(NewsNation) — Nearly six months after a devastating Norfolk Southern train derailment released vinyl chloride into the environment around East Palestine, Ohio, community members rallied in Washington, D.C., to persuade lawmakers to ban the toxic chemical and urge President Joe Biden to issue a Major Presidential Disaster Declaration.
“Declaring an emergency in this area would open up those vital resources so that we can get back into our homes and feel like a community again,” Jessica Conard, an East Palestine resident, told NewsNation’s Leland Vittert.
Earlier this month, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine asked Biden to issue a disaster declaration for the town, but that hasn’t happened yet. The Federal Emergency Management Agency told NewsNation it was reviewing DeWine’s request as of July 4.
Conard said people in her community are still feeling sick and experiencing acute health issues following the derailment.
“I think right now, we have to remember that this is a grim warning for those that do live near a railroad track,” Conard said. “‘”This isn’t something that we’re just going to come back from and everything is going to be hunky dory.”
Biden has yet to visit East Palestine and has come under heavy pressure to do so from community members, despite saying he would go “at some point,” while the White House has mostly brushed aside questions about a trip.
“I don’t pretend to know why Biden does or doesn’t do what he’s doing, but I do know that we need that emergency declaration,” Conard said. “I do know that our homes or businesses still smell like toxic chemicals. And that’s not something that we can really do anything about without those resources.”
Recent independent test results from the area showed potentially dangerous chemicals were present at rates well above normal in the soil.
And Conard isn’t the only East Palestine resident speaking out. Jami Wallace, who also said she doesn’t feel safe at home in their town, rallied in D.C. to ask Biden to come to their community on the six-month anniversary of the train’s derailment and ensure that residents have guaranteed federal support.
“We are not OK,” Wallace said. “We have many, many unmet needs. We want our legislators to stand in solidarity with us, and to ask President Biden to get us the federal support that we need and deserve.”
