.

    It really breaks my heart to see the community going through this, because they feel like nobody’s really listening to them. There are so many people who are just so angry because they feel like they can’t trust anyone.

    CNN: And it appears that part of the growing mistrust is about a $1,000 “inconvenience payment” that some residents in East Palestine reportedly have been offered?

    Lennington: There was talk that if you went and you took the money then you’re not going to be able to get anything later down the road. And people were like, “Is this true? Do we believe this?”

    $1,000 is a lot of money to some people. But my sister for one, she didn’t go to a motel. There are people in town who don’t have credit cards. When they evacuate, they’re told they have to go to a motel. Well, the motel wants money upfront, you know, they don’t care what the railroads are telling you. And people in this town don’t always have that.

    CNN: In the wake of this disaster, how are you and other residents of this tiny community coping?

    Lennington: I think the more the media gets involved, the better it’ll be for the citizens. At least they’ll feel like their stories have been heard and they haven’t been just brushed under the rug.

    There are many rumors out there. You still can’t get down there. The roads are blocked. They won’t let you even get down that street.

    I know some people that don’t want to take their pets outside. They are afraid they’ll get in the grass — and that the grass will make them sick.

    Everyone’s scared. They had a normal life, then they’re told to grab what you can and get out now, which they did. And then they were told, well, you can go back and you’re on your own. You know, that’s not right. I think they (the rail company) owe these people something.

    I retired at 62, because I was afraid of the chemicals. I thought they were dangerous. And my husband did the same thing. My father lived here on the farm. When he got cancer, I came down here and stayed with him and started taking care of him. After he died, my husband and I decided to relocate here. We tried to keep everything chemical-free. And then we have this train wreck.

    They keep talking about how the waterways are clear, but the fish are dying. People say toxins have been found in the Ohio River as far as Weirton, West Virginia. That’s a lot of water that that toxins passed through to get to there and they’re still not gone.

    So I don’t know what’s going to happen. Is it safe to let your children go out and walk in that grass? Is it safe to let your pets go to the bathroom on the grass and then come back in your house? If your water is safe, what about those ponds where the train wreck is? There are little standing ponds on both sides of the tracks there. Did anybody check that water? We just don’t know.

    A week ago, we went for a ride through town before the accident on our way to the post office and we just took some side streets and we commented about how many homes in town were for sale. And that was before the accident.

    Now, what hope is there for those people selling those homes? And what if you are a person who worked like I did for 38 years in a factory, and you were going to sell your home as part of your retirement. What happens now?

    It’s just sad. And I don’t have the answers.

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  • White House defends response to toxic train derailment | Long Island Business News

    White House defends response to toxic train derailment | Long Island Business News

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    The Biden administration on Friday defended its response to a freight train derailment in Ohio that left toxic chemicals spilled or burned off, even as local leaders and members of Congress demanded that more be done.

    The administration said it has “mobilized a robust, multi-agency effort to support the people of East Palestine, Ohio,” since the Feb. 3 derailment. Michael Regan, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, visited the site Thursday, walking along a creek that still reeks of chemicals as he sought to reassure skeptical residents that the water is fit for drinking and the air safe to breathe.

    No other Cabinet member has visited the rural village, where about 5,000 people live near the Pennsylvania line. But administration officials insisted that their response has been immediate and effective.

    Within hours of the Norfolk Southern train derailment, the EPA deployed a team to East Palestine to support state and local emergency and environmental response efforts, the White House said. Officials from the Transportation Department also arrived to investigate what led to the derailment, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been coordinating with the state emergency operations center and other partners, the White House said.

    President Joe Biden has offered federal assistance to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, officials said.

    In response to a request from DeWine and Ohio’s congressional delegation, the Health and Human Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are sending a team of medical personnel and toxicologists to conduct public health testing and assessments.

    The team will support federal, state and local officials already on the ground to evaluate people who were exposed or potentially exposed to chemicals, officials said.

    Senior administration officials vowed to hold Norfolk Southern accountable. The company will be required to pay for cleanup of the spill and related fire under the federal Superfund law for cleanup of toxic sites, a senior administration official said.

    But the White House insisted that officials on a call with the media not be identified.

    Since the derailment, residents have complained about headaches and irritated eyes and finding their cars and lawns covered in soot. The hazardous chemicals that spilled from the train killed thousands of fish, and residents have talked about finding dying or sick pets and wildlife.

    Residents also are frustrated by what they say is incomplete and vague information about the lasting effects from the disaster, which prompted evacuations.

    Regan said Thursday that anyone who is fearful of being in their home should seek testing from the government.

    “People have been unnerved,” he said. “They’ve been asked to leave their homes.” He said that if he lived there, he would be willing to move his family back into the area as long as the testing shows it’s safe.

    Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said he was glad that Regan visited the site, but it was “unacceptable that it took nearly two weeks for a senior administration official to show up” in Ohio.

    He urged Biden, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and other officials to provide a complete picture of the damage done and “a comprehensive plan to ensure the community is supported in the weeks, months and years to come..’

    “It’s past time for those responsible to step up to the plate,” Manchin said.

    Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, who toured the site with Regan on Thursday, sent a letter Friday asking EPA to provide detailed information about the federal government’s response to the derailment, including the controlled burn conducted last week and testing plans for air and water quality.

    “The community must be able to trust their air, water, and soil is not a threat to their health following this train derailment,” Johnson said.

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  • Lawsuits piling up against Norfolk Southern after train derailment

    Lawsuits piling up against Norfolk Southern after train derailment

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    Lawsuits against Norfolk Southern are piling up nearly two weeks after a train derailed in eastern Ohio, releasing toxic chemicals and forcing thousands of locals to evacuate.

    On Wednesday, the plaintiffs’ law firm Morgan & Morgan filed a class-action suit in federal court in Ohio on behalf of two women living in East Palestine, near the derailment. The Ohio village of about 4,700 people sits near the Pennsylvania state line and about 50 miles west of Pittsburgh.

    “Norfolk Southern discharged more cancer-causing Vinyl Chloride into the environment in the course of a week than all industrial emitters combined did in the course of a year,” the suit alleges, claiming that the company chose to burn the vinyl chloride, turning it into a highly toxic gas, rather than disposing of it safely.

    “From chemicals that cause nausea and vomiting to a substance responsible for the majority of chemical warfare deaths during World War I, the people of East Palestine and the surrounding communities are facing an unprecedented array of threats to their health,” Morgan & Morgan attorneys said in a statement.

    The suit claims that “thousands of residents” in rural eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania could have been exposed to the toxins.

    At least six other lawsuits have been filed against the company claiming negligence and seeking payment for property damage, economic loss suffered by business owners and exposure to hazardous chemicals.

    Norfolk Southern was in the news again Thursday when one of its trains derailed in Van Buren Township, Michigan. Roughly 30 cars came off the track, including one containing liquid chlorine, but local public safety officials said on Facebook that there is no evidence of a chemical spill. State and local authorities are investigating, according to CBS News Detroit. 


    Norfolk Southern train derails in Van Buren Township

    02:14

    Town hall no-show

    Norfolk Southern representatives failed to appear at a town hall Wednesday night, citing “growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community.” The company announced this week it would create a $1 million fund to help the community recover, calling it a “down payment on our commitment to help rebuild.”

    Also on Wednesday, Ohio’s attorney general, Dave Yost, told Norfolk Southern his office is considering suing the rail operator, warning the company to preserve all information potentially relevant to legal action.

    “The pollution, which continues to contaminate the area around East Palestine, created a nuisance, damage to natural resources and caused environmental harm. Local residents and Ohio’s waters have been damaged as a result,” he wrote.

    Norfolk Southern declined to be interviewed. “We do not comment on pending litigation,” the company said.

    The company’s stock has fallen roughly 9% since the Feb. 3 derailment in Ohio. 


    Ohio officials say East Palestine water is safe to drink as residents complain of health issues

    04:19

    Derailment 

    On February 3, a freight train derailed in a fiery, mangled mess of nearly 50 cars on the outskirts of East Palestine. No one was injured, but officials seeking to avoid an uncontrolled blast had the area evacuated and opted to release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and black smoke billowing into the sky.

    The spilled contaminants affected more than 7 miles of the Ohio River, killing 3,500 fish, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. 

    There have been anecdotal reports that pets and livestock have been sickened, the Associated Press reported. No related animal deaths have been confirmed, state officials said. Such confirmation would require necropsies and lab work to determine a connection to the incident.

    So far, water and soil testing have not detected any contaminants, officials with the Environmental Protection Agency said in a press conference Thursday. However, the agency warns residents who rely on private drinking sources not to drink from private water wells until they’ve been tested by an independent consultant.

    Precision-focused railroading

    Officials are still unclear on the precise cause of the derailment, but suspect the cause is a mechanical issue with a rail car axle. The National Transportation Safety Board said it has video appearing to show a wheel bearing overheating just before the derailment. The NTSB said it expects to issue its preliminary report in about two weeks.

    The incident has drawn attention to precision-focused railroading, a management technique that workers say has made trains more dangerous and harder to handle. A recent Government Accountability Office report found that PSR resulted in a 28% cut in staff across the seven major commercial railroads. The number of derailments fluctuated, with Norfolk Southern reporting 2 derailments per million train miles over the past decade. 

    Employees of Norfolk Southern previously told CBS News the train broke down at least once on its route before derailing on February 3. The workers blamed the train’s size — 18,000 tons and 9,300 feet, or 1.8 miles long.

    “We shouldn’t be running trains that are 150 car lengths long,” one of the employees said. “In this case, had the train not been 18,000 tons, it’s very likely the effects of the derailment would have been mitigated.”

    A company spokesman told CBS News that the train’s distribution was “uniform throughout” and that the route previously held a longer, heavier train that was “split into two shorter, lighter trains in the past few months.”

    Railroad unions have for the past three years accused companies of cutting corners, stretching workers thin and rushing essential safety checks. 

    “Safety be damned”

    “They have made reductions anywhere they can make reductions,” Jared Cassity, an official with the SMART Transportation Division, which represents some Norfolk Southern workers, said on a recent podcast. “It’s ‘Safety be damned, let’s get the freight over the road.’ That’s the new approach.”

    Cassity said that training for new workers had been cut down from 18 weeks to six, and workers sometimes have just 90 seconds to conduct a safety inspection of an entire train car.

    Sen. Brown called out the rail company for giving out dividends and stock buybacks last year. “Their total buybacks and dividends are higher than their investment in rails,” he said Thursday.

    CBS News’ Michael Kaplan and The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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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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  • Health concerns grow after Ohio train derailment

    Health concerns grow after Ohio train derailment

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    Health concerns grow after Ohio train derailment – CBS News


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    Residents in East Palestine, Ohio, are demanding to know how safe they are in their homes after hazardous chemicals were released during a train derailment and fire. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator vowed to hold the rail operator accountable. Roxana Saberi has the latest.

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  • Lawsuits piling up against Norfolk Southern after train derailment

    Lawsuits piling up against Norfolk Southern after train derailment

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    Lawsuits against Norfolk Southern are piling up nearly two weeks after a train derailed in eastern Ohio, releasing toxic chemicals and forcing thousands of locals to evacuate.

    On Wednesday, the plaintiffs’ law firm Morgan & Morgan filed a class-action suit in federal court in Ohio on behalf of two women living in East Palestine, near the derailment. The Ohio village of about 4,700 people sits near the Pennsylvania state line and about 50 miles west of Pittsburgh.

    “Norfolk Southern discharged more cancer-causing Vinyl Chloride into the environment in the course of a week than all industrial emitters combined did in the course of a year,” the suit alleges, claiming that the company chose to burn the vinyl chloride, turning it into a highly toxic gas, rather than disposing of it safely.

    “From chemicals that cause nausea and vomiting to a substance responsible for the majority of chemical warfare deaths during World War I, the people of East Palestine and the surrounding communities are facing an unprecedented array of threats to their health,” Morgan & Morgan attorneys said in a statement.

    The suit claims that “thousands of residents” in rural eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania could have been exposed to the toxins.

    At least six other lawsuits have been filed against the company claiming negligence and seeking payment for property damage, economic loss suffered by business owners and exposure to hazardous chemicals.

    Town hall no-show

    Norfolk Southern representatives failed to appear at a town hall Wednesday night, citing “growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community.” The company announced this week it would create a $1 million fund to help the community recover, calling it a “down payment on our commitment to help rebuild.”

    Also on Wednesday, Ohio’s attorney general, Dave Yost, told Norfolk Southern his office is considering suing the rail operator, warning the company to preserve all information potentially relevant to legal action.

    “The pollution, which continues to contaminate the area around East Palestine, created a nuisance, damage to natural resources and caused environmental harm. Local residents and Ohio’s waters have been damaged as a result,” he wrote.

    Norfolk Southern declined to be interviewed. “We do not comment on pending litigation,” the company said.


    Ohio officials say East Palestine water is safe to drink as residents complain of health issues

    04:19

    Derailment 

    On February 3, a freight train derailed in a fiery, mangled mess of nearly 50 cars on the outskirts of East Palestine. No one was injured, but officials seeking to avoid an uncontrolled blast had the area evacuated and opted to release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and black smoke billowing into the sky.

    The spilled contaminants affected more than 7 miles of the Ohio River, killing 3,500 fish, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. 

    There have been anecdotal reports that pets and livestock have been sickened, the Associated Press reported. No related animal deaths have been confirmed, state officials said. Such confirmation would require necropsies and lab work to determine a connection to the incident.

    So far, water and soil testing have not detected any contaminants, officials with the Environmental Protection Agency said in a press conference Thursday. However, the agency warns residents who rely on private drinking sources not to drink from private water wells until they’ve been tested by an independent consultant.

    Precision-focused railroading

    Officials are still unclear on the precise cause of the derailment, but suspect the cause is a mechanical issue with a rail car axle. The National Transportation Safety Board said it has video appearing to show a wheel bearing overheating just before the derailment. The NTSB said it expects to issue its preliminary report in about two weeks.

    The incident has drawn attention to precision-focused railroading, a management technique that workers say has made trains more dangerous and harder to handle. A recent Government Accountability Office report found that PSR resulted in a 28% cut in staff across the seven major commercial railroads. The number of derailments fluctuated, with Norfolk Southern reporting 2 derailments per million train miles over the past decade. 

    Employees of Norfolk Southern previously told CBS News the train broke down at least once on its route before derailing on February 3. The workers blamed the train’s size — 18,000 tons and 9,300 feet, or 1.8 miles long.

    “We shouldn’t be running trains that are 150 car lengths long,” one of the employees said. “In this case, had the train not been 18,000 tons, it’s very likely the effects of the derailment would have been mitigated.”

    A company spokesman told CBS News that the train’s distribution was “uniform throughout” and that the route previously held a longer, heavier train that was “split into two shorter, lighter trains in the past few months.”

    Railroad unions have for the past three years accused companies of cutting corners, stretching workers thin and rushing essential safety checks. 

    “Safety be damned”

    “They have made reductions anywhere they can make reductions,” Jared Cassity, an official with the SMART Transportation Division, which represents some Norfolk Southern workers, said on a recent podcast. “It’s ‘Safety be damned, let’s get the freight over the road.’ That’s the new approach.”

    Cassity said that training for new workers had been cut down from 18 weeks to six, and workers sometimes have just 90 seconds to conduct a safety inspection of an entire train car.

    Sen. Brown called out the rail company for giving out dividends and stock buybacks last year. “Their total buybacks and dividends are higher than their investment in rails,” he said Thursday.

    CBS News’ Michael Kaplan and The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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  • East Palestine residents demand answers after rail derailment

    East Palestine residents demand answers after rail derailment

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    East Palestine residents demand answers after rail derailment – CBS News


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    Fallout from the Feb. 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, continues, as EPA administrator Michael Regan touches down for a visit to the area. While the train company has provided funds for victim relief, they opted not to attend a February 15 town hall citing a “growing physical threat” to their employees. CBS News correspondent Roxana Saberi reports.

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  • Train broke down days before derailing in Ohio

    Train broke down days before derailing in Ohio

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    Train broke down days before derailing in Ohio – CBS News


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    Employees working on the train were concerned about its weight and length before it derailed and burst into flames in Ohio, spewing toxic chemicals and forcing residents from their homes. Roxana Saberi reports.

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  • Railroad Giant To Skip Town Hall On Train Disaster, Citing ‘Physical Threats’

    Railroad Giant To Skip Town Hall On Train Disaster, Citing ‘Physical Threats’

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    Norfolk Southern Corporation, the railroad giant under fire following the fiery derailment of one of its freight trains in eastern Ohio, has backed out of a community town hall scheduled for Wednesday, citing a “growing physical threat” from “outside parties.”

    The announcement came approximately two hours before the scheduled event, as residents of East Palestine, Ohio, and surrounding communities search for answers about the disaster’s impacts on human health and the environment. The Norfolk Southern train that derailed on Feb. 3 was carrying toxic and flammable materials, including hundreds of thousands of pounds of vinyl chloride, a common organic chemical used in the production of plastics that has been linked to several types of cancer.

    The railroad operator said in a statement that it had hoped to participate in the town hall and share updated information, but decided against it in light of threats.

    “We know that many are rightfully angry and frustrated right now,” the company said. “Unfortunately, after consulting with community leaders, we have become increasingly concerned about the growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event stemming from the increasing likelihood of the participation of outside parties.”

    The company did not elaborate on the purported threats.

    Initially, the town hall would have allowed the public to ask questions of officials and the railroad, but the event was subsequently changed to “an open house with informational tables for residents,” WKBN-TV reported. It is unclear if that change was made because of Norfolk Southern’s decision to back out.

    In its statement, Norfolk Southern said it remains “committed to East Palestine.”

    “We want to continue our dialogue with the community and address their concerns, and our people will remain in East Palestine, respond to this situation, and meet with residents,” it said. “We are not going anywhere.”

    Two days after the accident, authorities ordered an urgent evacuation for everyone within one mile of the crash site due to the potential for “a catastrophic tanker failure which could cause an explosion with the potential of deadly shrapnel traveling up to a mile.” Officials eventually conducted what they described as a “controlled burn” of vinyl chloride in order to prevent a potential explosion.

    In a letter to the CEO of Norfolk Southern on Tuesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) accused the company of mismanaging the incident and said that “prioritizing an accelerated and arbitrary timeline to reopen the rail line injected unnecessary risk and created confusion.”

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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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  • Upset Ohio town residents seek answers over train derailment

    Upset Ohio town residents seek answers over train derailment

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    EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — Residents of the Ohio village upended by a freight train derailment packed a school gym on Wednesday to seek answers about whether they were safe from toxic chemicals that spilled or were burned off.

    Hundreds of worried people gathered to hear state officials tell them — as they did earlier in the day — that testing so far has shown local air is safe to breathe and to promise that safety testing of the air and water would continue.

    But residents had many questions over health hazards and they demanded more transparency from the railroad operator, Norfolk Southern, which did not attend the gathering, citing safety concerns for its staff.

    “They just danced around the questions a lot,” said Danielle Deal, who lives about three miles from the derailment site. “Norfolk needed to be here.”

    In a statement, Norfolk Southern said it was not attending Wednesday’s open house gathering with local, state and federal officials because of a “growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event.”

    Deal called that a “copout” and noted the seriousness of the incident.

    Deal and her two children left home to stay with her mother, 13 miles away “and we could still see the mushroom cloud, plain as day,” she said.

    Wednesday’s meeting came amid continuing concerns about the huge plumes of smoke, persisting odors, questions over potential threats to pets and wild animals, any potential impact on drinking water and what was happening with cleanup.

    Even as school resumed and trains were rolling again, people were worried.

    “Why are they being hush-hush?” Kathy Dyke said of the railroad. “They’re not out here supporting, they’re not out here answering questions. For three days we didn’t even know what was on the train.”

    “I have three grandbabies,” she said. “Are they going to grow up here in five years and have cancer? So those are all factors that play on my mind.”

    In and around East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania state line, residents said they wanted assistance navigating the financial help the railroad offered hundreds of families who evacuated, and they want to know whether it will be held responsible for what happened.

    Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost advised Norfolk Southern on Wednesday that his office is considering legal action against the rail operator.

    “The pollution, which continues to contaminate the area around East Palestine, created a nuisance, damage to natural resources and caused environmental harm,” Yost said in a letter to the company.

    The state’s Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that the latest tests show water from five wells supplying the village’s drinking water are free from contaminants. But the EPA also is recommending testing for private water wells because they are closer to the surface.

    The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates the spill affected more than seven miles (11.2 kilometers) of streams and killed some 3,500 fish, mostly small ones such as minnows and darters.

    There hadn’t been any confirmed deaths of other wildlife, including livestock, state officials said.

    Norfolk Southern announced Tuesday that it is creating a $1 million fund to help the community of some 4,700 people while continuing remediation work, including removing spilled contaminants from the ground and streams and monitoring air quality.

    It also will expand how many residents can be reimbursed for their evacuation costs, covering the entire village and surrounding area.

    “We will be judged by our actions,” Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan Shaw said in a statement. “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.”

    No one was injured when about 50 cars derailed in a fiery, mangled mess on the outskirts of East Palestine on Feb. 3. As fears grew about a potential explosion, officials seeking to avoid an uncontrolled blast had the area evacuated and opted to release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and black smoke billowing into the sky again.

    A mechanical issue with a rail car axle is suspected to be the cause of the derailment, and the National Transportation Safety Board said it has video appearing to show a wheel bearing overheating just beforehand. The NTSB said it expects its preliminary report in about two weeks.

    Misinformation and exaggerations spread online, and state and federal officials have repeatedly offered assurances that air monitoring hasn’t detected any remaining concerns. Even low levels of contaminants that aren’t considered hazardous can create lingering odors or symptoms such as headaches, Ohio’s health director said Tuesday.

    Precautions also are being taken to ensure contaminants that reached the Ohio River don’t make it into drinking water.

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  • Fact-checking the reporting of the explosion in East Palestine, Ohio

    Fact-checking the reporting of the explosion in East Palestine, Ohio

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    Five days after a Norfolk Southern train carrying vinyl chloride derailed and exploded near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, crews ignited a controlled burn of toxic chemicals to prevent a much more dangerous explosion. Local residents of East Palestine, Ohio are wondering whether returning to the area is really safe. In a report from television station WXBN in Youngstown, Ohio, it was disclosed that additional toxic chemicals have been discovered in the area. A comment made by Sil Caggiano, a hazardous materials specialist, was included in the WXBN report. Caggiano said that “We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open.”  The quote has been shared by thousands on social media. Christopher M. Reddy, a Senior Scientist at the Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution cautions that this statement may be hyperbole.

    “Do not let the ‘doom and gloom’ overwhelm you,” says Reddy. In response to the Caggiano’s “nuked a town” statement, Reddy says it is “totally irresponsible. A very different situation when perceived by the public.”

    Reddy’s comment on the reporting of the incident:

    I would caution that the outcomes and scenarios available on Wikipedia are often overgeneralized and lack nuance.  I don’t wish to downplay this accident at all. Very different situation. It is very hard to predict the short and long-term impacts of any chemical release with great certainty, but I don’t foresee with the knowledge in hand, significant long-term impacts. All of these chemicals are relatively short-lived and unlikely to persist for many months, and they have a low affinity to bioaccumulate in human and animal tissue.”

    Reddy recommends the following for local residents:

    1. Remain cautious
    2. Do not let the “doom and gloom” overwhelm you.
    3. Ask for the sampling plans. Have samples been collected? When? Where? What is the detection limit?
    4. Ask for laboratory results for the chemicals that were released and their breakdown products.  (Key point—the actual chemicals.) I cannot speak for the level of analyses being performed, but these are complex measurements. Certainly not the equivalent of pH paper.
    5. Seek information from reputable sources.

    Mark Jones, a retired industrial chemist has this to say…

    The chemicals, now four, are all dangerous in multiple ways. They can be acutely toxic, chronically toxic and they are all flammable. The controlled burn takes flammable materials to more benign materials. In the case of vinyl chloride, a product of combustion is hydrochloric acid, itself dangerous but not flammable.

    The comment about a “more dangerous explosion” is a bit misleading. There is a risk to those attempting to clean up the site if there is a reservoir of flammable material. Reducing that risk is one of the reasons to do a controlled burn. There are many ways to do a controlled burn and I don’t know exactly what was done here.

    Two of the materials, vinyl chloride and isobutylene, are quite volatile. Isobutylene handles approximately like butane, the stuff in a lighter. It is a liquid under just a little bit of pressure. Release the pressure and it becomes a gas. Vinyl chloride is similar. When released, both become a gas. They should not persist on the site. They should be swept away in the air.

    The other two materials, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether and ethylhexyl acrylate, are higher boiling liquids. Both are flammable. The controlled burn of these materials should destroy them and make only carbon dioxide and water.

     

     Note to Journalists/Editors: The expert quotes are free to use in your relevant articles on this topic. Please attribute them to their proper sources.

     

     

     

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  • Evacuation order lifted for residents near Ohio train derailment

    Evacuation order lifted for residents near Ohio train derailment

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    Officials on Wednesday informed residents they could return to their homes about five days after a toxic 50-car train derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border forced evacuations.

    Authorities made the announcement lifting the evacuation order at a press conference Wednesday evening in East Palestine, Ohio. East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick said that air and water samples determined that the evacuation area, which covered about a one-mile radius, was safe for residents. 

    “The evacuation order has been lifted, if you were asked to evacuate your residence due to the incident in East Palestine, you are permitted to return home. Please return in a safe and orderly manner,” Beaver County Emergency Services tweeted Wednesday. 

    On Feb. 3. about 50 cars derailed in East Palestine as a train was carrying a variety of freight from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, rail operator Norfolk Southern said. No injuries were reported. 

    On Feb. 4, officials issued evacuation orders to hundreds of nearby residents due to the release of toxic chemicals from five of the derailed tanker cars. On Feb. 5, authorities warned residents who had declined to evacuate to do so because of the danger of a potential explosion. 

    Crews slowly released vinyl chloride from the five rail cars into a trough that was then ignited, creating a large plume above the village of East Palestine. Authorities had been closely monitoring the air quality in the evacuation area.

    Environmental Protection Agency official James Justice told reporters Tuesday night that EPA investigators had so far been seeing “very few detections,” of dangerous chemical fumes. 

    “And the detections we have been seeing for the chemicals we’re monitoring for have been very low,” Justice said. 

    National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Railroad Administration are investigating the incident. 

    During Wednesday’s news conference, Evan Lambert, a Washington, D.C.-based correspondent for NewsNation, was arrested while doing a live shot in the back of the room. Lambert was pushed to the ground, cuffed and then arrested, video showed. 

    Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine commented on the incident during the news conference, saying Lambert had the right to do his job. 

    “That person had a right to be reporting,” DeWine told reporters. “They should have been allowed to report if they were in any way hampered from reporting that that certainly is is is wrong and it’s not anything that I approve, in fact I vehemently disapprove of it.”

    According to a statement from News Nation Bureau Chief Mike Viqueira, Lambert was being held in Columbiana County Jail and has been charged with criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct. 

    “First, Evan is safe and calm, and continues to act with professionalism and integrity that he brings to his work everyday,”Viqueira said. “As you see from the videos, he was doing his job — what hundreds of journalist do without incident — reporting to the public on a matter of urgent, critical interest to our audience.”

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  • Evacuees frustrated after toxic train derailment

    Evacuees frustrated after toxic train derailment

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    Evacuees frustrated after toxic train derailment – CBS News


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    The area around a toxic train derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border is still not safe for residents to return home. Frustration is growing from residents who say there’s a lack of communication. Roxana Saberi has the latest.

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  • Residents near the Ohio train derailment can’t return home, officials say

    Residents near the Ohio train derailment can’t return home, officials say

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    Evacuees frustrated after toxic train derailment


    Evacuees frustrated after toxic train derailment

    02:09

    Residents from the Ohio village of East Palestine — close to where a train derailed on Friday — say they’re nervous about returning home, even after an emergency evacuation order is lifted. Some even said they may never return. 

    Jami Cozza told CBS News that she was worried that her family won’t be able to live in East Palestine anymore for their own safety. 

    “I think I owe that to my daughter,” she said. “No matter how much I want to stay.”

    For residents of East Palestine that do want to return, they were still waiting for the all-clear from officials, as contractors continued to release toxic chemicals from the crash site on Tuesday.

    In a Tuesday afternoon press conference, officials said they don’t know when residents will be able to return to their homes.

    “I want nothing more than to get my residents back home,” East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick said.

    Train Derailment Ohio
    A black plume and fireball rise over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed trains.

    Gene J. Puskar via AP


    Evacuation orders were issued Sunday ahead of a possible explosion where a train of about 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Officials urged those in neighboring Beaver County, Pennsylvania, to stay indoors as a precaution. Officials in neighboring counties said air samples did not show any worrisome levels of contaminates.

    Contractors are continuing environmental remediation efforts, officials said. As of this afternoon, several cars have been cleared from the wreckage, and teams are continuing to clear the site. Four of the cars have been cleared, and they were working to get the fifth car clear, said Scott Deutsch of Norfolk Southern at the press conference. Then, those cars will be inspected by the National Transportation Safety Board before being cut up and removed.

    Federal investigators said a mechanical issue with a rail car axle caused the derailment.

    Roxana Saberi contributed to this report.  


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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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  • Authorities successfully release toxic chemicals from derailed train in Ohio

    Authorities successfully release toxic chemicals from derailed train in Ohio

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    Authorities successfully release toxic chemicals from derailed train in Ohio – CBS News


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    Authorities in East Palestine, Ohio, successfully conducted a controlled release of toxic chemicals in several derailed train cars. Roxanna Saberi reports.

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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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    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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