Unpronounceable
The good citizens of East Palestine, Ohio, aren’t stupid. (That’s “Pal-es-teen”, not “Pal-es-tyne”; welcome to Ohio, also the home of Versailles – “Ver-sails”, Russia – “Ru-see-ah”, Lima- “Lie-ma” and the unpronounceable Gnadenhutten).
A Norfolk and Southern train of 150 cars, travelling from Madison, Illinois, crashed in their small town after an axle broke on a single car. The resulting destruction was “epic”; train cars spilled like toys around the crash site, with fierce fires breaking out around several. That was the bad news. The worst news was that at least twenty of those tankers were carrying extremely hazardous chemicals with names as unpronounceable as Ohio’s towns: Vinyl chloride, Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, isobutylene, and butyl acrylate (EPA).
Bad Choices
The hazmat/fire crews faced a dilemma. The tanker cars were surrounded by flames. The chemicals in the tanks were heating up, with pressure already escaping from relief valves. If they left the chemicals in the tanks, they risked uncontrolled explosions, blowing the raw chemicals into the atmosphere and onto the surrounding community. So they chose to drain out the chemicals into open ditches, then intentionally set the deadly materials on fire.
The column of black smoke was huge, ugly, and vulnerable to the wind. Much of the surrounding area was evacuated. Even partially combusted the chemicals still presented hazards to humans, animals, and ground water. And then there was the unburned chemicals that leeched into the ground.
Alphabet Soup
And now, two weeks later, all of the authorities: the Federal EPA, the Ohio EPA, Governor Mike DeWine, the Columbiana County Health Department (and, of course, the Norfolk and Southern Railroad); are telling the citizens of East Palestine that the danger is passed, and they can return to their homes. Except, folks are getting sore throats and coughs. And there’s a big fish kill on the bordering Ohio River. And some folks who had to leave their chickens returned to find them dead. Pets are getting sick.
But Governor DeWine says it’s OK to come home and breath the air. His suggestion – maybe stick to bottled-water for a while, until the final testing of the deep wells that provide the local water service. But he assured them he’d bring HIS family home. (But if East Palestine residents want to stay in hotels away from town, Norfolk and Southern will foot-the-bill). And what of the cities downstream, who draw their water from the Ohio River, like Wheeling, Marietta, and ultimately Cincinnati? Well, they’ll just have to keep monitoring. All of the authorities seem reasonably sure it’s OK. Just ignore the upside down fish floating downstream.
Nothing to See
The East Palestine Local School District is back open for business. The Ohio EPA tested the air inside over 400 homes and found the chemical residue levels “acceptable”. And while there’s going to be long-term air, soil and water monitoring in the area; as Obi Wan Kenobi famously said, “There’s nothing to see here, move along, move along”.
Folks who live in Eastern Ohio “ain’t fancy”. It’s a tough, working crowd; from the old steel mill, coal mining and river barging days. They want to go home and return to their “normal” lives, but they also know that it’s in everybody else’s interest: the Governor, the EPA, and most importantly, the Norfolk and Southern; for this crisis to be over. And they are worried that in the hurry to get out of town, those “officials” are leaving more than just a mess. The good citizens of East Palestine will have to live in it.
I don’t blame them. Until all of those business and government folks are willing to stand in East Palestine and take a “deep breath”, then a “deep swig” of local water, and maybe live in town for a while – they shouldn’t get off the hook. The residents of East Palestine are left taking the risks, and perhaps paying the ultimate price.
