The decision to blow up five tank cars and burn toxic chemicals inside them after a freight train derailed in eastern Ohio last year was not justified, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board told Congress Wednesday. Ta. But she said key decision-makers, who feared the tank cars would explode three days after the accident, never had the information they needed.
The vinyl chloride released that day, along with other chemicals spilled and ignited after the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment, has left residents with persistent concerns about possible long-term health effects. .
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said experts from Oxy Vinyls, the company that manufactured the vinyl inside these tank cars, told a contractor hired by Norfolk Southern Railway He said he believed no dangerous chemical reactions were occurring. But Oxy Vinyls was removed from command.
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“They told us that polymerization was occurring, they believed that polymerization was not occurring, and there was no justification for venting and burning it,” Homendy said. “There was another option: to cool it down.”
But that information was never passed on to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine or first responders, she said.
Some of this information was revealed during NTSB hearings in East Palestine last spring. Mr Homendy’s comments on Wednesday were the clearest yet to say that the controversial vent-and-burn action was not necessary. However, the agency will not release its final report on the cause of the Feb. 3, 2023 derailment until it holds another public hearing in June of this year.
On February 6, 2023, a controlled explosion on part of a derailed Norfolk Southern train causes a black plume to rise over East Palestine, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jean J. Pasker, File)
Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Mr. DeWine, said it was frustrating to hear more than a year after the derailment that the tank car did not need to be blown up.
“The only two scenarios that have come up so far have been a catastrophic explosion, with debris flying in all directions to a one-mile radius, or controlled venting and combustion to avoid the explosion. It was crazy,” Tierney said. “Nobody brought up the scenario where if we don’t do anything, it won’t explode.”
East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Dravik said the command center’s consensus was that releasing the chemicals and burning them was “the least bad option.”
But Homendy said he has never heard Oxy Vinyls’ opinion that vinyl chloride is stable. Instead, decision-makers are faced with the limited temperature readings available and the violent explosion in which one of the tank cars, after several hours of calm, roars out of its pressure relief valve and releases vinyl chloride. They turned to contractors who were wary of this practice. Drew McCarty of Specialized Professional Services testified last spring that the tank truck was “really scary, to be honest.”
Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, who questioned Mr. Homendy during Wednesday’s hearing, said he did not intend to criticize Mr. Dravik, Mr. DeWine or the other officials who made the decision.
“I think this is a criticism of the people on the ground who provided improper information, and I think the provision of improper information caused tremendous harm to the community on the ground,” Vance said. . “This is an extraordinary job by your team, but this is a really, really troubling set of circumstances.”
Norfolk Southern Railroad again defended the decision Wednesday, saying the plan has nothing to do with restarting trains more quickly.
“The first priority of all involved was the safety of the community and limiting the impact of the incident,” the railroad said in a statement. “The successful controlled release prevented a potentially catastrophic uncontrolled explosion.”
Chrissy Ferguson, 49, has not been able to return to her home above a polluted stream since the derailment. She said her heart was broken to hear her latest information from the NTSB.
“Is our government going to let companies get away with this problem, or are we going to act on it? Are you going to get swept away?” Ferguson said.
Misty Allison, who lives with her family about a mile from the derailment site, said the findings confirm what she has always believed to be true: There was no need for a vent or a fire to occur. He said it has been reconfirmed.
“The only justification was greed and that Norfolk Southern was giving people benefits to open the railroad tracks as quickly as possible and destroy any evidence left behind,” Allison said.
And most questions about potential long-term health effects remain unanswered.
“We need to make sure everyone has access to health care, not just those who want to participate in research,” she says.
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The NTSB said that overheating of a bearing in one of the railcars appears to have caused the derailment. Trackside detectors detected the bearings starting to heat up miles in advance, but temperatures did not reach high enough levels to issue a warning until shortly before impact. In other words, the crew had no opportunity to stop the train.
Many East Palestine residents are eager to move on once the derailment is cleared later this year, but some are suffering from respiratory illnesses, rashes and other health concerns.
The City of Norfolk South announced that responding to the disaster and providing assistance to the town cost more than $1.1 billion. Now, a group of investors critical of the railroad’s response and the disappointing profits it has reported over the past few years are calling for CEO Alan Shaw to be fired and take control of the railroad.
