A Trip to East Palestine
I took a trip to East Palestine, arriving on the morning of February 26th, about 3 weeks after the spill.
I drove around the town as much as one can when it’s such a small community. A roadhouse I intended to stop at for coffee was closed, presumably falling victim to the situation. Cases of water sat out in front of the few businesses, free to the public. Half a dozen homes had cases of water stacked on their porches.
I intended to do some water testing at residences (looking for those with private wells), but as I began knocking on doors, I found that nobody answered them. Perhaps some residents are staying out of town, or maybe they didn’t like some weirdo knocking on their door holding a clipboard and a bunch of glass vials on a Sunday morning.
Between 30 and 40 workers seemed to be working, mostly near the spill site. Others kept a small section of Taggart rd closed. A handful were monitoring dredging operations of Sulphur Run, the small creek that Senator Vance was standing in.
On the map, I’ve marked in red where I believe the spill occurred, right next to Sulphur Run which flows through the town. The cleanup efforts seem concentrated on the creek and the spill site, and none of the surrounding areas seem to be getting worked on.
One of the first things I noticed was Taggart street (the big yellow road running east and west) was closed in a 200 yard section closest to the spill, forcing residents to drive a few miles north or south to access the town. The workers didn’t want to let me get direct access to the creek, so I settled for testing a few other areas.
First I sampled a small pond, and then a marshy area a few hundred yards to the East (designated by small black arrows). I then sampled the well of a homeowner about 1 mile from the crash (larger black arrow).
I was surprised to learn that Norfolk Southern refused to test his well, telling him he was 200 yards outside of a 1 mile testing zone.
For results, I need to offer some disclaimers. I am not a chemist. In fact, thanks to CLEP exams, I was able to satisfy my bachelors degree without ever taking a science class.
Nobody should rely on these results. For one thing, Vinyl Chloride evaporates into the air with a little agitation. I drove through the mountains for hours after filling these vials, I wouldn’t be surprised if my samples degraded.
In the pond and in the marsh, we only found elevated levels of one chemical. Toluene.
If our calculations are correct (Thank you nerd sleuths), that is less than 1 PPM.
Another caveat is, Toluene is not water soluble and would’ve been floating on the surface. I didn’t make an effort to sample the surface, I was just dipping glass vials into the water, I was trying to get out of there while it seeped into my shoes.
My shoes as it happens, picked up a very odd chemical smell that I noticed once they dried.
Therein lies one of the testing challenges. Vinyl Chloride would evaporate into the air and likely isn’t on the surface of any water, while Toluene is almost certainly exclusively found on the surface of the water (and likely the topsoil).
I don’t think this is leaching from the spill itself, I suspect this is from the burn off.
OSHA offers this guidance:
At 10 PPM on a time weighed average (talking about in a workplace), you’re potentially looking at miscarriages.
This may be frustrating for East Palestine residents, but this almost creates more questions than answers. What is the concentration at the surface of that pond? Given its insolubility, can it make it into the drinking water? I’m not sure about that.
If it’s from the burn off, and I tested it 3 weeks after the spill - what kind of concentrations were in the air in the immediate few days and will there be medical issues?
There are no roads closely running to the east or north of the spill, and if these chemicals were dispersed by the burn off, those areas may be more contaminated. And if it is indeed from the burnoff, you’re at the mercy of what the winds were carrying and the mass of those particles which would’ve fell in an uneven fashion. Twenty yards might make all the difference.
I tested the well of a homeowner and we detected nothing, to a certain degree of relief for him. Subsequently, he informed me that the EPA (not Norfolk Southern) has also finally tested his well and he is still waiting for results.
If I had to summarize my thoughts, I think things are in stable currently, although additional testing is needed. The tests I did are not all-inclusive. They need to do a better job of communicating where they are testing and what the results are.
Given some of the testing challenges, they need to also communicate how the samples were taken because that will dramatically impact what the results might show.
I am concerned for the residents (like the homeowners I spoke to) who were not ordered to evacuate and who were breathing in some very nasty chemicals for a few days, in concentrations apparently significant enough to kill chickens 10 miles away. They are rightfully furious that they have to beg Norfolk Southern or the EPA to come and test their wells. They should be tested monthly for the next several months.
When will someone produce an estimate for the chemical concentrations in the air during the burn-off? I haven’t seen one, neither have the homeowners and they have no idea what they were breathing in.
They need health monitoring. There shouldn’t even be a dispute about testing water (and soil) for residents within 10 miles directionally downwind or downstream. It’s not that many homes to test.
To see Norfolk Southern donating to the East Palestine school and doing other events ostensibly to help restore their public image makes me furious when they are telling the local residents to pound sand when they want their wells tested.