The East Palestine, Ohio, Evacuation Area after a Derailed Tanker Cargo: Response to an ODOT-Birthday’s Emergency
The residents of East Palestine, Ohio have been encouraged to return home after a train wreck and controlled explosion. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about how the train derailed and what the long-term effects could be.
Authorities in East Palestine had warned that burning vinyl chloride that was in five of the derailed tanker cars would send hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosgene into the air. They said that air monitoring didn’t detect dangerous levels inside or outside of the mile-radius evacuation zone. Drabick said air and water samples taken Tuesday from the evacuation area show it’s now safe, and the evacuation order is lifted. He thanked state and federal officials and agencies that helped with the emergency response over the past few days.
James Justice said around-the-clock air monitoring has shown average levels of pollution. There are hundreds of data points that show the air quality in the town is safe.
There is a robust air monitoring system in place and the data shows that there is nothing to worry about. During the controlled burn at the site, monitors did find toxins in the air, but other samples outside the area did not.
Many nearby residents left shortly after the derailment, and others were ordered out before the controlled release of the chemicals because of concerns about serious health risks from it.
The commander of the Ohio National Guard previously said that members wearing protective gear would take readings inside homes, basements and businesses as officials aimed to ensure the air was safe before lifting the evacuation order.
Environmental Protection Agency and Norfolk Southern Public Works Investigation of a 1994-2005 Rail Car Collision on the East Palestine Highway in Eleven Days
About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed in a fiery crash Friday night on the edge of East Palestine. The federal investigators think a mechanical issue with a rail car is to blame for the incident.
Business owners and East Palestine residents have filed suits against Norfolk Southern for being negligent and demanding court-supervised medical screenings for serious illnesses that could be caused by exposure to those chemicals.
The agency’s website says railroad accidents that resulted in hazardous materials being released caused just 14 deaths from 1994 to 2005, while 116 deaths resulted from hazardous materials spilling after highway accidents in the same time period.
The evacuation order was lifted on Wednesday and since then, there have been a growing number of reports about people experiencing a burning sensation in their eyes, animals falling ill and a strong odor lingering in the town.
The Environmental Protection Agency, which has been monitoring the air quality, said it has not detected “any levels of concern” in East Palestine as of Sunday.
The agency added that vinyl chloride and hydrogen chloride have not been detected in the 291 homes that have been screened as of Monday. The voluntary indoor air screening program has left181 homes to be evaluated.
Of particular concern is the vinyl chloride, which was loaded on five cars — a carcinogen that becomes a gas at room temperature. It’s used to make a type of plastic known as polyvinylchloride which is used for pipes, wire and cable and car parts.
When vinyl chloride is exposed in the environment, it breaks down from sunlight within a few days and changes into other chemicals such as formaldehyde. When it is spilled in soil or surface water, the chemical evaporates into the air quickly, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
The EPA has been monitoring for several other hazardous chemicals, including phosgene and hydrogen chloride, which are released by burning vinyl chloride. Exposure to phosgene can cause eye irritation, dry burning throat and vomiting; while hydrogen chloride can irritate the skin, nose, eyes and throat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Investigative Investigation of a Chemically-Bound, High-Hazard Material, Nuclear-Positive Railroad
“Now that we are entering into a longer term phase of this, people are going to be concerned about the long-term chronic exposure that comes at lower levels,” said Karen Dannemiller, a professor at The Ohio State University who studies indoor air quality.
She added that indoor spaces can be an important point of exposure, which is why she urges East Palestine residents to take part in EPA’s at-home air screening.
Dannemiller recommends residents to wipe down surfaces, especially areas that collect dust, and wash items that absorb smells, such as bed sheets and curtains. She also advises vacuuming carefully in short bursts to try to prevent contaminants from moving into the air.
The National Transport Safety Board said in a statement that a video shows what appears to be a wheel bearing in the last stage of failure moments before the train derailed.
The wheelset will be examined as part of the investigation. Investigators will return to complete an examination of the tank cars once they are fully decontaminated, the NTSB said.
The video from two local businesses that showed flames from the train prior to the crash is among the videos the board is looking at.
The wreckage burned for days as authorities worried about the possibility of a widespread, deadly explosion. But crews managed controlled detonations to release the chemical, which can kill quickly at high levels and increase cancer risk. The hazardous substance spilled into a trench, where it was burned away.
The governor told reporters that the train was not considered to be a high hazardous material train, despite being told by the public utilities commission.
Environmental teams are aerating the water near the site of the train crash and no vinyl chloride has been detected in any of the water.
A number of different things have been done to contain the pollution from the chemical spill. There are oil containment booms in waterways and aerated contaminated soil.
The Ohio River is large, and it has a water body that is able to absorb pollutants very quickly.
The chemicals are a “contaminant plume” that the Ohio EPA and other agencies have been tracking in real time. Kavalec said that it was moving about a mile an hour.
Most of the chemicals can be passed by the closed drinking water intakes because of the tracking. 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 that they’re pretty confident that the “low levels” of contaminants that remain are not getting passed onto customers.
It is recommended that people use bottled water for their drinking if the water comes from a private source.
The Ohio spill-water spill: the real problem is in the risk of explosion and derailment for natural gas, not natural gas,” said Mertz
Mary Mertz, director of Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources, said about 3,500 fish had died in Ohio’s waterways following the spill.
Initial testing and sampling by the state agency resulted in an estimation of the dead fish. There does not appear to have been an increase in the number of fish killed since the first couple of days following the derailment.
Some of the pits of dirt that have been dug up measure about 700 feet long and 8 feet deep, Kurt Kollar, the on-scene coordinator for the Ohio EPA’s Office of Emergency Response, said.
Some East Palestine residents have complained that the controlled explosion has caused symptoms such as headaches, sore throat, and nose and eye irritation. The state health director said that the air quality was not to be blamed for the deaths of animals near the train wreck.
“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.”
America’s railroads move a lot of chemicals. The Association of American Railroads said freight trains moved 2 million carloads of chemicals in the year 2020.
“It’s the mode of transportation that’s capable of moving bulk quantities,” Federal Rail Administration spokesperson Warren Flatau told CNN. “These commodities cannot be moved by pipeline; the alternative is moving them by truck over the highways, which is not looked upon favorably.”
However, the USA Today analysis found that other forms of transportation are much more leak-prone: “for every rail leak reported last year, there were two involving planes and 67 on highways.”
“The real issue is the risk of derailment and explosion,” Kimberly Garrett, a researcher and PFAS expert at Northeastern University. Natural gas would be very destructive if it were to go down.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency: Air, Soil and Water Tests after the Decay of the Staggered Coalescence in the AK Rail Cars
Since the controlled explosion of the chemicals in the rail cars, officials at the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency have been conducting air, soil and water tests.
Whelton told CNN the EPA should also continue to monitor semi-volatile organic compounds, which are more persistent and detected in local waterways after the derailment.
Whelton said that they don’t go in the air as easily because of their size. They like soils and other materials. The question is, how contaminated is the creek and what will they do to remediate that?”
Reports of dead animals have not yet been confirmed by officials. There is no evidence that any non-aquatic species have been affected by the spill, according to the director of Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources.
Kurt Kollar said crews had excavated and removed nearly 500 cubic yards of vinylchloride-impacted material. The EPA is also blocking off ditches around the contaminated dirt so that it doesn’t contaminate more water.
Kavalec said that it is important for water treatment facilities to remove low levels of volatile organic compounds in the water, so that the water will eventually be safe to drink.
PFAS is typically found on non-stick pans and in some firefighting foams. The EPA said Tuesday that they had not tested the water for the harmful compounds yet but would do so soon.