Editor’s note, April 9, 1:15 pm ET: On April 9, the Norfolk Southern railway company announced that it agreed to pay $600 million to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from a February 2023 derailment of a train carrying hazardous materials in East Palestine, Ohio. The derailed train was carrying a variety of toxic chemicals, including vinyl chloride, which is used to make plastics.
When the train derailed last year, hundreds of people were evacuated. Today, many residents remain concerned about contamination and say they do not trust the assurances they have received from Norfolk Southern; Norfolk Southern didn’t admit to any liability or wrongdoing as a result of the settlement. The settlement, which still needs to be approved by a district judge, will be used in part to support upgrades to drinking water infrastructure, community-directed projects, and economic development.
The following article, published in March 2023 in the wake of the derailment, explains the fears that continue to preoccupy thousands of East Palestine residents. —Paige Vega, climate editor
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — The smell doesn’t hit you right away. On Market Street, the main commercial road in town, it smells of doughnuts and McDonald’s and exhaust. It’s only when the wind picks up, or you walk toward the western edge of town, that you can catch a whiff of the chemicals.
Some say they smell like nail polish remover or super glue. To me, the odor was sweet, like a cheap fruity air freshener, with a bitter aftertaste.
It has been over a month since a large train derailed here, sending up flames taller than buildings and spewing more than 100,000 gallons of toxic chemicals into the environment. Federal and local officials have been trying to clean up the mess. And for weeks, they’ve been assuring residents that the air and water are safe, according to monitoring. It won’t put the health of residents at risk, health officials have repeatedly said.
Yet for many of…
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