Jeff Drummond鈥檚 house was less than a football field away from the site where a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine in February. The house still sits in the middle of the remediation zone as, for months, crews have worked to clean up in the aftermath.
鈥淎ll the dirt is behind my house,鈥� Drummond said. 鈥淭hey took out all the woods between my house and the tracks, 30 feet off my back porch is where the dirt鈥檚 piled up at.鈥�
Drummond was evacuated from his home following the derailment, when first responders performed a controlled burn of vinyl chloride in five tanker cars.
He moved into the Davis Motel in North Lima, where he remains nearly 11 months later.
But the dirt pile is just about gone now. Trucks and trains have hauled it to designated incinerators and landfills in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Colorado and Texas.
In transit
The controlled burn of vinyl chloride on Feb. 6, 2023, left ditches of contaminated dirt that had to be excavated and transported to proper facilities for disposal.
Over one million shipments of hazardous materials are transported in trucks, trains and planes every day, said Tim Butters, former deputy administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
鈥淸Drivers] have to have some basic hazmat awareness training, so that in the event of an accident they know basically what initial actions they should be taking,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t's really making note of immediate notification, providing emergency responders with information.鈥�
When companies follow regulations for transportation, it is a safe process, Butters said.
鈥淗azmat transportation entails risks,鈥� he said. 鈥淥verall, the safety record of hazmat carriers is good. I mean, does that mean it's perfect? No.鈥�
The disposal
The contaminated soil in East Palestine has been shipped to incinerators and landfills designated to dispose of hazardous waste with minimal impact on humans or the environment.
One of those sites is Heritage Thermal Services, an incinerator about 20 miles from East Palestine in East Liverpool, Ohio.
It鈥檚 important to choose a trusted facility for hazardous waste disposal, said Michael Parker, an attorney at Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm that specializes in environmental issues. The organization has previously spoken against Heritage Thermal in to the Ohio EPA.
鈥淚f you're going to choose a facility to dispose of waste of this high toxicity, you better make sure that they're complying with the Clean Air Act, and that the controls that they have at their facility are up to the task,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I don't think that that's the case with Heritage Thermal.鈥�
Heritage Thermal has been fined by the U.S. EPA for violations of the Clean Air Act. In 2018, the company reached a settlement in a lawsuit with the EPA and was ordered to take corrective measures to bring its operations into compliance with the act.
In an email, a spokesperson for Heritage Thermal said its East Liverpool facility is 鈥渄esigned, permitted and operated specifically to treat cleanup material from this and other incidents.鈥�
But Parker said these facilities are often a burden to the surrounding area.
鈥淭hese are already overburdened communities,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou don't put hazardous waste incinerators in wealthy communities.鈥�
More work to be done
Streams in East Palestine were also contaminated as a result of the derailment, and they鈥檒l take longer to clean up. In October, the U.S. EPA issued a Clean Water Act Order to Norfolk Southern, mandating that the company undertake additional action to clean up oily sheens in Leslie Run and Sulfur Run.
The cleanup will involve sediment washing, a process in which crews disturb sediment in the waterways so that contaminants float to the top, where they can be collected and disposed of, U.S. EPA response coordinator Mark Durno said.
After all soil contaminants are shipped off, he said, the EPA will begin long-term soil testing.
鈥淲e don't think that we've missed anything, but you never know if there were some inadvertent spills that might have happened,鈥� Durno said. 鈥淭his is a double check to make sure that didn't happen.鈥�
The road where Jeff Drummond鈥檚 home is located was reopened to traffic in late October. But aside from a few visits to pick up belongings, he鈥檚 still not ready to return home permanently.
He remains wary, unsure if he鈥檒l ever feel safe to return.
鈥淓verything鈥檚 basically contaminated in my house because I was basically ground zero for the explosion,鈥� he said.
This story comes from the Collaborative NewsLab at Kent State University in partnership with 海角破解版 and is funded by Grist and The Center for Rural Strategies.
