The site of an Ohio train wreck has been contaminated with soil and liquid

The Charge of Coalescing in the Vicinity of the Collision at the Los Alamos Explosion Site: Nathen Velez, 46, and his wife

An overwhelming stench of chlorine filled the air this week where Nathen Velez and his wife had been raising their two children, quickly burning his throat and eyes.

No one was injured when 38 Norfolk Southern cars derailed in a fiery, mangled mess on the outskirts of town, but as fears grew about a potential explosion due to hazardous chemicals in five of the rail cars, officials evacuated the area. They later opted to release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from the tanker cars, sending flames and black smoke billowing into the sky again.

The village of 5000 has been evacuated but some residents are still unwilling to return because of concerns over the water, air and soil.

And on Wednesday, Norfolk Southern officials announced they would no longer take part in a community meeting scheduled that evening about the situation, citing threats to employees.

“We have become increasingly concerned about the growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event stemming from the increasing likelihood of the participation of outside parties,” the company said in a release.

The company officials were supposed to be with local leaders on Wednesday evening to provide an update about the steps they have taken to clean up the accident site and the latest results from ongoing water and air testing.

The community meeting is expected to go forward on Wednesday, and residents were invited to meet with their attorneys to discuss the impact of the train wreck.

Is it still okay to be here? Is my kids well protected? Are the people safe? Is this community a safe place to live? Glavan told the reporters at the meeting. “We all know the severity of that question, and what’s at stake. Some people think they are being downplaying, some people think they are not.

“My wife is a nurse and is not taking any chances exposing us and our two young children to whatever is now in our town,” Velez wrote on Facebook. It’s not worth the risk to try to live in our own home again.

Long-Term Clean-Up of a Public, Contaminated Railroad Site in East Palestine: The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Revisited

Still, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency encourages residents who get water from private wells to get those wells tested, because those wells may be closer to the surface than the municipal wells, the governor’s office said.

The area was deemed to be safe after air and water samples came back clean, and the order to evacuate was lifted five days later.

A spokesperson for the company said “some soil is moved around” during the initial response phase. The company is continuing to “remediate the site” including by removing soil, spokesperson Connor Spielmaker added.

No one was injured when about 50 cars derailed in a fiery, mangled mess on the outskirts of East Palestine on Feb. 3. The area was evacuated and five rail cars were set ablaze, sending flames and black smoke into the sky as officials tried to avoid an explosion.

The process of cleaning up is typically slow by the EPA. The process is subject to negotiation with the party responsible for the clean up. “Even just deciding on the remedy of what we’re going to do with the site can sometimes take three to five years,” Sachs said.

In a document sent to the EPA and recently made public by the agency, a company contracted by Norfolk Southern for cleanup efforts did not list soil removal among completed activities.

“Contaminated soil will continue (to) leech contaminants, both up into the air, and down into the surrounding ground,” Richard Peltier, an environmental health scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, told CNN in an email. “Every time it rains, a flood of new contaminants will enter the ecosystem.”

“From day one I’ve made the commitment that Norfolk Southern is going to remediate the site,” Shaw told CNN Tuesday. We will do it with continuous long term air and water monitoring. We want to help the residents of this community recover, we want to invest in the long-term health of this community and we want to make Norfolk Southern a safer railroad.

Ben Ratner and his family worry about the long-term air quality of East Palestine, as measured by the EPA and the 52nd Civil Support Team

East Palestine resident Ben Ratner and his family worry about the longer-term risks that environmental officials are only beginning to assess, he told CNN this week.

The Ratner home was tested and cleared to live in. And so far, no chemical detections were identified in the air of 291 homes screened by the EPA for hazardous chemicals including vinyl chloride and hydrogen chloride, it said in a Monday news update, with schools and a library also screened and 181 more homes to go.

But the Ratners – who played extras in a Netflix disaster film with eerie similarities to the derailment crisis – still are feeling “an ever-changing mix of emotions and feelings just right from the outset, just the amount of unknown that was there,” said Ben, who owns a cafe a few towns over and isn’t sure he still wants to open another in East Palestine.

“It’s hard to make an investment in something like that or even feel good about paying our mortgage whenever there might not be any value to those things in the future,” he said. “That’s something tough to come to grips with.”

Norfolk Southern has committed millions of dollars’ worth of financial assistance to East Palestine, including $3.4 million in direct financial assistance to families and a $1 million community assistance fund, among other aid, the company has said.

“We recognize that we have a responsibility, and we have committed to doing what’s right for the residents of East Palestine,” the railroad said. “We are committed to thoroughly and safely cleaning the site, and we are reimbursing residents for the disruption this has caused in their lives.”

In addition to real-time air monitoring, the EPA says it is collecting air samples in conjunction with the 52nd Civil Support Team — a specialized unit of the Ohio National Guard — for analysis.

On the Importance of Air Quality in the Derailment Zone for the Victims of Velez, a Long-Lived Veteran

Velez is staying in rentals away from the town. He previously told CNN that when he visited the town Monday, a chemical odor left his eyes and throat burning, and gave him a nagging headache.

Despite Velez’s experience, air quality does not appear to be the source of headaches and sore throats among people or deaths of animals such as cats and chickens in and around the derailment zone, Ohio Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said Tuesday.

Misinformation and exaggerations spread online, and state and federal officials have repeatedly offered assurances that air monitoring hasn’t detected any remaining concerns. Ohio’s health director said Tuesday that low levels of contaminants can still create odors or symptoms, even if they are not considered hazardous.

“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.”

James Lee, spokesman of the Ohio EPA, said that residents in the area and a long way away may smell odors coming from the site. Some of the substances have low odor thresholds. People may smell the pollutants at much lower levels than they think they are hazardous.

The Ratner Family’s Water Use Problem in East Prussia, Ohio, during the Oct. 14 Breakdown of a Safe Water Supply Connection with the Ohio River

Ben Ratner said the water use of the family was limited because of unknown effects. Velez is worried that giving his daughter a bath or turning the water on could be hazardous.

The Ohio River has a water body that can get rid of the pollutants quickly, Kavalec said. The chemicals are a “contaminant plume” the Ohio EPA and other agencies have tracked in real time and is believed to be moving about a mile an hour, she said.

The majority of the chemicals will pass if the drinking water intakes are closed. 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 they’re pretty confident “low levels” of contaminants that remain are not getting to customers.

He and his family have been Airbnb-hopping 30 minutes from their home since they evacuated, but rental options and their finances are running out, he said, and a friend set up a GoFundMe to help the family.

He wrote that many of his residents are stuck in the same situation and that there is no answer. There is no other option other than to pay a mortgage on a potentially worthless home.

The residents of East Prussia were in a school gym to find out if they were safe from toxic chemicals that spilled or were burned off.

Hundreds of worried people gathered to hear state officials tell them — as they did earlier in the day — that testing so far has shown local air is safe to breathe and to promise that safety testing of the air and water would continue.

But residents had many questions over health hazards and they demanded more transparency from the railroad operator, Norfolk Southern, which did not attend the gathering, citing safety concerns for its staff.

Wednesday’s meeting came amid continuing concerns about the huge plumes of smoke, persisting odors, questions over potential threats to pets and wild animals, any potential impact on drinking water and what was happening with cleanup.

Why are they being hush-hush? Residents of East Palestine, Ohio, complain about the impact of the Norfolk Southern train derailment

“Why are they being hush-hush?” Kathy Dyke said of the railroad. They aren’t out here answering questions and they aren’t out here supporting. We didn’t know what was on the train for three days.

Residents near the Pennsylvania state line want to know whether the railroad will be held responsible for what happened when hundreds of families were evacuated.

Yost said that the pollution caused environmental harm and created a nuisance around East Palestine.

And I continue to be concerned about the health of our rivers and streams after the state confirmed contaminated waterways killed about 3,500 fish in the immediate aftermath of the derailment.

The damaged railcars, tank car design, the train’s wheelset and bearing, and other details will be looked into by the investigation.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that it would take control of the cleanup of a Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio earlier this month that released hazardous chemicals into the environment.

Speaking to CNN’s Jason Carroll Thursday morning, EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said the agency has full authority to use its enforcement capabilities over the crisis.

“We issued a notice of accountability to the company, and they’ve signed that, indicating that they will be responsible for the cleanup,” Regan told CNN. As new facts arise, the agency and the government will use their authority to make sure that this company is held accountable.

As the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency makes his third trip to East Palestine, Ohio, scientists warn higher-than-normal chemical readings around the site of this month’s toxic train derailment might portend long-term health problems for those exposed.

Hundreds of East Palestine residents attended a town hall Wednesday night to express their frustrations and mounting distrust. The train operator had agreed to attend but later pulled out of the event due to safety concerns.

ORSANCO, the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission and EPA Administrator Michael Regan: “I am going nowhere,” said O.R. Regan

The agency’s move comes as the emergency response effort has now morphed into an environmental cleanup that is the responsibility of the railroad, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said during a Tuesday press conference.

We know that there was toxic materials carried on the train and that they were found in nearby waterways. The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) got samples from the accident site on February 15 and 16, which showed evidence of butyl acrylate up to 250 miles down the Ohio River.

Meanwhile, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday he has requested the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immediately send medical experts to East Palestine to evaluate and counsel community members with questions or health symptoms.

Emergency response teams have plans in place to prevent contaminant not yet removed from the site from washing into the local waterways during storms, according to DeWine.

DeWine said that the risk to livestock is low following the train accident and that the Ohio Department of Agriculture assures the public their food supply is safe.

The decision of crews to conduct controlled detonations on February 6 of some of the tanks that were carrying toxic chemicals, including vinylchloride that has the potential to kill at high levels and increase cancer risk spurred residents’ questions about safety.

Conaway told reporters that he needed help. “I have the village on my back, and I’ll do whatever it takes … to make this right. I am not going anywhere.

The Ohio Train Derailment East Palestine Tuesday: Does It Make You Feel Like You’re Failing to Show Up?

The company did not attend the meeting because it was less than half a mile from where the derailed train occurred, according to a man who lives in that area.

Most people didn’t want to go home, but they had to. All of the people who had to go home complained of a variety of symptoms, he said. “I have gone back a few times, and the smell does make you sick. It hurts your head.”

“I was extremely disappointed that they didn’t show up at the town hall meeting last night. The public needs to know, he said. “The public deserves to have the latest information. And so it’s our job, as the federal government, to hold this company accountable, and I promise you we will.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/us/ohio-train-derailment-east-palestine-thursday/index.html

The East Palestine Railroad Collision: Why the Norfolk Southern Railroad Should have acted in the Way it was deemed Safe to Come home and Test my House and Tell Me That I’m Safe

The railroad company told Cozza it was safe to come home after doing air testing, she said. She insisted that the railroad company test her house for soil and water, only to have a toxicologist deem it unsafe.

“Had I not used my voice, had I not thrown a fit, I would be sitting in that house right now, when they told me that it was safe,” Cozza said Thursday.

She was concerned about how many children were laying in East Palestine right now that were not safe. I don’t trust them.

The community of East Palestine is still worried about health effects from the toxic materials that were released in the freight accident, as crews are still working to respond.

If authorities eventually find pollution in the air, a second phase of the cleanup could follow. The normal, lengthier process would come into play if that happens. The EPA and Norfolk Southern would have to work together to find a way to clean up the long-termContamination.

“In sum, Norfolk Southern injected unnecessary risk into this crisis,” Shapiro said, adding he plans to hold the company accountable for their actions.

More than $6 million has been committed by the company in East Palestine to assist the families affected by the accident.

In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, CEO Alan Shaw responded to criticism from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, saying the company invests more than $1 billion a year in “science-based” safety solutions, including maintaining tracks, equipment and technology.

“It’s pretty clear that our safety culture and our investments in safety didn’t prevent this accident,” Shaw said. “We need to look at what we can do differently and what we should do better.”

State Sensitive Effort to Close the Border: The Ohio-Pennsylvania Train Wreck

It took place less than a mile from the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, which was praised by the governor of Pennsylvania.

It is my opinion that Norfolk Southern wouldn’t do this out of their own goodness. There’s not much goodness in there,” he said. “They needed to be compelled to act.”

Shaw wouldn’t comment on a possible cause, citing the investigation. He also said Norfolk Southern is fully cooperating with the NTSB and the Federal Railroad Administration to determine the cause.

Eleven of the derailed cars were carrying hazardous chemicals such as butyl acrylate and vinyl chloride, which is used to make the hard plastic resin PVC.

Governor DeWine of Ohio said that state officials have opened a health clinic in East Palestine for those who think they may have health issues as a result of the train wreck.

He said that the new rule was in responding to people’s desire to be able to visit someplace and get some answers about their medical problems.

Public Safety in East Palestine After the February 3 Pennsylvanian Train Derailment: State Senator Mike DeWine Tells the Public Sense that the EPA is the Right Thing

DeWine said that work was continuing near the crash site. About 4,600 cubic yards of soil and 1.1 million gallons contaminated water have been removed so far.

President Joe Biden echoed the sentiment Tuesday, calling the EPA’s order “common sense.” This is their mess. They should clean it up,” the president said of Norfolk Southern in an Instagram post.

The governor said that the state’s environmental officials made a criminal referral against Norfolk Southern. The law allows the Ohio attorney general to take actions according to Gov. Mike DeWine.

Skepticism further spread in the community as some residents have reported health problems, like rashes and headaches, and after thousands of fish died in Ohio waterways after the train derailed.

Air and water quality testing has so far found no dangers to residents of the small village near the Pennsylvania border after the February 3 derailment, and Regan said he has “absolute confidence” in the agency’s data.

Residents in East Palestine who haven’t had their water tested to ensure safety are encouraged to continue drinking bottled water out of an abundance of caution.

Pennsylvania’s governor alleged Tuesday that the train operator gave incorrect information and refused to explore or articulate alternative options in the days after the toxic wreck.

The East Palestine Rail Safety Crisis: How Will We Address It? Deputy State Highway Superintendent Alan Shaw, Spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, and Secretary of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency

Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan Shaw said that his company has been aligned with the EPA and local efforts on the ground in East Palestine since the train derailment.

Shaw said that the air and water quality has been continuously monitored by his company, and that they have conducted hundreds of tests with thousands of data points to come back clean.

The law did not require Norfolk Southern to inform officials when a train with hazardous materials was coming through the state, according to DeWine.

President Biden called on Congress to help implement rail safety measures and accused the Trump administration of limiting the government’s ability to strengthen rail safety measures.

“This is more than a train derailment or a toxic waste spill – it’s years of opposition to safety measures coming home to roost,” Biden wrote in an Instagram post.

All of the rail cars except for the 11 cars held by the National Transportation Safety Board have been removed from the site, which will allow excavation of additional contaminated soil and installation of monitoring wells to check for groundwater contamination, said Anne Vogel, director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

The concerns of environmental groups like ours are focused on the ongoing impacts to the East Palestine community, where people continue to report odors and immediate health problems, chemical residues remain on soils and surfaces, and clean-up and soil removal is ongoing.

Still, as worries remain, the state opened a new health clinic for East Palestine residents to address the reports of rashes, headaches, nausea and other symptoms.

The administrator of the EPA said that he isn’t discounting what people are experiencing and asked anyone who is concerned to seek medical attention.

“I believe people when they say that they’re facing adverse impacts. We can take that information and add that to our response if we ask them to seek medical attention. We are not giving up on what people are going through. We just ask that they seek medical help while we conduct all of our investigations.”

Conaway said that residents need to feel safe in their homes and that town needs to be cleaned up. “That’s the number one thing. If your home isn’t safe, you’re not going to feel safe anywhere.

What Do Pulmonologists Tell Us About Burnings, Fires, and Well Water? (Dialog of Proia, MD, Aug. 2009)

Who is he? Nicholas Proia is a pulmonologist in the area and a clinical professor of internal medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University, not far from East Palestine.

What are the people saying? Proia said pulmonary doctors in the area were bracing for a rise in patients after the derailment and controlled burn, but that he hadn’t experienced it.

Respiratory illness isn’t something that we have seen a lot of. What we have heard, mostly through the media, and a few patients will say, perhaps a rash or a foul smell. But really no overt shortness of breath, or respiratory failure has been connected to this.

The overriding concern for everybody involved is … a lot of these people don’t have municipal water supplies, but instead they rely on wells. The biggest concern they have is the chemicals that ended up in the waterways. Are they ever going to make it into the well water?

It’s a caveat to know that you only will find what you’re looking for. And who knows what else is out there, especially after a large fire with a bunch of different, pretty interesting chemicals.

The East Palestine Water Treatment Plant, Sulphur Run, Norfolk Southern, and Norfolk Southern notified on April 24th, 2013 by the Environmental Protection Agency

Contractors with the EPA install booms and underflow dams to restrict the flow of contaminated water as well as contain and collect floating product to mitigate any possible impacts to the Sulphur Run and Leslie Run streams, they say.

The entire town of 5,000 people were given a shelter-in-place order. An evacuation order is issued for the area within a mile radius of the train crash near James Street, due to the risk of an explosion.

Aeration pumps can be found at three locations along Sulphur Run. Oxygen can be injected into the water. The EPA says that there was no adverse effect to the East Palestine water treatment plant. Surface water samples are collected by contractors for analysis.

The EPA is working together with Norfolk Southern, health departments and other agencies to develop procedures for safely reoccupying the evacuated areas.

According to the EPA, the 52nd Civil Service Team gathers air samples from the three public administration buildings.

The EPA is looking into a complaint of odors at the fire station. The team with air monitoring equipment went to the station and didn’t find any contaminants above the detection limits.

The EPA and Ohio EPA find spilled materials in Sulphur Run, the EPA says. Oily product is leaking from a tank car and pooling onto the soil. Norfolk Southern uses a vacuum truck to remove the product after being notified of the spill.

On Friday, Norfolk Southern was made responsible for disposing of waste from the train crash, but the waste will need to be approved by the federal EPA.

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency: Air Quality Assessment after the February 8, 2014, Cleveland, Train-Wreck Survivors’ Meeting (CNN)

Ohio EPA leads efforts to investigate and remediate impacts to water, the agency says. Samples from Sulphur Run and other points of nearby water streams are taken for testing.

EPA discontinues phosgene and hydrogen chloride community air monitoring. After the fire was extinguished on February 8, the threat of vinyl chloride fire producing phosgene and hydrogen chloride no longer exists. EPA will continue 24-hour community air monitoring for other chemicals of concern.

Tiffany Kavakala, Chief of the Division of Surface Water at the Ohio EPA, said no vinyl chloride is detected in any of the waterways near the train wreck. Active aeration of the waterways near the derailment continue and even though some waterways remain contaminated, the agency says they are confident the contaminants are contained.

Feb. 15 — Residents pack a high school gym in East Palestine for a meeting with officials to discuss the current state of their community, CNN reports.

The transport company’s decision not to attend the event was questioned by residents who had distrust in officials’ accounts and anger.

Regional Administrator Debra Shore attends a community meeting alongside EPA on-scene coordinators and state and local officials to hear residents’ concerns.

Feb. 17 — Gov. Mike DeWine says no derailment contaminants have been found in homes tested for air quality and that there is a section of Sulfur Run near the crash site that remains severely contaminated.

The East Palestine Municipal Well Water Sample: EPA Observation of the Decay of the Feb. 3 Derailment in East Palestine

Feb. 19 — The village of East Palestine’s municipal well water sample results show no water quality concerns, the EPA says. The Columbiana County General Health district is sampling water wells. To date, 52 wells have been sampled, 49 in Ohio, and three across the border in Pennsylvania, the agency says.

The announcement came a day after the Environmental Protection Agency ordered Norfolk Southern to “pause” shipments from the site of the Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine to allow additional oversight measures about where waste was shipped. Solid and liquid waste has already been shipped to Texas and Michigan.

This community does not have access to good health care. It has been learned that a health clinic will be opening this week which will allow residents who have been complaining about health issues in the aftermath of the disaster to have their symptoms monitored. It’s regrettable that this step is being taken more than two weeks after the derailment.

To allow for an additional layer of reassurance, the EPA staff and contractors will conduct a poll on the services offered to residents and businesses.

The company acknowledged that they had a responsibility and committed to doing the right thing for people in East Palestine.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General received a criminal referral about the train wreck, so they will investigate it, according to the statement.

The Ohio Children’s Hospital and the Center for Disease Control (COSEM): Comments on Clean Homes in the Light of Public Safety and Public Works Laws

“Number two: They will pay for it – fully pay for it. At any moment, if we have to step in because they refuse to do anything, we will do the cleaning up ourselves. We can fine them up to $70,000 a day,” the EPA chief said.

“And when we recoup our total costs, we can charge them three times of the amount of the cost of the federal government. That is what the law provides.”

Ericka L. Copeland is the chapter director of Sierra Club Ohio and the former two-term president of the Cincinnati Public Schools’ Board of Education. Her views are expressed in this commentary. CNN has more opinions on it.

And while the accident has received reams of press coverage, people who live in East Palestine have said that their complaints about rashes, headaches and other ailments they believe are linked to the disaster have been ignored.

The guidance from Pennsylvanias Department of Environmental Protection and its Department of Health advising residents that vacuuming inside their homes might cause chemicals that have settled on floors and surfaces to become airborne is confusing and frightening.

Residents of Ohio say they were not given any instructions on how to clean the interiors of their homes.

The East Palestine disaster and the State of the Art: State and local authorities re-appear in the light of recent experimental results by ORSANCO

More recent tests by ORSANCO indicate that butyl acrylate is no longer being detected, probably due to dilation and chemical breakdown, as it is well known for being volatile. The water tests have levels that are below the limit. Government scientists did not detect vinyl chloride or volatile chemicals in the river samples.

I pause because it shows that health impacts on the residents of East Palestine could surface in time.

Eric Beckman, a co-founder of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation and a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, explained last week that what occurred in East Palestine amounts to an “uncontrolled chemical reaction.”

So far, inexplicably, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has failed to issue a disaster declaration. A spokesman for the governor has said he might revisit the idea if the circumstances warrant it. East Palestine residents have to pay out of pocket for hotel lodgings while he waits for a decision, because of their exposure to toxic chemicals.

It should be the case when their community is being used as a conduit for shipping bad cargo across hundreds of miles of railway tracks.

The Regional EPA administrator said in a Monday press conference that all governments regulate and oversee the transportation of hazardous waste until it is safe to dump it.

The tangle got even more complicated after the EPA decided to stop Norfolk Southern from removing waste from East Palestine because of concerns raised in Texas and Michigan.

The federal EPA will be involved in the review of waste disposal plans and transportation routes for contaminated waste.

California Environmental Protection Agency and the State of the Texas Firefighter’s Liquid Waste Problem, as Delighted by the Deer Park Water Collision

“We were not given a heads up on this reported action,” Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell said in a statement. We want to keep the people we represent safe.

“Why are these materials not being taken somewhere closer? Is there something these jurisdictions know that we don’t know?” said Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official of Harris County, Texas, after news broke last week that 30 truckloads of contaminated firefighting water were arriving each day to Deer Park, a suburb of Houston.

15 truckloads of contaminated soil have been thrown away in Michigan according to the governor’s office. There is a licensed facility in Texas that will not accept any more liquid waste from East Palestine.

The EPA was reviewing the transportation routes and facilities of Norfolk Southern in response to residents’ concerns, although Shore believed they were up to the standards.

She said it was important to the residents of East Palestine as well as those in the communities where the waste might go to ensure the process was done right.

Every aspect of transporting and disposing of hazardous waste will be monitored and controlled by federal, state, and local governments, Shore said Sunday.

That’s as officials in Texas and Michigan complained they didn’t receive any warning that hazardous waste from the crash would be shipped into their jurisdictions for disposal.

The EPA regional administrator told a Sunday news conference that Norfolk Southern will start shipping to Ohio on Monday.

Environmental Monitoring and Prevention for the Derailment of a Transient Rail Carrier in Lake Erie, Ohio, on Dec. 24, 2002

All rail cars, except for 11 held by investigators, have been removed from the site of the derailment, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Anne Vogel said in an update Sunday.

“These extensive requirements cover everything from waste labeling, packaging, and handling, as well as requirements for shipping documents that provide information about the wastes and where they’re going,” Shore said.

The derailment caused a fire that lasted for days. The firefighters had to use a million gallons of water. “So it’s not just the initial spill of chemicals into the soil, but now thousands of gallons of water that are also trying to be picked up and carted off-site,” Sachs said. Rainfall throughout February has added to the complications.

A spokesperson Gov. DeWine told CNN the governor was not briefed on where in the country the shipments would be sent. But this is typical, as the train company is responsible for the transport of material and the EPA is responsible for regulating that transport, DeWine spokesman Daniel Tierney said Saturday.

A White House official has told CNN that the federal teams are going door-to-door to check in with people in East Palestine after President joe Biden directed the move.

Also, a 19-person scientific team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been collecting information from residents about symptoms they have experienced since the derailment, said Jill Shugart, a senior environmental health specialist for the CDC.

The Ohio EPA Environmental Protection Agency. The East Palestine train wreck and its removal, the Shore, continued monitoring, and will resume operations on Monday

The Ohio EPA installedentinel wells near the municipal well field, to protect the city from waterborne illnesses, according to a Saturday statement by head of the Ohio EPA.

About 102,000 gallons of liquid waste and 4,500 cubic yards of solid waste remained Saturday in storage on site in East Palestine – not including the five truckloads returned, according to DeWine. Additional solid and liquid wastes are being generated as the cleanup progresses, he added.

Dingell told CNN on Saturday that neither she nor Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were aware of plans for toxic waste to be delivered to disposal sites in her district.

The office of the county clerk was told that half a million gallons of water was already in the county and the shipments began arriving last Wednesday.

She said that the office of Hidalgo had been seeking information about the precautions that had been taken during the disposal, and why Harris County was chosen.

CNN asked the Ohio agency the location of the remaining 581,500 gallons which had been “removed” but not “hauled off-site” and has yet to receive a response.

After a brief halt, the shipments of liquid and soil from the toxic East Palestine train wreck will be resumed on Monday despite concerns from other states about the movement of the hazardous waste.

The hazardous waste material already sent to Michigan and Texas is now being processed, EPA regional administrator Debra Shore said at a news conference Sunday.

Questions about the disposal of toxic waste from the February 3 derailment have added to the controversy surrounding the crash that has also left residents of the town worried about potential long-term health effects.

The mayor of East Liverpool, one of the towns set to incinerate the waste, expressed concerns about the process but said the EPA has assured him that everyone has been following necessary guidelines.

Mayor Gregory T. Bricker said that the city has a 2-year-old daughter. I think this facility is state-of-the-art and can handle this type of waste.

After speaking with residents in East Palestine, Shore said that they owe it to them to move the contaminated soil out of the community as quickly as possible.

There is no indication that East Palestine’s water is polluted. But scientists warn that it can take time for hazardous chemicals to move through soil into the water.

The Safety Board of East Palestine was Alarmed at the Dead End: Measurements of Pollutants at the EPA’s Clean-Up Facility

Officials said four wells had been installed and that three more would be drilled this week after the soil under the rails is excavated. Fourteen wells are planned.

A better understanding of the direction and rate of ground water flow will be supported by the monitoring wells.

The head of the safety board believes the crash was preventable despite the fact that the crew didn’t do anything wrong prior to the wreck.

EPA-certified facilities able to accept some of the waste had been identified, which meant shipments could restart Monday, Region 5 administrator Debra Shore, of the Environmental Protection Agency, said Sunday.

She said that this is great news for the people of East Palestine and the surrounding area because it means they can continue to clean up at a rapid pace.

Scientists from Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon universities studied the EPA’s pollutant measurements and found that nine of the dozens of chemicals the agency has been monitoring are higher than normally would be found there.

“We’ve transitioned from that acutely hazardous, dangerous phase at the beginning into this longer-term phase where people are going to start to worry about potential long-term health effects if there are exposures to these chemicals,” Dannemiller said in an interview with NPR.

Pete Buttigieg, US Transportation Secretary, told CNN that the EPA has an extremely rigorous standard when it comes to waste disposal.

Acrolein Safety Reporting in High Energy Heavy Ion Collisions and Implications for the Railway Safety and Performance of Existing Tank Cars

Acrolein is used to control plants, algae, rodents and microorganisms. It is a clear liquid at room temperature and is toxic. It can cause irritation and inflammation of the skin, respiratory Tract and mucus membranes according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The degree to which it is elevated to the point where it is considered a health problem is not known, according to an associate research professor of mechanical engineering.

The agency approved two Ohio sites to handle the waste in a safe manner: Heritage Thermal Services in East Hubbard and Vickery Environmental in Waverly.

The Heritage Environmental Services hazardous waste landfill in Roachdale, Indiana, and Ross Incineration Services in Grafton, Ohio, will receive contaminated waste on Tuesday.

The Transportation Department favors raising the cap on safety violation fines for rail companies and speeding up the introduction of fortified tank cars, which are less likely to spill when there’s a derailment, according to Buttigieg.

He called on the CEOs of major freight rail companies to implement a close-call reporting system that protects whistle blowers who spot issues that could lead to accidents.

A Biden administration source told CNN that all major freight rail companies in the US, including Norfolk Southern, are expected to announce their participation in a voluntary safety reporting program.

The agency believes that the aluminum covers on some tank cars may have melted in the fire and dripped into pressure relief devices, potentially degrading their performance.

The aluminum Housing covers melted in the fire caused by the derailing of a rail line, according to a spokeswoman from thePHASMA. This advisory is to ask rail companies to review their fleets to determine if they have aluminum protective coverings or if they should replace them with steel that can tolerate greater exposure to heat and fire.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the Norfolk Southern Railroad Commission are monitoring the debris coming to his state from the June 13 train wreck with dioxins

That’s after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sent a letter to the CEOs of the companies asking them to join the reporting system and gave them by the end of the week to inform him of their decision.

The agency, which has been probing what may have caused the derailment, has said it could issue urgent recommendations at any point during its investigation.

The company, which has been ordered by the EPA to fully clean up the wreck, backed out of a town hall with local officials last month, citing threats against its employees.

According to a letter from unions to Buttigieg and Ohio Gov. DeWine, crews involved in the clean-up have reported symptoms as well as health effects. CNN has reached out to Norfolk Southern for comment on the letter.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said Thursday the state will contract a third-party company to test the waste coming to his state for “dangerous levels of dioxins.” The governor said that the sampling would begin on Friday.

The EPA will direct the clean-up of the area if dioxins are found at levels that pose a serious risk to human health and the environment.

“EPA will also continue sampling for ‘indicator chemicals,’ which based on test results to date, suggest a low probability for release of dioxin from this incident,” the release added.

Butyl acrylate, which is among the materials the train was carrying, is used to make plastics and paint. It can be swallowed, eaten or absorbed through the skin. It irritates the eyes, skin and lungs and may cause shortness of breath, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Exposure can lead to lung damage.

Vogel said the levels being detected in water sampling are much lower than the federal hazard level for the compound in drinking water and well below levels that would cause immediate health effects, but added she did not know whether there could be longterm health effects. A health study currently underway may be able to help shed light on that, she said.

“They’ll be living with this both environmentally and psychologically for a long time. ” I don’t believe there are going to be a lot of quick returns to normal,” said Noah Sachs, a professor of environmental law.

Planning for East Palestine’s cleanup, and it’s going to take longer than that – EPA spokesperson Michael Regan told NPR

Every aspect of the cleanup must follow regulations that govern the handling of hazardous materials – from the collection of the contaminated soil and water, to its transportation away from the derailment site, to its long-term storage and treatment at licensed facilities around the country.

There are thousands of facilities across the U.S., in nearly every state, that are licensed to treat, store or dispose of hazardous waste. Not all types of waste can be taken to a facility. The type of waste and nature of the contamination can dictate whether waste is shipped to landfills, water treatment facilities or incinerators, for instance.

politics is one of the consideration’s, Sachs said. High-profile cleanup sites, like East Palestine, can raise concerns from residents of other states, prompting politicians to step in.

Combined, those sites do not have enough capacity to hold all of the hazardous waste from East Palestine, officials said this week, meaning they are still looking for others.

But the emergency nature of the derailment, and the immediate threat it posed to public health and the environment in East Palestine, allowed the EPA to tap into a special emergency provision in the law that governs its cleanup authority.

“Instead of months-long or years-long planning sessions, the decisions on cleanup and where the waste is going to be taken to and to what degree the cleanup needs to occur – that’s going to unfold over days and weeks instead of months and years,” Sachs said.

“The finish line looks like returning this community back to where it was before the trauma was inflicted,” said EPA administrator Michael Regan in an interview with NPR last week. “This is a longer-term process, but rest assured that we will be there until the job is finished.”