Judge: Norfolk Southern alone should pay for cleanup

Norfolk Southern alone will be responsible for pay- ing for the cleanup after last year’s fiery train derailment in eastern Ohio, a federal judge ruled.

The decision issued Wednesday threw out the railroad’s claim that the companies that made chemicals that spilled and owned tank cars that ruptured should share the cost of the cleanup.

An assortment of chemicals spilled and caught fire after the train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3, 2023. Three days later, officials blew open five tank cars filled with vinyl chloride because they feared those cars might explode. Resi- dents still worry about poten- tial health consequences from those chemicals.

The Atlanta-based rail- road has said the ongoing cleanup from the derailment has already cost it more than $1.1 billion. That total contin- ues to grow, though EPA officials have said they expect the cleanup to be finished at some point later this year.

U.S. District Judge John Adams said that ruling that other companies should share the cost might only delay the resolution of the lawsuit that the Environmental Protec- tion Agency and state of Ohio filed against Norfolk Southern. He also said the railroad didn’t show that the derail- ment was caused by anything the other companies could control.

“The court notes that such arguments amongst potential co-defendants does not best serve the incredibly pressing nature of this case and does not change the bottom line of this litigation; that the contamination and damage caused by the derailment must be remediated,” Adams wrote.

Norfolk Southern declined to comment on Adams’ rul- ing.

The railroad had argued that companies like Oxy Vinyls that made the vinyl chloride and rail car owner

GATX should share the responsibility for the damage.

The National Transporta- tion Safety Board has said the crash was likely caused by an overheating bearing on a car carrying plastic pellets that caused the train to careen off the tracks. The railroad’s sensors spotted the bear- ing starting to heat up in the miles before the derailment, but it didn’t reach a critical temperature and trigger an alarm until just before the derailment. That left the crew scant time to stop the train.

GATX said the ruling confirms what it had argued in court that the railroad is responsible.

“We have said from the start that these claims were baseless. Norfolk Southern is responsible for the safe transportation of all cars and commodities on its rail lines and its repeated attempts to deflect liability and avoid responsibility for damages should be rejected,” GATX said in a statement.

Oxy Vinyls declined to comment on the ruling Thursday.