Following the catastrophic train derailment on February 3rd and controlled release of poisonous gasses in East Palestine, Ohio that wreaked havoc on the environment and negatively impacted the health of residents Ohio Governor Mike DeWine‘s press secretary told The Ohio Star that the controlled burn was the “least bad option.”
Press secretary Dan Tierney told The Star that officials from state agencies, federal agencies, and Norfolk-Southern were in collaborative communication regarding the emerging chemical threat at East Palestine. These officials advised the governor and other officials that absent a controlled burn, there was a certainty the tanker cars with Vinyl Chloride would explode in a catastrophic explosion, not only with a chemical release but also with shrapnel traveling one mile in radius. The controlled burn also ensured any gaseous releases occurred as vertical as possible, which creates the smallest possible radius of the affected area.
“The decision was not controlled burn versus no release. The decision was controlled burn with mitigated release or uncontrolled explosion with certain release and a shrapnel event. Both were options were not good, but the controlled burn was the least bad option,” Tierney told The Star.
Sr. communications manager with Norfolk Southern Connor Spielmaker echoed Tierney, saying that the decisions were made collaboratively to ensure the town’s safety.
“Norfolk Southern hazardous material personnel were on-scene and coordinating with local first responders immediately following the derailment. Throughout the following days, decisions were made in consultation with our professional emergency response contractors, as well as local, state, and federal agencies and other experts on the best path forward to ensure the safety of the town from a catastrophic failure of the tankers. Remediation efforts continue on-site and in coordination with those same agencies,” Spielmaker told The Star.
In a press conference on Tuesday, DeWine said before deciding to implement the controlled release, he and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro spoke with representatives from the railroad who recommended that the controlled release was the best option for the safety of the residents.
DeWine also noted that the Ohio National Guard did a modeling exercise of how the release would work in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Defense to give some additional information and understand the full ramifications before making the decision. The modeling was then produced into a map, and the decision was made to proceed with the recommended controlled release.
“We made the decision to go ahead with the controlled release,” DeWine said.
At the press conference, DeWine did not comment on the legal authority he, Shapiro, and the collaborating agencies acted under when ordering the controlled release.
On February 3rd, of 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.
East Palestine, Ohio, is about 21 miles south of Youngstown, Ohio, and about 50 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with roughly 5,000 residents. It belongs to Columbiana County.
In a letter to Norfolk Southern on Friday, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated that the rail carriages included vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, and isobutylene.
Polyvinyl chloride, the hard plastic compound found in plastic goods such as credit cards, auto parts, PVC pipe, and other items, comes from vinyl chloride, a colorless gas.
The air around industries that make vinyl chloride frequently has the highest concentrations of the gas, and employees at these factories may be exposed to it. According to the National Cancer Institute, vinyl chloride can enter residential air when using water, and the general public can inhale it if they are using a contaminated water supply.
Exposure to vinyl chloride may cause an elevated risk of lung, brain, and a rare type of liver cancer. When burned, it releases hydrogen chloride and the poisonous gas phosgene, which Germans used as a weapon in World War I.
Five train carriages were at risk of exploding due to the unstable vinyl chloride composition, which could have sent fatal shards into the air. Around 3:30 p.m. on February 6th, Norfolk Southern Railroad carried out a controlled discharge of the vinyl chloride to avert an explosion.
As the gas gradually released into a trough and workers lit it on fire, it produced a sizable plume above East Palestine. Up until the late afternoon, residents could see flames and black smoke above the village. The EPA stated that it is still monitoring the air quality.
On February 6, when Norfolk Southern Railroad torched the chemicals in the rail cars, sending dangerous smells into the air, DeWine and Shapiro ordered the urgent evacuation of hundreds of residents within a 1-mile by 3-mile radius encompassing East Palestine.
Residents who continued to live there and breathed in the fumes risked dying or suffering grave injuries, such as skin burns and lung damage. According to the Ohio Emergency Management Agency, the majority of the locals are thought to have departed the area before the evacuation. Ohio and Pennsylvania law enforcement officers visited every home to make sure everyone had departed before the controlled release.
East Palestine residents were able to safely return home on Wednesday 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.
The EPA said it performed hundreds of tests confirming the water and air are in good living condition. The agency said it continued monitoring the air throughout East Palestine, including inside at least 210 homes. The EPA also said its investigating soil and surface water contamination near the crash site and has collected spilled material in a nearby stream.
DeWine also called on Congress to take action after he learned that according to Ohio PUCO, the train going through East Palestine was not considered a highly hazardous material train, so the railroad was not required to notify anyone in Ohio about what was in the cars.
“If this is true this is absurd. Congress needs to take a look at how these things are handled. We should know if there are trains coming through with hazardous materials through our state,” DeWine said.
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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]
