Brockovich speaks at East Palestine High
EAST PALESTINE − When environmental activist Erin Brockovich took the stage Friday to share what she’s learned over 30 years of work on similar disaster relief scenarios, she seamlessly put into words what many residents have felt over the past three weeks.
“I can’t tell you how many communities feel that that these moments are the biggest gaslight of their life,” Brockovich told an audience of a few hundred at East Palestine High School.
Brockovich’s appearance, which was requested by many East Palestine residents who emailed her, put a cap on a week in which multiple notable figures descended upon the small Ohio village that sits near the Pennsylvania border.
On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump visited East Palestine, where he donated bottles of water and cleaning supplies to the community still reeling from a Norfolk Southern train derailment and controlled burn that sent thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals into the air. Then on Thursday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited the village to meet with investigators, tamp down criticisms of the Biden administration and call on congress to help reinstate stronger regulation and heftier fines when railroads violate safety rules.
There was also a CNN Town Hall and a visit from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
As he addressed the crowd Friday night in an event billed as a town hall but was more of an informational session, Texas attorney Mikal Watts told East Palestine residents to block out the political noise and stay focused on the many serious health complications the community has yet to face and the litigation that’s still to come.
Watts presented for the majority of the evening a slideshow detailing to residents what happened, what precedent says and what they could face moving forward. As an attorney presenting at an event billed as a town hall, Watts was unable to answer questions due to state law decided by the Ohio Supreme Court. What he did detail is just how often derailments happen.
“It is a shockingly dangerous phenomenon,” Watts said.
Attendees listened quietly as Watts went over just how many derailments Norfolk Southern has been involved in alone. Using federal data, his firm, Watts Guerra LLP, found that the rail company behind East Palestine’s derailment has reported 3,397 events that could be classified as a derailment over the past 20 years.
“This is happening about every three days,” Watts said.
Brockovich, the famed environmental activist who led efforts to build a groundwater contamination case against a natural gas company 1993, has been involved in similar activism for 30 years.
But this case, she says, is different.
“I’ve never seen in 30 years, a situation like this,” she said, warning residents that what her team was going to present them may scare them. “... I feel your angst and I feel your frustration. And I want to share something with you, you’re not alone.”
Brockovich has whistleblower history
In 1993, Brockovich was a whistleblower against Pacific Gas and Electric Company after discovering a mysterious widespread illness in Hinkley, California. Her efforts exposed that Hinkley’s water had been poisoned for 30 years by PG&E, leading to a $333 million settlement for residents affected.
The lawsuit led to an eponymous film starring Julia Roberts in 2000. Brockovich has spoken out about the pollution in East Palestine and the response from the government on many occasions since the Feb. 3 train derailment, urging transparency instead of rampant confusion regarding the risks the community faces.
When lights at the event inadvertently went out, one resident quipped that it was a perfect representation of how they have felt during the process.
“That’s how we feel, in the dark,” the woman shouted.
Residents report symptoms after derailment
Since the derailment and controlled burn, many residents have reported a number of ailments and symptoms. The state of Ohio set up a makeshift clinic in East Palestine earlier this week in response to help facilitate some of the medical needs of residents. Watts advised them to get blood tests at a local center to make sure they weren’t exposed to the dangerous chemicals released into the air.
Lisa Fulton, who lives on Taggart Street right by the scene of the derailment, said she has felt some symptoms since the derailment occurred and wanted to find out more information about what her next steps should be.
“I saw the fire come right down the tracks,” she said after the event. “I’ve had a sore throat and some tightness in my chest. And I’ve been wheezing because I have asthma.”
Luann Krause, a nurse practitioner, is concerned about the effect the chemicals will have on children.
“Their bodies are forming, their blood cells are forming, their bone marrow is forming” she said. “And they’re at risk for leukemia.”
Watts said the group of attorneys and activists may plan similar events as early as next week to continue to inform the public.
Bob Bowcock, a water expert and hydrologist, warned the aftermath of the derailment won’t go away any time soon.
“You’re in a situation that you’re going to be dealing with for the rest of your lives if you stay here,” he said.