Nearby West Virginia took steps to protect its citizens Sunday, a week after train derailment near East Palestine, Ohio sent dangerous, toxic materials billowing into the winter skies and into local waterways.
West Virginia American Water is informing customers that it is monitoring all water intake from the Ohio River following the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying 20 wagons of hazardous materials on the evening of February 3. There, people wondered when, if ever, their small town would be safe again. After discharging the dangerous chemical vinyl chloride, residents reported dead pets and wildlife, WKBN report.
Indeed, one expert said CNN Residents should be more concerned about chemicals like liquid vinyl chloride in their water in the coming months than the most recent explosion:
“Initially, with most environmental spills, it is difficult to determine exactly how much material has been released into the air, water, and soil. The review phase that will take place after the emergency is over will help determine that information,” James Lee, the Ohio EPA’s director of media relations, wrote in an email to CNN.
Lee said that after his agency has evaluated the site, it will work on a remediation plan.
Dana Barr, a professor of environmental health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, says Vinyl chloride is unstable and boils and evaporates at room temperature, giving it a very short lifespan in the environment.
“If you have a very small amount of vinyl chloride present in an area, it evaporates within minutes to hours at most,” she says.
“But the problem they’re facing here is that it’s not just a small amount, and so if they can’t contain what goes into the water or what goes into the soil, then they may be emitting vinyl chloride gasses. this custom. went into these areas,” Barr said.
“Perhaps I will be more concerned with the chemicals in the air during the next month.”
The Ohio EPA said in a statement to CNN that cleaning up and monitoring the area could take years.
Since returning home, residents are now reporting headaches and dizziness even though official air and water testing shows the town is safe for residents. Residents told authorities that the smell was strongest coming from local creeks. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Although the smell and physical effects can have a psychological effect, the discomfort caused by the train crash will not be easily erased. From announcement:
Jami Cozza used to love hearing aids. That’s the sound of home – a village called East Palestine, on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. She had returned from living in Cleveland for 20 years and found a home, near the Norfolk Southern Railroad, to raise her young daughter.
But the sound of trains no longer provides comfort, instead reminding her of one of the worst days of her life and a day that could change her hometown.
“I wanted my daughter to experience the small town, where I grew up, the things that I went through,” Ms. Cozza said last week. “Now, I don’t believe she can.”
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The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the cause of the accident, though Railroad Workers United said in a press release a few days ago after the derailment indicated the original cause of the wreck as “…a 19order A century-old mechanical failure of an axle on one of the cars – a bearing that overheated – resulted in a derailment and subsequently the cars toppling over. Norfolk Southern was really lobbied against updating the brakes on its trains for many years.
While the cause has not been fully verified, it is known that further cost-cutting measures, such as having one-man crews on trains instead of three on trains in East Palestine overnight That would lead to a much bigger disaster:
40% of the NS 32N’s weight is concentrated in the rear third of the train, which is always a bad practice and becomes more dangerous with longer heavier trains. This fact almost certainly made the wreck worse. But increasingly PSR-driven Carriers, driven to cut crew costs and time by any means necessary, cut corners and put crews and the public at risk. .
The crew were able to disassemble the locomotives and move them to safety, averting an even greater tragedy. This would not be possible under the various management plans currently proposed to operate such trains with single-man crews. In addition, because Ship 32N carries a standard crew of two or more workers, they can immediately take the necessary emergency measures to ensure a safe and effective response.
Such working conditions were already at railway workers center claim in 2022, resulting in Congress forced a contract without any paid sick leave between the workers and the railroad. The NTSB is still investigating the case, but it is clear that if the cost-cutting measures continue, we could see another East Palestine at any time.
