A chemistry professor testified during a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) fact-finding hearing that the controlled burn of vinyl chloride from the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio earlier this year may not have been necessary.
Norfolk Southern officials says that the unified command made the decision to vent and burn the vinyl chloride, out of concern for polymerization, a molecular chemical reaction that may have caused the tanker cars to rise in temperature resulting in a disastrous explosion.
The officials have said that the unified command needed to make a decision quickly before the tanker cars reached a critical temperature of 185 degrees Fahrenheit.
According to William Carroll, a chemistry professor at Indiana University, the feared chemical reaction polymerization likely was not happening inside the rail cars involved in the February 3rd East Palestine derailment.
Carroll said that polymerization cannot occur in the presence of heat alone; it also requires an organic component for the heat to activate it. He indicated that an organic component wasn’t present.
“The conditions under which vinyl chloride polymerizes is within the presence of what’s known as a free radical initiator and without that initiator the polymerization cannot occur. Initiators are typically organic chemicals that are added that have a thermally labile bond. In other words, heat can activate the initiator and when it does free radicals are created and the polymerization reaction starts,” Carroll said.
The professor also testified that there is no scientific basis for the 185-degree Fahrenheit claim by Norfolk Southern.
“I have no idea what a critical temperature of 185 degrees means. Vinyl chloride does not polymerize only on the action of heat. It does not spontaneously polymerize,” Carroll said.
A temperature graph shown by NTSB investigators further demonstrated that, according to the data at hand, the tank car temperatures were oscillating but not increasing sufficiently to suggest a chemical reaction was taking place.
According to Paul Thomas with OxyVinyls, the company that owned the vinyl chloride, the company agrees with Carroll’s conclusion that polymerization was not occurring in the tanker car.
“It’s conclusive to all of us that polymerization was not going on in that car,” Thomas said.
Officials from Norfolk Southern maintain that the magnitude of the tanker cars’ damage made the vent and burn the only viable choice, and that polymerization was not the only factor in the decision.
On February 3rd, 50 train carriages, 10 of which were carrying hazardous materials, derailed as a result of a technical problem with a rail car axle, according to federal authorities. There was vinyl chloride in five of the vehicles. Hundreds of residents evacuated as a result of the controlled release of poisonous gasses that Norfolk Southern carried out on February 6th to stop an explosion.
Officials told East Palestine residents on February 8th that they could safely go home, despite the reports of hundreds of dead fish in the Ohio River near East Palestine and residents complaining of headaches and illness since the derailment.
Despite assurances from government officials that they are safe, many members of the community said they are fearful and nervous about their exposure to the chemicals and said they are concerned about the quality of the air and drinking water. Some residents chose to live in hotels until officials can convince them that their homes are safe
Norfolk Southern faces a lawsuit from Ohio’s Attorney General Dave Yost over costs for the cleanup of the toxic chemical spill and environmental damage, even as they collaborate to establish funds for resident health care, property value issues, and water protections. The federal government is also suing the railroad.
According to the Ohio EPA, Norfolk Southern has hauled approximately 20.2 million gallons of liquid wastewater out of East Palestine. There is a pile of approximately 11,400 tons of excavated soil waiting for removal from East Palestine versus 66,300 tons that Norfolk Southern has removed.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “East Palestine Train Wreck” by City of East Palestine, Ohio.
