Lawmakers Approve Language for Potential Cincinnati Southern Railway Sale

BY MADELINE FENING

Voters in Cincinnati will be reminded on the ballot that Norfolk Southern is the potential purchaser of the Cincinnati Southern Railway, thanks to language added to House Bill 23, the state’s transportation budget.

Ohio lawmakers recently reached an agreement to allow the proposed sale of the Cincinnati Southern Railway, the only city-owned multi-state railway in the country, to move ahead to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk. Once DeWine signs off, Cincinnati voters will decide whether or not to sell its railroad to Norfolk Southern as early as November.

The sale to Norfolk Southern was contingent upon changing a state law to specify how Cincinnati could spend the revenue from the sale – repairing existing infrastructure only – but more language changes were worked into the final bill by lawmakers who were concerned with Norfolk Southern's recent track record.

Those changes include:

• The ballot language must identify the “buyer” of the railway specifically as “Norfolk Southern.”

• The sale can only appear on the ballot once in 2023 or 2024. If voters reject the sale, a second attempt would need to be approved by state lawmakers in order to appear on the ballot again.

• If the principal amount falls below 25%, all payments to the city must stop until the fund accumulates enough interest that it reaches the previous level.

Currently, the city receives $25 million annually to lease the railway to Norfolk Southern. Under the proposed sale, the city would receive $1.6 billion which would be fed into a trust fund known as the "Building Our Future" trust fund. That trust would dole out no less than $25 million to the city each year after the sale, but Cincinnati mayor Aftab Pureval has said that the annual payout could more than double during some years.

The trust fund from the sale would be managed by the Cincinnati Southern Railway board of trustees, whose bylaws mandate that no more than three members of the same political party can sit on the board. Trustees serve five-year terms, and there are no term limits.

The disaster in East Palestine

A Norfolk Southern train derailed in the small Eastern Ohio village of East Palestine on Feb. 3, igniting a chain of events that ended in a controlled burn of the train’s toxic load of chemicals, mainly vinyl chloride.

The plume of thick black smoke soared above homes and waterways, painting a dark picture for the weeks to come. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) quickly took over managing the cleanup, promising to hold the multi-billion dollar rail giant accountable for the disaster.

However, recent polling of Ohioans about the disaster showed overwhelming distrust of the government's handling of the explosion cleanup. Researchers at WaterFilterGuru.com surveyed 503 Americans and 343 additional Ohioans about the train derailment in East Palestine.

Of the 846 respondents, 83% did not believe the government had taken appropriate measures to clean up the spill and prevent future incidents. Moreover, 65% of Americans did not believe government reports saying that the water and air in the East Palestine area were safe.

The chemicals emanating from the controlled burn in East Palestine included butyl acrylate, vinyl chloride, 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. The colorless vinyl chloride has been associated with an increased risk of liver cancer and other cancers, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute.

Of the Ohioans who participated in the survey, 97% were concerned about the long-term environmental impacts of the spill, and 19% had started drinking only bottled water as a result of the incident.

Only 2% of Ohio parents who responded to the study said that they would let their children bathe in East Palestine’s tap water.

On March 27, EPA inspector general Sean O’Donnell announced in a memo that he had launched a formal inquiry into the agency’s handling of the cleanup. The inquiry will include interviews, data collection, analysis of hazardous waste disposal, air and water monitoring, soil and sediment sampling, and risk communication.

Despite the toxic disaster caused by Norfolk Southern in East Palestine, executives have told Cincinnati City Council that the company will be able to fulfill its financial obligation to the sale.