A Derailment Disaster

How the aftermath of the Ohio derailment impacts the local ecosystem and its aquatic life.

BY RUTH SHIKANOV

In East Palestine, Ohio, civilians are suffering the aftermath of a train wreck, which occurred on Feb. 3, 2023 and emitted toxic chemicals. The wreck released several hazardous chemicals into the air such as vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, isobutylene and ethylhexyl acrylate. These toxic compounds leaked into the ground, nearby streams and storm drains. Due to the air contamination, residents of the town were displaced and aquatic life was impacted. Director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Mary Mertz, stated in a news conference that four tributaries over a space of 7.5 miles are contaminated. According to Mertz, 3,500 fish died because of the contaminated waterways and by Feb. 23, 2023 the number of fish that died with-

1.5 degrees Celsius, but in order to do this, immediate institutional change needs to occur. The impacts of climate change continually fall disproportionately on poor countries and marginalized communities. “The greatest gains in wellbeing could come from prioritizing climate risk reduction for low-income and marginalized communities, including people living in informal settlements,” said Christopher Trisos, an author of the IPCC report. “Accelerated climate action will only come about if there is a many-fold increase in finance. Insufficient and misaligned finance is holding back progress.”Described as a “how-to guide to defuse the climate timebomb,” the IPCC report proposes “climate resilient development,” which means decreasing greenhouse gas emissions in ways that provide social benefits. This looks like widespread clean energy usage, like solar panels, and the promotion of low carbon transportation: things that improve health and wellbeing while cutting emissions. The IPCC hopes that governments around the world will take down barriers to pursuing clean energy and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, such as public funding, as well as make changes to the sectors that influence climate change the most, like agriculture and infrastructure. in and near East Palestine jumped to more than 43,000. Michael Booth, professor at University of Cincinnati, noted the signif icance, as Ohio uses fish populations as an overall indicator of water quality.

As the world prepares for the UN climate conference, taking place in Dubai from November to December of 2023, the IPCC has called for all developed countries to end their usage of coal and reach net-zero electricity generation by 2035 and the rest of the world by 2040. The report calls the next seven years critical for fighting the climate crisis.

“Humanity is on thin ice – and that ice is melting fast,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

So, how will the ecosystem recover? Al len Burton, a professor at University of Michigan told ABC news that it will take multiple life cycles and several years for the streams to recover.

“The reality is [that] we’re not going to get rid of all of this contamination,” Bur ton said. “This has soaked into the ground and into the streams.”

But there is a silver lining: aquatic life is re-entering streams along the Ohio River and the progression of cleanup will allow the population to increase. Mike DeWine, governor of Ohio, reported that the Environmental Protection Agency of Ohio hauled out 3.2 millions of wastewater and will oversee the cleanup process as they mitigate the derailment’s impacts. James Lee, the Ohio EPA’s media relations manager, told ABC news that the agency goes to multiple locations to test surface water on a daily basis, conducting visual assessments.

“We have seen fish and aquatic bugs in Leslie Run and Bull Creek, and expect fish and aquatic life numbers to continue to in- crease as the cleanup progresses,” Lee said Testing will need to continue to determine the long lasting effects of the derailment. Steve Sempier, deputy director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant, believes that the obvious impacts of environmental disasters are easily observable, but the chronic issues are more difficult to discern. Similar to other environmental disasters, researchers will need to see how the aftermath of the disaster will impact the environment.

“It’s going to take a while before we know the full impact,” Sempier said.