An Explosive Time in Ohio

As East Palestine grapples with the fallout from a hazardous train derailment, Cincinnati officials are determining the incident’s environmental and financial ramifications here.

BY MADELINE FENING AND ALLISON BABKA

Normally, a derailed train near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border would be of little concern to the people of Cincinnati, but then East Palestine happened. After the train exploded, a connection developed between the village of 5,000 people and the health and financial future of Cincinnati within a matter of days, and now questions about how Cincinnati will respond to the disaster are just getting started.

The explosion

According to a National Transportation Safety Board investigation, at 8:54 p.m. Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern Railway freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, a village in a relatively rural area that is about 280 miles northeast of downtown Cincinnati and just miles from the Pennsylvania border. About 50 freight train cars went off the track or were damaged in a fiery explosion. In total, 20 cars were tankers carrying hazardous materials including vinyl chloride, which is used to make a hard plastic resin used in a variety of plastic products. Of those tankers, 11 derailed, the NTSB said on

Feb. 14.

Additional chemicals emanating from the disaster included butyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether and ethylhexyl acrylate. The chemicals are used in industrial processes, including the production of lacquers, enamels, inks, adhesives, paint thinners and industrial cleaners and plastic manufacturing.

In an effort to protect residents and prevent further explosions, crews vented five rail cars containing vinyl chloride and completed a controlled burn of the area.

The train had been traveling from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, Norfolk Southern said.

The safety concerns

The incident and subsequent venting and burns released chemicals into the environment, causing concerns about air, water and soil quality both near East Palestine and down the Ohio River in cities like Cincinnati.

Fumes and smoke covered East Palestine so severely that it warranted a week-long mandatory evacuation of thousands of residents, with village mayor Trent Conaway calling a state of emergency. On Feb. 6, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine ordered residents to evacuate (many have since returned to their homes).

Vinyl chloride, a colorless gas that the train was carrying, has been associated with an increased risk of liver cancer and other cancers, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute.

The tankers' other chemicals also can have harmful effects if inhaled or ingested, the Environmental Protection Agency said.

The EPA said hazardous materials were found in samples taken from waterways near East Palestine, including Sulphur Run, Leslie Run, Bull Creek, North Fork Little Beaver Creek, Little Beaver Creek and the Ohio River. But the agency also said that as of Feb. 15, it had screened nearly 300 homes and reported no detection of vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride.

East Palestine residents already have said they’re experiencing skin rashes, nausea, burning eyes and other symptoms after the explosion of toxic materials, and some have started to meet with scientists and sign up for independent soil and water testing for their homes. Others have talked about seeing dead fish and animals nearby, shared concern for downriver towns and likened the entire incident to the 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl.

On Feb. 15, Greater Cincinnati Water Works said that contaminated water from the explosion would reach the Greater Cincinnati area just days later. But Jeff Swertfeger, superintendent of water quality at Greater Cincinnati Water Works, told CityBeat that as of press time, only one chemical had been detected about 220 miles upstream from Cincinnati, and it would not be enough to harm the health of those who consume tap water.

GCWW closed its Ohio River intake on Feb. 19 "out of an abundance of caution," the agency said, but it reopened the intake on Feb. 20 after finding no contaminants.

Authorities still are investigating the cause of the train derailment, but surveillance footage appeared to show either a wheel bearing or an axle overheating, NTSB said. According to KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, the train had traveled at least 20 miles with that part on fire.

Long before the incident, reports indicated Norfolk Southern lobbied for lighter regulations on train safety. Documents showed that the company pushed for a more narrow definition of what constitutes a “high-hazard” train, making many trains hauling dangerous materials exempt from the high-hazard safety requirements.

Norfolk Southern lobbyists also pushed back on requirements from the federal government to swap out Civil War-era brake systems for safer electronic brakes on trains that carry hazardous materials, saying the requirement would “impose tremendous costs without providing offsetting safety benefits.”

The rail sale

In November, Cincinnati mayor Aftab Pureval announced that after more than 140 years of exclusive city ownership, Cincinnati could sell the Cincinnati Southern Railway to

Norfolk Southern for $1.6 billion to fund the city’s infrastructure maintenance needs. Cincinnati is the only city in the country to own its own multistate railway.

The 337-mile freight railway runs from Cincinnati to Chattanooga. Pending rule changes from Ohio’s legislature, Cincinnati voters will ultimately decide whether or not to sell the railway in an election, likely in November.

During a budget and finance committee meeting on Feb. 13 – 10 days after the derailment – Cincinnati City Council members raised safety and financial concerns to railway representatives.

“Given the issues going on in East Palestine, is the sale, the purchase of this railroad, still a top priority?” council member Liz Keating asked. “Does [Norfolk Southern] have all the resources available to continue on with this sale?”

“The purchase of the [Cincinnati Southern Railway] is a top priority,” replied Darrell Wilson, assistant vice president of government relations for Norfolk Southern. “And we do have the resources to follow through with the transaction in the proposed time frame of 2024.”

As of Feb. 13, Norfolk Southern is reportedly worth around $55.26 billion.

Council member Mark Jeffreys said he would request that the city manager’s office convene a forum during which community members could ask questions of Norfolk Southern representatives.

The celebrity involvement

Erin Brockovich, a consumer advocate who had built her reputation by winning a case against a corporation that contaminated water in a California village, said she’s been looking into the environmental effects of the incident in East Palestine.

“I’m trying to gather information on this very serious situation in Ohio involving a train derailment with hazardous chemicals,” Brockovich tweeted on Feb. 11. “What I will say is this. Trust your eyes, ears and nose and get the hell out of there if your senses are telling you too [sic]”

In a Feb. 14 report titled East Palestine: The Place You Don’t Want to Be!, Brockovich noted the news so far and what residents had been saying.

“These chemicals are serious. They are in the air and water, animals are dying. That’s a very scary situation for any resident and all the folks in neighboring communities,” Brockovich wrote.

In 1993, Brockovich battled Pacific Gas & Electric Company, a utility company that, a court found, had contaminated the water near Hinkley, California, with a carcinogen. Through her employer, law firm Masry & Vititoe, Brockovich proved a connection between PG&E’s actions and the cancer and other illnesses that Hinkley residents had endured. Her investigation was the subject of the highly rated 2000 film Erin Brockovich, which won Julia Roberts an Academy Award for her role as Brockovich.

Brockovich has chastised numerous officials for their lack of urgency addressing the East Palestine situation, including U.S. Senator and Middletown native J.D. Vance. The senator tweeted on Feb. 4 that his team was “monitoring the situation” but didn’t share an update until releasing a statement on Feb. 13.

In that press release, Vance, a Republican, acknowledged that federal agencies, the Ohio National Guard and Northern Suffolk Railway said that their air and water tests in the area have been clear but added that he’s heard “alarming anecdotes about contaminated waterways and effects on wildlife.” He said that his office had been in contact with various agencies.