As a thick cloud of toxic smoke descended over Darlington in western Pennsylvania, Patrick Dittman knew that the catastrophic train derailment in the town of East Palestine in neighboring Ohio could pose a danger to his family.
This 30-year-old waiter lives and works a few kilometers from East Palestine, where on February 3 a freight train of the Norfolk Southern railway company, almost three kilometers long and loaded with toxic chemicals, partially derailed and caught fire. .
Three days after the accident, a plume of smoke and the stench of burning plastic spread as far east as Pennsylvania. The first professionals who went to the place decided to cause a controlled explosion of the vinyl chloride that was in the wagons to prevent the risk of an explosion that could have caused deaths. The toxic cloud blanketed the township of Darlington, a small rural community of 1,800, coating gardens, crops and cars in black soot.
“Although we live outside the evacuation radius, we would have preferred to get away from the chemical cloud, but we had nowhere to go. No one has spoken about the implications of this accident. It is very worrying,” says Dittman.
Regulatory bodies overseeing the cleanup efforts in East Palestine have pledged to make the multibillion-dollar railway company pay for the cost of the entire operation. But neighboring communities feel abandoned.
Dittman has paid out of pocket for lab tests to check for volatile organic compounds such as vinyl chloride and benzene, cancer-causing chemicals leaked from the train, in his garden soil and well water. The tests have cost him about 300 dollars (280 euros).
He was relieved when the lab confirmed that it had found no toxic substances, but is now awaiting the results of much more expensive tests as concerns grow over the health and environmental impact of vinyl chloride’s chemical byproducts, such as dioxins. Environmental health experts have indicated that they are highly toxic and have long-lasting effects, and can accumulate in soil and water ingested by grazing animals and crops.
“I have a seven-month-old daughter, so I’m doing everything in my power to make sure she’s safe. No one is coming to our rescue and we have no choice but to protect ourselves,” Dittman says.
The Norfolk Southern railway company, which last year made a profit of 3,000 million dollars (about 2,800 million euros), has agreed to contribute 11.8 million dollars (about 11 million euros) to East Palestine, for being the town where the train derailed, and has also advanced that it will meet individual requests from people from other towns.
“No one has thought of those of us in the neighboring state. This incident has not affected us as directly as the people of East Palestine, but it has also had an impact on our community,” says Max Knechtel, 26, a customer from the Greersburgh Tavern, as news coverage of the political fallout of the incident follows. Former US President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were two of the politicians who traveled to East Palestine last week.
“My house is 15 meters from the train tracks, my children are playing outside, my dog is sick. If we don’t get tested now, later, when health problems surface, the railway company will try to blame everything except the train”, laments Knechtel.
Darlington is a small rural community. Deer hunting, fishing and gardening are common activities and the inhabitants depend on private water wells whose quality is monitored by them and not by regulatory agencies.
Just like in East Palestine, the locals are outraged and want Norfolk Southern to take full responsibility. What they most want, however, is to be informed and guided on what steps they should take to protect themselves and their families from long-term health complications.
“I went to do my job, and I hope I don’t end up in the grave sooner for it,” said a Darlington police officer who was part of the first team the state of Pennsylvania deployed to the scene.
The 149-car train was classified as a general freight train, not a high-risk flammable chemical train, so local authorities did not initially know what toxins the first responders and residents were being exposed to. when 50 train cars derailed or caught fire.
An official who spoke to The Guardian on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the accident lives 20 miles east of East Palestine. The toxic black cloud also covered his community: “Fishing and deer hunting are an important part of our lives, and there are a lot of cows and horses, so we are all worried about our soil and our water. I have had a headache continued, but they have completely forgotten about those who live in the neighboring state.
Federal and state authorities insist that Norfolk Southern, which has spent tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions and lobbying Washington to oppose stricter regulations in recent years, must answer for the cost of this accident. on the health of the population and the environment, which was “100% preventable”.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken over coordination of the cleanup operation amid mounting criticism over a lack of leadership, mixed messages and inadequate testing. More and more people are calling for more extensive testing to look at dioxins and PFASs, chemicals in fire fighting foam that accumulate in water, soil, plants and animals, and which according to environmental health experts warn, pose the greatest risks to human health.
The agency ordered Norfolk Southern on Thursday to test the crash site for the possible presence of dioxins, a category of cancer-causing compounds likely spread by cloud that could end up in surface (rivers, streams, creeks) and distant groundwater. and in the soil that grazing cows, horses, and deer feed on, and that could be absorbed by vegetables and other crops eaten by humans. PFAS contamination should be limited to the area of fire fighting foam, but can also persist for decades once absorbed by soil and water.
Frustration invades the residents. “Right now I’m not too worried because the toxins haven’t settled in yet, but we will have to test the water from our well and no one has come to tell us what to do,” explains Carli Borato, 48, as her goddaughter and shepherds Germans played in the muddy yard located eight kilometers from the derailment.
“After the incident it is absolutely logical that regulators were concerned above all with the severe toxicity of contaminated air and water sources. But now they must focus their attention on areas potentially contaminated by the smog and carry out dioxin detection tests to protect people with grazing animals, crops and orchards,” says Betsy Southerland, former director of science and technology for the EPA’s office of water. “They also need to clearly communicate to private well owners which contaminants to monitor and when. People need clear answers: their concerns shouldn’t be left up in the air,” she adds.
According to Southerland, contaminated soil should be replaced with clean soil before planting season, but it could take months for dioxins to reach water wells. The Guardian has spoken to several East Palestine and Darlington residents who have spent hundreds of dollars on lab tests without quite knowing what to test for and when. The lack of information is fueling fear and hoaxes.
Sherry Anderson, 57, who lives just 2 miles from the crash site, drives to East Palestine to collect cases of bottled water donated by local businesses. Boxes are stacked on pallets in the Chevrolet dealership parking lot as freight trains carrying toxic and flammable materials pass by.
“I have a 24-hectare farm and I don’t know if we can plant a vegetable garden this year. I don’t know if my land is contaminated. I don’t feel safe drinking the water from the well,” says Anderson, who grows tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, broccoli, lettuce and peppers for his family. Her mother-in-law grows and sells beans, wheat and hay.
In a context in which the concern of the inhabitants of Pennsylvania does not stop growing, the Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, inaugurated a resource center in the municipality of Darlington on Wednesday. Residents can register until March 10 and request that the water in their homes be tested, as well as be advised on food and animal health and safety. It’s an important step, but concerns about the long-term repercussions ripple across the sprawling Ohio Valley, where many communities are already affected by pollution from heavy industry.
“We are already dealing with a lot of pollution, and the black community is often the last to know about the health risks,” laments Justice Slappy, who runs an urban garden in Steubenville, a small town south of East Palestine, where in November derailed another Norfolk Southern train. In this case, the train was loaded with garbage.
Experts say Steubenville, which gets its water from the Ohio River, is too far away to be directly affected by burning chemicals, but the decision to send some of the toxic waste to an industrial incinerator between the city and East Palestine , in East Liverpool, has not served to assuage fears.
“Everyone deserves clean water, soil and air. The community garden is the only place some people can get fresh produce – is what we do going to destroy East Palestine?” Slappy wonders.
Translation by Emma Reverter