East Palestine train crash: EPA tells Norfolk Southern to 'pause' cleanup amid contamination woes
EAST PALESTINE, OHIO: In order to prevent additional damage from the toxic waste, Federal Environmental Authorities have temporarily halted the shipment of wreckage from the location of the train disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, that occurred earlier this month. The Environmental Protection Agency instructs the rail company to "pause" while it reviews the proposed trash disposal methods near Houston and Detroit. Most of the polluted soil and water from the East Palestine railway disaster site will be sent to hazardous waste disposal sites between Houston and Detroit, increasing the possibility that some of the toxic substances will wind up in the environment elsewhere.
Debra Shore from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated on Saturday that the organization has instructed Norfolk Southern to "pause" shipments from the site but assured that material removal would start "very soon." The Guardian reported that according to Shore, the rail business was completely in charge of the waste's disposal up until Friday and provided Ohio environmental officials with a list of chosen and used disposal sites. Moving forward, she added, EPA inspection and approval would be required for disposal plans, including the sites and transportation paths for hazardous trash.
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What is the EPA saying?
According to Shore, authorities were examining "the transport of some of this waste over long distances and finding the appropriate permitted and certified sites to take the waste," after receiving complaints from inhabitants and others in some states. She assured the residents, "EPA will ensure that all waste is disposed of in a safe and lawful manner at EPA-certified facilities to prevent further release of hazardous substances and impacts to communities."
Residents and politicians in metro Houston were outraged this week when it was revealed where the contaminated water was heading because they are concerned for the safety of their communities. Bryan Parras, a member of the Sierra Club's Gulf Coast healthy communities program, questioned, "If some of these chemicals are so bad that the only way to get rid of them is to bury them in a deep hole, then why are we producing these chemicals in the first place?"
According to the EPA, the US Ecology landfill collects, treats, and stores toxic waste from all over the nation and such facilities are "carefully constructed units designed to protect groundwater and surface water resources."
Toxic waste that raises contamination concerns
On February 3, a Norfolk Southern train carrying vinyl chloride, a chemical used to make PVC plastic, derailed in a 4,700-person industrial town in Ohio's Appalachian Hills. The disposal of contaminated soil and water raises fresh concerns about the life cycle of dangerous substances as the garbage is sent to locations with a challenging history.
According to EPA tests, vinyl chloride, phosphene, benzene, and a variety of other volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, and particle matter have been found in the soil and water. According to independent public health specialists, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dioxins, and other potentially harmful pollutants are also probably present in the water and soil. But, despite requests to analyze those chemicals from them and Ohio's US senators, the EPA has thus far refused.
The soil was set to be dumped in a US Ecology landfill in Belleville, Michigan, which is between Ann Arbor and the outskirts of metro Detroit, two of the most populated areas in the state. The polluted water will be delivered to a Texas Molecular deep well injection station in Deer Park, which is in the same county as Houston, the fourth-most populated city in the US.
PFAs, a very dangerous class of chemicals commonly used in firefighting foam and likely used in East Palestine, is the contamination that is most likely to be discharged into the environment in Michigan in the coming years. It is also commonly used in various industrial items, and the railway tankers may have contained it.