What happened?
It all started on February 3rd. 38 cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying 141 loaded cars with mostly unidentified substances. We do know that 20 were carrying hazardous materials, including chloroethene (vinyl chloride), butyl acrylate, 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, isobutylene, combustible liquids and benzene residue. 38 cars of this freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, and burned for over two days, prompting an evacuation of all residents within a one mile radius of the incident.
The train may have been heading from Lake Erie to Cleveland amidst a routine run from Madison, Illinois to Conway, Pennsylvania. The journey is a 613-mile straight shot that takes it east to a rail yard in Conway, which is located in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.
The train had a malfunctioning axle, according to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
At 8:12 p.m. Feb. 3, a camera at Butech Bliss showed the bottom of one freight car glowing brightly as it passed by, the paper reported. A minute later and about a mile east, a camera at a meat processing plant captured an axle aflame. It is likely that this defunct axle ultimately caused the train derailment.
What does it mean?
Two major environmental impacts of train derailments like this one and subsequent ones that drew government attention are air quality and groundwater health. The Environmental Protection Agency has said it has not detected any “levels of concern” of hazardous substances released during or after the crash, though the agency is continuing to monitor the air throughout East Palestine, including inside at least 210 homes.
But the chemical spill saw substances running into storm drains and important water sources, including nearby stream Sulphur run, Leslie Run, Bull Creek, North Fork Little Beaver Creek and the Ohio River. According to the Ohio EPA, the Sulphur Run stream was the body of water most impacted by the derailment because of an “impoundment” on Feb. 8 when officials rerouted the water with the damming and pumps. Environmental teams dammed a portion of Sulphur Run and rerouted it to protect water downstream, leaving an empty creek bed between the two sides of the river that runs through the site of the train derailment. Teams will treat contaminated water with booms, aeration and carbon filtration units, and redirect contaminated water or runoff from the west side into the dry creek bed. Clean water will bypass the area of derailment and enter the east side of the creek bed. However, just over a week ago, a heavy rain storm overflooded a pool that was actively collecting water in order to contain the storm. Vacuum trucks were used to pull up the released water in an attempt to control the runoff in the derailment area. According to a public information officer for the Ohio EPA, Mary McCarron assures people that no visible waste was released into nearby streams. Overall, this has still been a major disaster, with a total of 942,000 gallons of contaminants and contaminated liquid removed from the immediate site. It is estimated that 110,000 gallons of contaminants at the site are actively being disposed of. Wildlife is not safe either, with wildlife officials estimating that the chemical spill has killed more than 43,000 aquatic animals including fish, frogs and crayfish.
Toxicology, testing and surveillance are a few methods to convey information to residents who want to know everything that was on the train and the extent of the chemical makeup of the spill, including how much potential contamination has pervaded the soil, groundwater and air. East Palestine is a small community, with a population of 4,761 according to a 2020 census, and its civilians, a healthy amount of low-income families, are worried about the safety of their community and focus on collecting enough bottled water, bathing their children and continuing their daily routines.
Chemical poisoning is a fear that keeps residents of East Palestine feeling unsafe. Because of the low odor threshold of the toxic chemicals involved in the spill, odors at nontoxic levels are a nonconcern on the federal level. However, residents report a significant scent of chemicals, visual reminders of the spill in surface water of streams, and a panic involving children showing bronchitis-like coughs, runny noses and headaches among other symptoms.
Now, we don’t know exactly the extent of hazardous materials the train was carrying, but we do know there were at least five tanker cars of vinyl chloride, a colorless but hazardous and carcinogenic gas used to produce PVC plastic and vinyl products. After the incident, a state health clinic sent to East Palestine weeks after the spill at first offered only questionnaires and did not have a doctor on hand. Local primary care physicians, booked for weeks, say that without more toxicology data, they aren’t equipped to diagnose chemical poisoning, so they are simply treating symptoms with ibuprofen and ointment.
Additionally, the E.P.A. can only monitor for only a limited list of contaminants in the environment, and even with approval, the bureaucratic process of validating and deploying each of the assays could take years. Due to the nature of chemical spills, effects on soil and groundwater are not measurably consistent and can change over time as chemicals in the air seep down into the soil and municipal water sources. After water becomes diluted over time and the chemicals diffuse, toxin levels may fall below regulation levels and offer the illusion of cleanness.
All in all, the effects of the series of train disasters in Ohio, including this highly profiled East Palestine crisis, remain to be measured over what could span several years. As the spring season continues, the recent cultural memory will fade, and news coverage will subside, but locals and their perceptions of risk and safety in their own communities will perhaps never be the same. Or maybe it will be, trust can be reestablished and generations can continue to call East Palestine, Ohio home, but it’s certainly not going to happen overnight.