Biden to visit Ohio’s East Palestine over a year after toxic train derailment
Joe Biden will finally make a visit to East Palestine, Ohio on Friday, more than a year after a toxic train derailment devastated the community.
For many residents, the trip is overdue. They hope Biden will use the visit to announce federal aid for environmental testing, relocation assistance, and immediate and ongoing healthcare for residents who are still weathering the fallout from the derailment – something community groups have been demanding for the past year.
“I’m very hopeful that President Biden will take this opportunity to meet with elected officials and impacted community members in order to see those requests across the finish line,” said Jess Conard, a resident of East Palestine who is also regional director for the anti-plastic pollution non-profit Beyond Plastics.
On 3 February last year, a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, a small village on the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania. A few days later, officials decided to vent and burn one of the chemicals onboard the train – vinyl chloride, a carcinogenic petrochemical gas used in plastic production – to prevent a potential explosion.
Conard and other residents immediately began reporting headaches and nausea. Federal and local officials say that East Palestine and surrounding areas are safe, but independent analysts have long said more testing is needed.
In the aftermath, many residents and officials have coalesced around a key demand: a major disaster declaration from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).
In September, Biden signed an executive order appointing a Fema coordinator to oversee Norfolk Southern’s community response to the catastrophe. But the disaster declaration request is still open.
On Thursday, more than 200 local and national environmental advocates signed a letter to Biden reiterating that request. “As you prepare to visit East Palestine this week, now is the time for you to adopt and aggressively put these common-sense recommendations into practice,” it says.
A disaster declaration, the letter notes, could free up federal dollars for relocation aid and medical assistance program for impacted residents, and for ongoing testing in the community.
“We’re hoping for robust air, soil and water testing for at least 20 years,” said Conard, who signed Thursday’s letter.Hilary Flint, who organizes with the Unity Council for East Palestine and also signed the letter, said she doesn’t think the White House will fulfill the request for an emergency declaration on Friday.
“No [federal or local] politician I’ve spoken to has seemed hopeful that will happen,” said Flint. However, she added: “I hope this is an opportunity for President Biden to come here and hear from the people affected by this and understand that we are real people,” she said.
The letters’ signatories are also demanding a ban on vinyl chloride, the harmful petrochemical authorities burned after the crash. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a health review of the chemical – the first step towards a potential ban.
Other advocates are asking Biden to use his visit to call for increased rail safety standards, and specifically to continue to advocate for a bipartisan bill, currently stalled, that would instate stricter regulations and safety precautions for the rail sector.
Still others are pushing for Biden to center corporate accountability. Some members of Congress, for instance, are demanding the Securities Exchange Commission enact more stringent corporate lobbying disclosure rules.
“We … urge the president to use this moment to support the senators’ request,” said Lisa Gilbert, executive vicepresident of advocacy group Public Citizen, which supports the demand.
A Public Citizen report published in January found that in the year since the derailment, Norfolk Southern spent $2.3m lobbying Congress, federal agencies and the White House on railway safety and other related issues.
“Our report uncovered that Norfolk Southern spent millions lobbying on issues like railroad safety legislation after the East Palestine disaster – but in order to understand the real impact of their lobbying, we need new corporate lobbying transparency rules,” Gilbert said.
Flint, who is a cancer survivor, says that more than anything, she hopes the trip encourages Biden to take community concerns seriously.
“The government agencies involved are reporting that everything is okay,” she said. “But that’s just simply not the full truth.”
She said she can still see a “rainbow sheen” in creeks near the derailment site and still hears about kids in town developing rashes. On Thursday morning, she woke up with a nosebleed.
“We haven’t gotten a chance yet to talk directly to President Biden and tell him all of this,” she said. “I think that that is something that will change his mind, and I think it’ll get him to put more resources into the community.”