NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy issues a report detailing Norfolk Southern’s attempts to intimidate and threaten investigators of the February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (BP) — The Norfolk Southern (NS) Railway Company and its contractors needlessly caused an intentional rupture in five railroad cars in February 2023, creating a toxic cloud that prevented residents from selling or moving their homes and will almost certainly affect their health for years — perhaps generations — to come.
The findings come from a report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and were presented at East Palestine High School on June 25.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy apologized to residents and said that although there were no injuries or deaths in the accident, that “does not mean that safety was assured.”
Joe Sheely, pastor of Solid Rock Community Church in nearby Salem, Ohio, lives in East Palestine and his home is about two miles from the crash site.
“Most people in this city are not financially able to move,” Sheely said. “They live paycheck to paycheck. Anyone who owns a home is in a real dilemma, especially if they’re retired. How do you sell a house when it’s lost 70% of its value?”
Those living within two miles of the crash site may receive up to $70,000 in compensation, a paltry amount considering the cost of medical treatment and relocation, residents said at a town hall meeting in May.
Not trusting Norfolk Southern’s water, soil and air lab results, Sheely paid $2,000 for independent testing last fall. The results came back in January.
“It turned out that our property was contaminated with dioxin,” he said. “I brought them the test results and thought they would surely help us relocate. They flatly refused.”
“They said they would reimburse me for the testing costs, but they just want the results and discredit the man who did the testing, even though he used the same lab as their contractors.”
Since the derailment, Sheely has continued to pastor. He is busy getting copies of the Jesus film into the area. He still preaches every Sunday, but is considering taking a break. Prayer meetings are held on Wednesdays and there is a home Bible study on Thursdays. Vacation Bible school is planned for mid-August before students return to classrooms on August 22.
Sheely is far from the only resident of eastern Palestine who harbors a cold suspicion of those who downplay the potential long-term consequences of the crash.
“It feels like we continue to be left in the dark about the causes of our acute health symptoms, when in fact they are now chronic stressors,” said Jess Conard after attending an event in April organized by several university groups studying the impact of the derailment.
“Even if some of the rashes are stress-related because it’s a stressful situation, the stress itself is at least due to that disaster and should be recognized and acknowledged as such. But I have to say, in my life as a medical professional, I have never heard of a four-year-old being diagnosed with asthma because of stress, or an elderly person being diagnosed with chemical burns because of stress. And yet we are told these things.”
Unnecessary measures bring with them toxic clouds and long-term damage
The train derailed at around 8:54 p.m. on February 3, 2023, after a bearing on a wagon overheated and an axle broke off. Three tank cars carrying flammable and combustible materials were subsequently damaged when a fire broke out as a result of the derailment.
Among the other derailed cars were five that contained vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), a compressed, liquefied, flammable gas, according to a summary of the full report, which is expected to be released in the next few weeks. According to Norfolk Southern and its contractors, on Feb. 6, the incident commander conducted a deliberate rupture, known as a “vent and burn,” on all five derailed VCM cars to prevent an explosion.
The report further stated that the incident commander was unaware of any dissenting statements sent by the VCM shipper to Norfolk Southern and its contractors. Without the venting and fire, the VCM would have remained in a stable environment. Instead, the fire brought with it a toxic cloud that settled over the area.
“NS compromised the integrity of the decision to vent and burn the tank cars by failing to communicate its expertise and dissenting opinions to the incident commander who made the final decision,” the report said. “This failure to communicate fully and accurately with the incident commander was unjustified.”
In May, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a $310 million settlement with Norfolk Southern that covers various fines and requirements to cover past and future cleanup costs.
A separate $600 million settlement with East Palestine residents sparked angry cries from legal advisers that it was not enough. The settlement amounts will be paid to people within 20 miles of the crash site and are based on an allocation formula that takes into account proximity, household size, number of children and relocation requirements.
Norfolk Southern rejected three other removal methods before pursuing venting and burning, the NTSB report says. Sheely claims that’s because the company was losing money every day the line wasn’t open to traffic and was more interested in the quickest method possible, without regard for the long-term impact on local residents.
“It would have taken weeks to get the train rolling again,” he said. “What they did got it back on the rails in a matter of days.”
Threats against NTSB and investigators
Norfolk Southern threatened and attempted to intimidate Homendy and the NTSB into putting an end to the “rumor” that the company had performed the venting and burning operations to get the trains moving and that it was time for NS and East Palestine to “move on,” Homendy said.
She explained the various methods Norfolk Southern used to try to circumvent the findings of NTSB investigators and described the railroad company’s actions as “unconscionable.”
Sheely is 64 and his wife, who suffered a heart attack last year, is 66. Both have skin lesions that he said are caused by the water. His health problems since then have included brain fog, memory loss and a constant noise in his head that he said resembles a tire losing air. He was scheduled for an MRI on June 25.
Jami Wallace, a former resident of East Palestine, echoed Homendy’s sentiment about the apparent safety, telling Scripps News that deaths will occur.
“So far, no one has died,” Wallace said, pointing out that doctors at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) had told them that there were cancer-causing substances in their bodies as a result of the crash.
“If we get cancer in ten years, the bodies will be piling up. … We will die a slow, painful death, a death that our child will have to watch us suffer or, God forbid, we will have to watch our child suffer.”
(EDITORIAL NOTE — Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for the Baptist Press.)
