EAST PALESTINE — Ever since a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine in February, residents of the village and other communities impacted by the rail disaster have been begging responding agencies for a discussion about health implications.

Those residents will have to wait a little longer as a public health informational session was shelved and replaced by a session on the cleanup progress at the crash site as the fifth installment of a public informational series by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took place at The Way Station on Thursday.

Region 5 EPA response coordinator Mark Durno cited an inability to get public health officials together in time for Thursday’s meeting. The health session is tentatively planned for two parts, starting June 1.

Instead of a public health presentation, the residents received a detailed update on remediation and cleanup work at the derailment site by Tricia Edwards, U.S. EPA onsite coordinator, who reported that approximately 1,900 linear feet of track was removed and restored. The 4-foot ballast, or base, was excavated down to clean dirt and rebuilt for the south tracks, known as main line 1, and work is now underway repeating the process for main line 2, or the south tracks. Edwards also explained how plans for the work are approved.

“We are working under what is called ‘the main line interim soil removal plan’ and in this plan Norfolk Southern presents their planned operations and how they intend to conduct the work and meet the goals that both the Ohio EPA and U.S. EPA has set — the requirements which they have to meet, ” Edwards said. “The plans are then reviewed by the agencies and have to be approved before work can move forward.”

Those plans involve excavating the contaminated soil and digging down until a “safe” sample is obtained. Edwards said the soil sampling at the site is conducted with the U.S. EPA oversight as well as U.S. EPA taking co-located samples “so the analyticals can therefore be verified so you can have a lot of confidence in that data as we move forward.”

REMEDIATION SPECIFICS

Edwards also shared a list of specific areas within the derailment site and the order in which they will be remediated. The list began with main line 1 (the south track), which has been completed. Next listed is main line 2 (north tracks), on which work is now being completed. The centerline (an area between the two tracks), burn pits (where the controlled burn took place), north ditch (a tributary to Sulphur Run), south ditch and two car-scrapping areas (the areas where cars were dismantled for disposal) will follow. Those areas are then separated into grids to conduct the sampling.

“This plan is focusing on hitting those areas and addressing those areas where we know, or suspect, contamination from the incident is located,” Edwards said. “These are the areas we want to focus on and the additional plan is still being worked out and developed. This keeps us moving in the right direction.”

Edwards also explained what goes into the process of “investigating and excavating” the areas. First, all of the ballast is removed from beneath the track and then (based on knowledge learned during remediation of the south track) one foot of glacial till (the soil beneath the ballast) is scraped off the top.

Visible inspections and screening of the material — handheld meters are placed in a bag with the dirt to determine if any volatile compounds can be detected — are conducted. If elevated readings are detected, further excavation is conducted. Split samples taken at depths of 0 to 2 inches, 12 inches and 24 inches — by hand and with a geoprobe — are then packaged and shipped to onsite and offsite laboratories for testing in 24-hour return.

The data is reviewed the next day by both the federal and state EPA and Norfolk Southern contractors. If any exceedances are detected, work in the grid continues. If both agencies approve the samples, lead EPA incident commander Ralph Dollhopf reviews the data. If he agrees with the analytics, he issues a letter to Norfolk Southern to backfill the area.

All excavated dirt is segregated to another area onsite to await removal. Those piles are protected by tarps to be kept as dry as possible and lessen the amount of wastewater that is captured and stored for future removal.

AIR MONITORING

Air monitoring is ongoing through the process with the TAGA bus and multiple monitoring devices. Odor control measures also are continuously being implemented by covering the areas and dirt piles as well as utilizing butyl busters (an odor-suppressing foam) and industrial fans to circulate the air.

With the warmer weather, dust management has increased throughout the village with more water-spraying trucks making rounds, active pressure washing of the streets, the installation of sewer mats over the sewer drains so dust can be captured and collected, and the paving of gravel lots within the work areas.

As for the samples themselves, Edwards said the soil samples are screened for “contaminants of concern” — vinyl chloride, different acrylates and some glycols. Dioxin testing is not part of the process much to the frustration of residents.

“Dioxins are not the chemical of concern on this response,” Durno said. “There have been dioxins generated in that fire. We know that, but the levels of the dioxins in the waste and in the soil do not show any remarkable impacts to the environment. We are sampling for primary components that you would expect to have leached into the soil. We looked at the chemistry and the chemistry did not suggest we had a large problem. That’s our position on it and that’s not going to change. The science is solid on this and we’re going to hold firm on it.”

Residents in attendance also voiced concern over several other aspects of the cleanup. The on-site industrial fans were a point of contention as one resident pointed out that aside from circulating air, the fans also kick up and circulate potentially contaminated dust into the air.

WASTEWATER PLANT RUMOR CONFIRMED

The confirmation of a rumored wastewater treatment plant to be built on site to treat contaminated water in the village also drew ire.

“Right now, everything that is generated on site is being shipped off site, but the company (Norfolk Southern) has been constructing a water treatment plant to potentially treat it onsite prior to offsite disposal or if they are able to get a permit to dispose of it locally,” Durno confirmed. “The equipment is in place and there have been some plans developed, but nothing has been reviewed or approved by command.”

When asked why it is being built now after most of the wastewater has been disposed of, Durno said 2 million gallons remain on site and more liquid waste will be generated as cleanup efforts continue. He also said it costs less to treat water onsite and ship it off as nonhazardous than to ship it to a hazardous-waste facility.

As far as the soil remaining and the time it will take to clear it out, those answers were conflicting at times during the informationals session. Edwards estimated about 20,000 to 25,000 tons of contaminated dirt remains on site. Though it varies, Durno estimated about 1,200 tons per day is removed and calculates another month of disposal remains.

However, when a resident pointed out that the burn pits still needed to be dug out, meaning more toxic soil would be added to awaiting piles, Durno agreed.

“You are absolutely right,” he said. “We don’t anticipate as much waste but we won’t know until we open the ground up and collect those samples, so stay tuned.”

Later in the session, Durno stated that the “burn pit was already dug up.”

Edwards clarified that “most of the pit” has been excavated but the side walls have not been sampled and until they are, work on the pit cannot be completed. The dirt from the burn pits, however, remains onsite and has not been disposed of yet.

“We are excavating it, and it is still sitting there, but it is now in a controlled environment that we have lined and that we cover,” Edwards said. “And if there is any rain or anything that could percolate through there, it is captured and that water is managed. That’s why we are aggressively trying to remove that material and stage it in an area that we can manage.”

Durno also conceded that not all the work at the site will be completed in a month, but rather that is when the north track is expected to be up and running.