French.china.org.cn | Updated on 06-03-2023
Contaminated soil from the site surrounding a train wreck in the US state of Ohio is being sent to a nearby incinerator with a history of clean air violations, raising concerns that the chemicals removed from the ground are redistributed throughout the region, reported the British newspaper The Guardian.
The report, released on Saturday, came a month after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, causing an environmental disaster of yet unknown proportions.
This new plan is “awful,” said Kyla Bennett, a former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official who is now part of the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and is cited in the report.
Soil burning is particularly risky, because some of the contaminants that locals and independent chemical experts fear are found in the waste. The chemicals, like dioxins and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), have not been tested by the EPA, and they do not readily incinerate, or cannot be incinerated, the report said.
The disposal of waste from East Palestine has raised new questions about the disposal of toxic substances, the report says.
The report also says that about 1.5 million gallons of sewage are injected into deep wells in the earth’s crust near Houston, adding that these deep wells can leak waste into groundwater.