EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (NewsNation) — As the National Transportation Safety Board is holding a two-day field hearing in East Palestine on the Feb. 3 Northfolk Southern derailment, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official is reassuring residents that their data indicates the area is safe.
Residents have raised many questions about possible lingering health effects even though state and federal officials have said tests show the air and water in town remain safe. Many continue to report inexplicable health issues and have fled their homes.
In May, the EPA said it wasn’t involved in the final decision-making process regarding the burning of the tankers, dispelling concerns about its approval.
Mark Durno, the EPA official overseeing operations, doubled down on that statement while discussing the incident in an exclusive interview with NewsNation’s investigative correspondent Rich McHugh.
“Well, EPA didn’t sign off on anything, even if it was one tanker. We were consulted for health and safety purposes to be able to know whether or not we could set up an air monitoring system to be able to adequately address community safety issues,” he said.
Three days following the train derailment officials opted to burn five tank cars, releasing 116,000 gallons of toxic vinyl chloride into the air.
“We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open,” Sil Caggiano, a hazardous material specialist, said at the time.
Norfolk Southern told NewsNation in May that the EPA was involved and that the decision to burn was made “after discussions and consultation with Governor DeWine, Governor Shapiro, Ohio state agencies, Pennsylvania state agencies, U.S. EPA, U.S., and local first responders.
Durno clarified that the EPA’s involvement in the decision to burn the tankers was primarily focused on “air monitoring.”
“Yes, we were part of the overall decision, but we were not a signatory to the actual incident,” he said.
Durno said that the EPA never objected to burning the tankers at any stage of the process.
“Not that I’m aware of,” he said. “When you’re dealing with the emergencies like this and you have to make decisions on a very critical pathway, I don’t see where another decision was possible.”
Judith Enck, a former EPA administrator, has criticized the EPA’s role.
“I think that was a mistake,” she said. I think that decision will be a major factor in the lives of many communities in Pennsylvania, in Ohio, not just East Palestine.”
Residents received the EPA’s clearance to return two days after the burn.
“The air monitoring had gotten stabilized to a point where we didn’t see contaminants of concern at levels of concern in the air,” Durno said. “Based on all of that data and the fact that the particulate counts in the air had come down to an acceptable level, we knew that there was not an acute threat to the, for the public to come back and access their homes.”
Residents NewsNation spoke with in May expressed a different opinion.
Linda Murphy and four others showed NewsNation medical tests results which revealed the presence of vinyl chloride markers in their systems.
“That whole town is a chemical cocktail, and we’re all lab rats,” Murphy said. “You’re just looking at some of the ones who have been marked.”
Duro raised the lingering question about the source of health issues in the incident.
“We don’t know if they have vinyl chloride in their system. We know that they may have been exposed to vinyl chloride early on, but all the monitoring that we’ve done today, from the time that evacuation was lifted, has not shown any sustained vinyl chloride exposures in the community,” Duro said.
He continued: “We know that there are residents that are dealing with health issues. The question is, what are those health issues from? We don’t know if there is another potential source of vinyl chloride. I can’t see an exposure pathway.”
He clarified that if people discover the metabolite in their system, it’s reasonable to assume that the vinyl chloride from the tankers could have entered their bodies.
“Oh, there’s a potential they were exposed. I’m not saying that. I’m saying right now, we don’t see an exposure pathway,” Durno said.
He expressed uncertainty regarding why people in the area are getting sick.
“I don’t know the answer to that; I’m not a health professional,” Duro said.
Independent testing expert Scott Smith discovered dioxins, highly carcinogenic compounds, in soil, water and air filters. His latest results indicated dioxin levels in the furnace filters of three residents, who have reported health symptoms, are at least 2,000% higher compared to a control sample from a neighboring town unaffected by the toxic plume.
“Other than taking a biopsy of people’s lungs, the next best thing to see what they’ve potentially been inhaling that could be causing their medical issues are the furnace filters,” Smith explained.
“His work should encourage the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency now, to go and grab some other filters, and do similar testing and analysis,” Enck said.
The EPA has said that it will not conduct furnace filter testing in this area.
“I think that’s a mistake,” Smith said.
Durno said the EPA won’t test because every piece of data it collects must meet what it calls a “data quality objective.”
“That objective tells us what we’re going to do with the result. If we go out and collect a furnace filter sample and we don’t have any comparative values to measure that against, then all we have is a piece of data that we can’t use,” he explained.
In the EPA’s opinion, Durno said there’s no concern for residents being in East Palestine and surrounding communities.
“I don’t see any exposure potential from the derailment site based on the hundreds of thousands of monitoring points that we have,” Durno said. “Is it safe? Well, don’t go into the creek. There’s contaminated sediments in Sulphur Run, right? It’s not safe to be wading in the contaminated settlements.”
He added, “However, the ambient air quality in East Palestine and surrounding communities, we don’t see any contaminants of concern. So, we don’t have any concerns with people being in these communities.”
Durno said that the EPA has yet to determine whether they will recommend long-term health monitoring by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for residents.
“To be determined. Again, right now, we’re bringing some of our health experts into the fold,” he said. “We’re going to look for their guidance.”
Durno mentioned that the EPA is still in the process of finalizing a plan with federal agencies to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.
“Stay tuned,” he said. “We’re in a cleanup mode right now. We haven’t gotten to the lessons learned part of this.”