(NewsNation) — There seems to be a lot of confusion about what to do with the contaminated soil and wastewater coming from site of the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Plans already in motion to ship dirt and water from Ohio to Michigan and Texas for disposal have been put on hold after outrage from residents of those states.
What makes all this even more complicated is that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it was Norfolk Southern, the train corporation responsible for the derailment, that made the call and developed the plans to move contaminated soil and wastewater to the other states.
The EPA said they had nothing to do with it and once they heard complaints, the agency said they paused the transfer.
Norfolk Southern defended their decision to ship contaminated dirt and water, their spokesperson Connor Spielmaker telling NewsNation, “These locations regularly accept this type of material and were chosen due to their specific ability and necessary permitting to dispose of these types of waste.”
These types of transfers are common. Michigan and Texas both take in garbage and contaminated waste from other states, and sometimes from Canada.
The states get paid to do it.
In fact, the Detroit Free Press reported that Michigan takes in about a billion dollars a year in the process.
But in the case of East Palestine, complaints started coming in almost immediately.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she didn’t even know this was happening.
In Harris County, Texas, the top county official, Lina Hidalgo, said in a public address that she wasn’t made aware these toxic chemicals were being sent to her county.
On Saturday afternoon, an EPA official addressed the situation from East Palestine.
“We know it’s far better to have it safely stored in a properly constructed and monitored disposal facility, than to have it remain here any longer than necessary when there are licensed, regulated disposal facilities available that routinely dispose of similar waste,” said EPA Region 5 Director Debra Shore.
And indeed, one of the spokespeople for the company that operates the plant in Belleville, Michigan, where the soil was going says this is what they do.
He told NewsNation, that the facility can handle the contaminated dirt.
“The low level of contaminants in the soil is well within the acceptable amount for disposal in US Ecology’s Belleville landfill,” the spokesperson said.
Shore says she understands why people in Michigan and Texas have concerns.
She called those concerns valid.
But Shore reiterated that it’s better that facilities that can handle toxic material take the water and soil from East Palestine rather than allow it to remain there.
At least 500,000 gallons of wastewater had already been sent to Texas, where it is just waiting until the EPA and Norfolk Southern decide together what to do with it.
