Ohio train derailment aftermath mishandled: Whistleblower.

[Maxmars]

Apparently, the East Palestine derailment was not properly handled by the EPA or local authorities.  Some have conjectured the aftermath has been 'covered-up.'

From FoxBusiness.com: East Palestine resident says whistleblower is 'tip of the iceberg' for disaster response 'cover-up'
 

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East Palestine, Ohio, residents are expressing frustration after learning that the emergency response to the toxic train derailment last year was riddled with mistakes.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is disputing whistleblower claims of mistakes and "no confidence" in early data collected from the site where a Norfolk-Southern train hauling caustic materials derailed along the Pennsylvania-Ohio border.

A person who said he helped craft the technology and interpret data from advanced radiological sensors on a high-tech EPA plane used to survey the damage and take hazmat readings told The Associated Press the aircraft was enlisted too late. In turn, the whistleblower told the outlet, it may have been unnecessary to burn off toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars in a controlled release.

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It seems that only one of the five rail cars containing the highly toxic chemicals was ever in danger of fire... but instead...
 

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"What's crazy is, from the get-go, there was only one vinyl chloride car that was ever in danger of polymerization, is what we were told, that was ever at risk of overheating. Never five at any one point in time," Murphy pointed out.

"It's just a matter of money. It's cheaper to throw a match and blow it up than it is to truck it out and take it out appropriately. You know, that's lost revenue for Norfolk Southern," she continued. "The truth is going to come out and it's going to be a slow process, but we're all suffering. In the meantime, what's the cost going to be to us while we're waiting for the real truth to come out?"

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[underlining is mine]

Perhaps this is what was behind the "Settlement" off we discussed here: https://denyignorance.com/Thread-Ohio-Tr...88#pid5188

[putnam6]

This has always bothered me, I have a daughter in eastern Ohio. There was so much wrong going on from day one.

Perhaps we should be protesting Clean, Clean East Palestine

President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency waited nearly a week to send up a special plane to test the air and water around East Palestine, Ohio following last year’s toxic chemical train spill — and officials tried to cover up the delay once they did get around to launching it, a whistleblower has said.
Former EPA contractor Robert Kroutil came forward Tuesday with his shocking claims to NewsNation and the Associated Press, raising fresh questions about the White House’s much-scrutinized response to the Feb. 3, 2023, disaster.
According to Kroutil, who resigned this past January, the EPA’s Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology (ASPECT) plane should have been in the air “in the first five to 10 hours after the incident and while the fires are still burning.”
 What’s more, Kroutil said, ASPECT program manager Paige Delgado ordered the plane’s operator to shut down the chemical sensors when it flew over the creeks in East Palestine — even though officials were concerned about toxins seeping into those waterways and potentially fouling drinking water supplies downstream on the Ohio River.
Kroutil added his satellite link to the plane’s instruments confirmed those sensors were turned off.
“I’ve done 180 different responses,” he told NewsNation. “I’ve never heard the program manager tell us to turn the sensor off when collecting data.”

https://nypost.com/2024/05/14/us-news/epa-waited-days-to-deploy-data-gathering-plane-after-east-palestine-spill-whistleblower/

[Maxmars]

Just a quick follow-up, since the political types are digging for dirt...

From ArsTechnica: Toxic chemicals from Ohio train derailment lingered in buildings for months

On February 3, 2023, a train carrying chemicals jumped the tracks in East Palestine, Ohio, rupturing railcars filled with hazardous materials and fueling chemical fires at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

The disaster drew global attention as the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania urged evacuations for a mile around the site. Flames and smoke billowed from burning chemicals, and an acrid odor radiated from the derailment area as chemicals entered the air and spilled into a nearby creek.

Three days later, at the urging of the rail company Norfolk Southern, about 1 million pounds of vinyl chloride, a chemical that can be toxic to humans at high doses, was released from the damaged train cars and set aflame.

Federal investigators later concluded that the open burn and the black mushroom cloud it produced were unnecessary, but it was too late. Railcar chemicals spread into Ohio and Pennsylvania.

This computer-generated map of contamination spread is a bit disconcerting...



But remember, this is based upon data probability... these are not directly measured values.

But letting people return after only a month, without ensuring contamination limits in those buildings was stupid.

"Appearances matter," remember?

[FlyingClayDisk]

The handling of this incident is both shocking and criminal.  There were so many things done improperly, almost clandestinely...for so many reasons other than in the public interest.

I'm really torn on issues like this.  On the one hand, things like this want to make me take a absolute enviro-centrist posture.  On the other hand, I also recognize how absolutely disruptive such a posture can be in the carrying on of our daily lives (most don't realize just how disruptive).  Somewhere in between a balance must get struck.  However, in this particular case (and many others), government bureaucrats should be the very last people to strike this balance!  They rarely strike any 'balance' at all, and often only settle on the ground which suits their personal agendas and personal wealth the best.  The same can be said for corporate interests.  Unfortunately though, the common people are not necessarily well enough informed to make such decisions either.

We hear the words "common sense" used for all sorts of legislation (I need not cite specifics).  Sadly, common sense isn't very common these days.  In fact, common sense is pretty rare indeed; probably about as rare as hens teeth anymore. 

In my perfect utopian world we would find an objective group of reasonably educated and rounded common citizens, with the key word being "objective", so serve on a policy making body for environmental issues.  These persons would be completely free of political agenda, ideology and preconceived notions.  Pure fantasy, I know, but one can wish.  Candidly, this is what our elected legislative bodies are 'supposed' to be, but alas they are far from it.

I was reading a very interesting book lately about the initial efforts to perform the boundary surveys which make up this nation.  Fascinating book, which goes into subjects such as standardization of weights and measures in astounding detail.  One of the interesting sidelines in the book was the dilemma of getting people interested in settling the vast expanses of North America.  Once the land had been surveyed and subdivided another problem became apparent; the exploitation of resources in given areas was having detrimental effect.  This amounts to one of the very first environmental movements in the Americas, and it led to, among other things, the establishment of the first National Parks and later things like the Bureau of Land Management (and associated federal land).  Though these measures were relatively successful in their time, in the two centuries since then environmental issues have become far more complex.

Back in the 1800's we had level-headed leaders who were smart enough to take stock of the problems objectively, and take the time to come up with "common sense" solutions which fit the times.  I'm not sure how we get back to those same 'level-headed' leaders, or to 'common sense' measures, in today's world, but it's clear to me we need to try.

Just some thoughts.