Ten days after the disaster, they are still unable to determine the ecological consequences of the derailment of a train cargo carrying toxic materials in Ohio rural.
About 50 train cars derailed on February 3 in the small town of East Palestine, including about 20 cars carrying dangerous substances.
No one died after a broken axle sent the Norfolk Southern train off the tracks, investigators reported. More than 2,000 residents were evacuated due to health problems from the chemical leak, but have since been allowed to return.
Some of the crashed cars were carrying toxic chemicals (vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate, and ethylene glycol monobutyl ether) that were released into the air, soil, and surface waters.
Crews intentionally broke up five vinyl chloride tank cars and diverted the substance into a dug trench. A controlled detonation was then carried out to prevent an explosion, during which noxious black clouds billowing into the area were ejected. One of the substances released was phosgene, a gas used as a chemical weapon in World War I.
Norfolk Southern reported last week that environmental remediation work was ongoing, along with air, soil and water monitoring in coordination with state and federal agencies. Regulators have said that, so far, air quality remains safe and drinking water supplies have not been affected in surrounding communities.
But in the ten days since the disaster, several worrying reports have surfaced. Some residents have reported headaches and nausea, Associated Press reported.
East Palestine resident Melissa Henry told the AP that she had taken her two children to their parents’ home outside the evacuation zone after her youngest son’s eyes turned red as tomatoes and he coughed profusely.
She noted that since she returned home, she had been doing laundry, cleaning, and changing filters in the furnace.
“I don’t know if that will work, but we have to do something,” he said.
Vinyl chloride, or vinyl, used to make plastic pipes, cables and packaging, is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer (hepatic angiosarcoma), along with primary liver cancer, brain cancer and lung, lymphoma and leukemia, reports Cancer.gov.
A resident of the city of North Lima, about ten miles (16 km) from the train derailment, reported that her six chickens died in the days after the explosion.
“My video camera footage shows that my chickens were perfectly fine before they started the burn, and as soon as they started the burning, my chickens went torpid and died,” Amanda Breshears told the local television station. WKBN27.
It was not the only report of sick animals. Taylor Holzer, a registered fox keeper who lives outside the evacuation perimeter, told WKBN that all his foxes got sick and one died. Dead fish were also observed floating in local streams.
A legal notice that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) The American sent to the train operator contained more details about the contamination.
Hazardous materials were found in samples taken from several waterways in the area: Sulfur Run, Leslie Run, Bull Creek, North Fork Little Beaver Creek, Little Beaver Creek, and the Ohio River.
Materials related to the incident were also observed entering storm drains, the EPA noted. The agency noted that areas of contaminated soil and free liquids were observed and possibly covered or filled during the reconstruction of the railway.
Environmental activist Erin Brockovich criticized the EPA and state legislators for telling people it was safe to return home while at the same time sending a legal notice to the rail operator about the threat of environmental contamination.
“This is why people don’t trust the government,” Brockovich tweeted Monday.
“You can’t tell people that there have been and are still dangerous pollutants polluting the environment and at the same time say ‘everything is fine.'”
A water company in the neighboring state of Virginia Occidental it said Sunday it would take precautionary measures for its water supply.
West Virginia American Water said there have been no changes to its intake from the Ohio River, but that the utility would establish a secondary source on the tributary, the Guyandotte River.
A lawsuit was filed last week against Norfolk Southern, seeking unspecified damages and to require the railroad company to pay for medical exams and related care for residents within a 30-mile (48 km) radius of the explosion. train.
The derailment also raised questions about the frequent use of rail transport to move large quantities of toxic and dangerous substances in the vicinity of communities.
Rail unions believe the industry has become riskier in recent years after widespread job cuts left workers scattered, it reported. AP. Hazardous materials make up about 7-8% of the 30 million shipments that railroads deliver across the country each year.
“It raises all kinds of questions,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told Fox & Friends when asked if the materials are too dangerous to transport by rail.
“We’ve seen it up close in recent days,” Governor DeWine said. “It’s a big, big problem.”
On July 6, 2013, a 73-car freight train derailed in the center of the city of Lac-Mégantic in Quebec, Canada, which caused a large explosion. Some 47 people were killed and about half the city burned down.
In February 2020, a landslide in Kentucky caused a freight train carrying ethanol to derail, sparking a fire and a chemical leak into a river. A 2005 derailment in Graniteville, South Carolinaleft nine dead and more than 250 injured after the release of toxic chlorine gases.
Translation of Michelle Padilla