We continue to follow the developments following the train derailment and subsequent major chemical release and controlled burn in East Palestine, Ohio.
This week, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sued a man accused of exploiting the disaster with a sham charity he used to collect more than $100,000.
According to Yost, Mike Peppel said his organization, Ohio Clean Water Fund, was a non-profit acting on behalf of Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley and wanted to help the residents after the Feb. 3 Norfolk-Southern toxic train derailment.Yost said Peppel pocketed at least $131,000 of the roughly $141,000 raised from more than 3,000 donors.“The idea that somebody would so brazenly exploit a disaster situation and the good hearts of people who want to help is unconscionable,” Yost said. “I’m mad as hell about this, and we’re going to make sure this sham charity gets shut down.”Yost added representatives of Second Harvest Food Bank had not authorized the partnership cited by Peppel.Yost is seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to halt Peppel’s illegal activity, prohibit him from engaging in additional charitable solicitations and preserve existing charitable assets.
The remediation efforts around East Palestine are continuing. Chris Hunsicker, Norfolk Southern’s regional manager of environmental operations, recently gave the media a close-up view of clean-up efforts.
Hunsicker said the company has removed, tested and shipped out more than 25,000 tons of solid material and more than 12 million gallons of liquids in its remediation efforts along what it calls track #1, where the derailment occurred. Once rail traffic shifts back to track #1, remediation work will begin on the soil under and around track #2, Hunsicker said.The company also is tackling remediation of Sulfur Run and some of its unnamed tributaries, which run along the train tracks in parts of East Palestine. Nobody wants the chemicals in the soil going downstream, Hunsicker said.“Today is a big milestone for us,” he told reporters at the site, where a line of Norfolk Southern-led rail cars noisily passed by. “We’ve been working … with the regulators to define areas that were affected and come up with a plan on how we’re going to address them and manage those materials.”…The site no longer resembles the fiery hellscape that was captured in dramatic photos taken by area residents and the news media in the days after the derailment. The plumes of smoke from the chemical burn, which forced hundreds of people to evacuate, are long gone. The site doesn’t have even a hint of the acrid, chemical-lined smell that permeated East Palestine for weeks after the derailment and controlled burn.Also long gone are the rail cars that derailed. They were shipped elsewhere to get clearances before returning to Norfolk Southern’s fleet.
Unfortunately, a truck carrying around 40,000 pounds of contaminated soil from East Palestine overturned on a highway this week.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said that roughly half of the soil that was on the truck ended up spilling along the highway.The tractor trailer, which had an open top, was traveling north along SR-165 on Monday when the accident occurred sometime after noon local time in Columbiana County. According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the vehicle’s 74-year-old driver, Phillip Falck, had gone off the right side of the road, hit a ditch and utility pole and overturned. When officers arrived at the scene, they found the truck “on its side, off of the right side of the roadway.”About half of the soil onboard – roughly 20,000 pounds – ended up spilling out of the truck, prompting responses from the local fire department and Ohio EPA, which said that “the spill was contained and is not a threat to nearby waterways.”Falck was “cited for operating a vehicle without reasonable control,” the highway patrol said.
Meanwhile, Biden hasn’t gone to the site of this chemical disaster yet. Instead, he is working is special brand of magic in Ireland.
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