DOJ, EPA Settle With Norfolk Southern Over East Palestine, OH, Train Disaster
Norfolk doesn’t have to admit liability.
The EPA and DOJ reached a settlement with Norfolk Southern over the train derailment in East Palestine, OH, on February 3, 2023.
The derailment caused numerous chemical spills, wreaking havoc on the town and its people.
“No community should have to experience the trauma inflicted upon the residents of East Palestine,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “That’s why President Biden pledged from the beginning that his Administration would stand with the community every step of the way. Today’s enforcement action delivers on this commitment, ensures the cleanup is paid for by the company, and helps prevent another disaster like this from happening again. Because of this settlement, residents and first responders will have greater access to health services, trains will be safer and waterways will be cleaner.”
Norfolk doesn’t have to admit liability. The settlement states:
- Spend an estimated $235 million for all past and future costs, so that cleanup efforts can continue and the company, rather than taxpayers, covers the cost.
- Pay a $15 million civil penalty to resolve the alleged violations of the Clean Water Act.
- Pay $25 million for a 20-year community health program that includes medical monitoring for qualified individuals and mental health services for individuals residing in affected counties – including those in Pennsylvania – as well as first responders who worked at the site, and a community facilitation plan to assist community members in using the benefits of the program.
- Spend approximately $15 million to implement long-term monitoring of groundwater and surface water for a period of 10 years.
- Pay $15 million for a private drinking water monitoring fund that will continue the existing private drinking water well monitoring program for 10 years.
- Implement a “waterways remediation plan,” with an estimated budget of $6 million, for projects in Leslie Run and Sulphur Run that will prioritize addressing historical pollution, reducing non-point source pollution through infrastructure upgrades and stormwater management projects, and restoring aquatic and riparian habitat.
- Pay $175,000 for natural resource damages, to be used by the United States to restore, rehabilitate, replace, or acquire the equivalent of the natural resources injured as a result of the derailment.
Officials didn’t finish the cleanup until October 2023, eight months after the derailment.
One resident told the media about the medical effects from the accident:
Courtney Miller, an East Palestine resident described her symptoms to Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade, claiming she has “many issues.”
“A lot of it is stomach pain, constant stomach pain. It feels like stabbing in my stomach,” she said. “I’ve had a shortness of breath, I’ve tried to go to the hospital a few times because of it, and they’re telling me that I don’t meet criteria.”
Miller also described lesions on the right side of her face with pus oozing out.
“I didn’t know if it was a chemical burn or if it was from the dioxins or why it’s only on the one side of my face and not the other,” she said.
Dioxin (also known as 2,3,7,8- tetrachlorodibenzo para dioxin) is known to cause skin lesions.
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Comments
LOL. They’re all on the same side – like a group of vultures all feeding on a rotting carcass. The people of east Palestine need some representation to sue the DOJ, the EPA, and Norfolk Southern for all the damage and devastation they all conspired together to cause.
Exactly.
I don’t see the part where the people of East Palestine got a dime for Norfolk Southern dumping hazmat al over them and destroying their lives, property values, ability to farm, etc..
Plenty for various bureaucracies to pee away though.
They got their fines and other pounds of flesh. The poisoning, the destruction, who cares.
And Biden got his 10%, so he has no problem with it.
I don’t see anything in there about making people whole for harm done.
I do see a lot of slush fund for programs rolling up under federal meddling. It seems like these jackholes — our current feds — can’t deal with injured people or a mangled community without making an authoritah turf grab. EPA is in charge — the long dreamed ministry of production they could never quite fit into “commerce” — with the DoJ providing cover.
It’s the town’s fault for building across the railroad’s right of way.
Cool. Under this logic the use of eminent domain is eliminated. Not a bad thing IMO but I doubt that most will agree. Especially since our corporate masters are already scheming to create/expand new uses for eminent domain to build a new network of transmission lines along new routes to support moving electricity from new ‘green’ energy generation point to cities and of course to provide the massive additional amounts of electricity to new server farms for AI.
The real discovery was how fast a bearing can go from somewhat hot to totally broken, which was less distance than the standard separation of trackside fault detectors. The fix is more fault detectors closer together, a new engineering data point.
The settlement didn’t involve dissolving the EPA? We lost again.
why does the government allow companies to not have to admit to guilt???
when will americans wake up and stop the lefty agenda!!
An admission of legal guilt would mean open season for additional lawsuits that are difficult to defend against, so the company is going to fight tooth and nail to avoid that as it means almost guaranteed bankruptsy.
The government wants its easy slush fund money rather than an admission from the company.
Money for the residents? I didn’t see any.
Accident’s happen and trains derail. It’s a fact of life.