EPA orders Norfolk Southern to clean up toxic derailment
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered Norfolk Southern on Tuesday to pay for the cleanup of the East Palestine, Ohio train wreck and chemical release as federal regulators took charge of long-term recovery efforts and promised worried residents they wouldn’t be forgotten.
Using its authority under the federal Superfund law, EPA told Norfolk Southern to take all available measures to clean up contaminated air and water and also said the company would be required to reimdamages burse the federal government for a new program to provide cleaning services for impacted residents and businesses.
“In no way, shape or form will Norfolk Southern get off the hook for the mess they created,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan vowed at a news conference in East Palestine. “I know this order cannot undue the nightmare that families in this town have been living with, but it will begin to deliver much-needed justice for the pain that Norfolk Southern has caused.”
He warned that if Norfolk Southern fails to comply, the agency will perform the work itself and seek triple from the company.
EPA’s move to compel Norfolk Southern to clean up came nearly three weeks after more than three dozen freight cars — including 11 carrying hazardous materials — derailed om Feb. 3 on the outskirts of East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania state line, prompting an evacuation as fears grew about a potential explosion of smoldering wreckage.
Officials seeking to avoid the danger of an uncontrolled blast chose to intentionally release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and black smoke again billowing high into the sky. That left people
questioning the potential health impacts for residents in the area and beyond even as authorities maintained they were doing their best to protect people.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro blasted Norfolk Southern over what he called its “failed management of this crisis,” saying the company chose not to take part in a unified incident command, and provided inaccurate information and conflicting modeling data.
“The combination of Norfolk Southern’s corporate greed, incompetence, and lack of concern for our residents is absolutely unacceptable to me,” said Shapiro, appearing at the news conference in East Palestine with Regan, DeWine and other officials.
Shapiro said his administration had made a criminal referral of Norfolk Southern to the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, while Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Ohio’s attorney general had also launched an investigation.