EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Kat Smith has had her percentage of ups and downs this year.
In February, days after a Norfolk Southern exercise derailed in eastern Palestine and a controlled chemical burn spewed plumes of smoke into the sky, doctors diagnosed Smith with bronchitis due to exposure to toxins. that he couldn’t get out of bed.
Smith spent six weeks living in Boardman, Ohio, about 15 miles away with her husband, two of their 3 children and a 5-year-old Goldendoodle named Zeke.
Then, on July 15, after Smith returned to eastern Palestine, he opened a jewelry store, Kat’s Krystals, in an old law in the town’s quaint business district. On opening day, lines of consumers snaked down North Market Street.
The store is the first new business to open in eastern Palestine since the derailment.
“It was like, ‘Maybe there’s hope for this city,'” said Smith, 41, who moved to Ohio 8 years ago. “A lot of other people said, ‘Give him six months. This post will be a ghost town. “Maybe this store helped other people think that wasn’t the case.
“I think this city is fighting for. “
Smith is an example of a renaissance in eastern Palestine, a city of 4,700 on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border that has struggled since the Feb. 3 derailment.
Now, more than six months later, Smith and citizens are still racing to move forward amid ongoing environmental cleanup, oversight, political activism and efforts through rail giant Norfolk Southern to fix things.
Financial aid
Norfolk Southern spent tens of millions responding to the disaster.
The company said it has invested $65 million in eastern Palestine and surrounding communities since the derailment. Its most sensible leader wants the other people in the region to be “proud” of their response.
“After six months, I’m pleased with our progress,” executive director Alan Shaw told the Tribune-Review on Thursday. “It’s not just about writing a check. It’s the simplest thing to do. They are not public relations.
About three hundred people from Norfolk Southern moved into a church in eastern Palestine on Feb. 3 and then stayed behind to do cleanup work and help citizens in the best way possible, Shaw said. Contractors rehabilitating the derailment site are expected to be completed by the end of this year. .
The company, valued at $53. 1 billion, operates a family assistance circle in the center of East Palestine’s business district and will seek a permanent home there, Shaw said. Shaw visited the city this week to donate a chimney truck.
The $65 million $25 million to revitalize the East Palestine City Park, which Shaw called the city’s treasure.
About $8. 5 million went to western Pennsylvania, he said. On July 24 alone, Norfolk Southern sent $1 million in what it calls the grid relief budget to western Pennsylvania, adding $660,000 to Darlington Township in Beaver County and $340,000 to Lawrence County, Gov. Josh Shapiro said. Said. Local leaders will know how to use the money.
“Know this is a regulation, but it’s a small step forward,” said Mike Carreon, chairman of the Darlington Township Board of Trustees.
On Thursday, Norfolk Southern gave Darlington Township $544,700 to repair a road, bringing the investment to $1. 2 million. The company also donated $1 million to the Pittsburgh Foundation, Shaw said.
But there’s a bigger picture,” he said Shaw. La company plans to take on asset values, and financially citizens selling their homes, if the market falls. Shaw has also pledged to invest in long-term environmental monitoring and build a health care fund.
“We’re going to be here in five years, we’re going to be here in 10 years,” Shaw said. “I need the other people of eastern Palestine and the surrounding communities to be proud of our response. “
“Something very, very real”
When covid-19 arrived in Pennsylvania, Hilary Flint was diagnosed with renal mobile carcinoma, a form of cancer.
Surgeons got rid of lymph nodes and a kidney. Flint turned to “experimental therapies,” such as high doses of vitamin C.
She has been cancer free for 3 years. But she worries that her medical history could leave her vulnerable to contaminants from the derailment.
“I’m ‘better safe than sorry,'” said Flint, 31, of Darlington Township. “I don’t think we perceive the severity of air disturbances yet. “
Flint, who lives about 8km from what locals call Ground Zero, fled smoke from the derailment to a hotel in Monaca. When she returned home, he assaulted her through a “sweet, almost bleaching smell” that seemed to stick to her everywhere.
Flint invited researchers from Wayne State University to his home, where they found ethylhexyl acrylate, which the EPA calls a probable carcinogen and a chemical used in the manufacture of paints and plastics.
The same investigators discovered vinyl chloride, transported via derailed Norfolk Southern trains, in Flint’s home.
“It went from what I think is imaginable to something very, very real,” he said.
Flint, a nonprofit fundraiser, didn’t take the news lightly.
He helped initiate the East Palestine Train Derailment Unit Council with citizens of Pennsylvania and Ohio. In July, they lobbied Washington, D. C. , for federal aid for eastern Palestine.
Flint, a registered Democrat, said she was very inspired by U. S. Sen. J. D. Vance, an Ohio Republican.
“We met with Democrats, Republicans and independents. It is not politics; it’s about lives,” Flint said. “Once we realize what happened and how those chemicals don’t go away, many of those citizens will be left with nothing. “
Flint said he didn’t settle for cash from Norfolk Southern and took no legal action.
“As a cancer survivor, my threat is very different,” Flint said. “For now, I’m going to keep my voice loose and open. “
Conflicting information
After his business flooded in 2006, Scott Smith, who is not related to Kat Smith, developed new life goals. The researcher began visiting crisis sites, helping citizens fight for environmental justice. He has visited 60 sites so far.
Scott Smith began searching for dioxins in Sulphur Run, a stream running through eastern Palestine, in February.
Dioxin, a byproduct of combustion, is highly poisonous and can cause reproductive and developmental cancer and damage the immune formula and can interfere with hormones, the EPA said.
Smith said he discovered more than 50 chemicals in Sulphur Run and more than 1,000 toxins.
“We don’t know what those chemicals do,” Smith said.
He said the derailment “released more dioxins and dust into the air. It goes to the water. “
On February 22, Smith’s sediment samples showed levels of dioxin heptachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin in 330 billion-equivalent servings, which he called a higher number. The number fell to 35 trillion-equivalent portions on March 8.
But, on May 29, the dioxin point reached 910 servings equivalent to trillions, Smith said. He believes it may be because contractors excavated infected soil at the derailment site.
Others tell another story.
The state Department of Environmental Protection said there were no long-term air or water problems similar to the derailment.
The DEP took samples from personal drinking water wells within a 2-mile radius of the derailment site, as well as public water materials in Ellwood City and Beaver Falls, officials said. Surface water (streams and rivers) sampled within a 1-mile radius.
The DEP took soil samples at about a hundred locations within a 2-mile radius, officials said. The researchers tested a domain about 31/2 miles downwind from the derailment site. They also sampled, among others, schools in Blackhawk. School district in Beaver County.
In a statement, the DEP said it expects “short- or long-term effects on groundwater or surface water” in Pennsylvania.
In addition, groundwater near the derailment in Ohio flows south and west and therefore would not bring any contaminants to groundwater wells in Pennsylvania, officials said. The DEP does not appear to have any verification records at Sulphur Run.
In July, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine asked the federal government for help.
DeWine doesn’t know how FEMA will react, as FEMA handles asset damage and reimbursements when there is no personal payer to cover canopy rebuilding costs. A DeWine spokesperson said this applies to eastern Palestine because Norfolk Southern has covered the costs of repairing the canopy.
“People are watching this situation, and they’re seeing other people in the floods getting checks from FEMA,” DeWine press secretary Dan Tierney told the Tribune-Review. “We’re not saying other people shouldn’t have that compensation . . . Our understanding is that it will not be through FEMA.
“Obviously, people see eastern Palestine as a disaster. And we agree with them.
“We are in the pieces”
People help.
The state fitness branch opened a pop-up fitness resource center in March in Darlington Township. Within a week, nearly 500 citizens signed up for free, independent water and soil testing and won medical evaluations.
That same month, Shapiro announced $1 million in reimbursements from Norfolk Southern to state fire departments and first responders.
“Shapiro management has been present in western Pennsylvania since the early hours after the derailment of exercise Norfolk Southern, and we will continue to be there for the other people and communities that have been impacted,” Shapiro press secretary Manuel Bonder told Trib. .
The Second Harvest Mahoning Valley food bank in eastern Palestine from day one.
The Youngstown Group operates two pantries in the village. For six weeks after the derailment, they sent staff 3 times a week, to deliver food, cleaning materials and bottled water to those affected.
The organization distributed 500 air purifiers donated through Carrier to low-income families, said Mike Iberis, executive director of Second Harvest. parts and about 80 air purifiers.
“Our donors answered the call and our supporters answered the call to help their neighbors,” Iberis said.
“But we’re picking up the pieces. “
“This is a political issue”
Daren Gamble, who has lived all his life in the same space in eastern Palestine, looks at his and worries.
“People say, ‘Oh, everything is fine in eastern Palestine,’ but it’s not right,” said Gamble, 60, a retired bricklayer who lives about half a mile from the derailment site. on February 3. “
Gamble believes Norfolk Southern is delivering on its promises. He doesn’t even know how much they pay for the Airbnb rental where he has lived since March on Guilford Lake, 20 miles west of eastern Palestine.
Gamble traveled to Washington, D. C. , with the Unity Council to teach lawmakers about his city’s struggles. He fears that the legislative reaction will be superficial.
“For everyone, it’s a photo shoot,” said Gamble, whose nine granddaughters live in eastern Palestine. “But we are playing with people’s lives. This is not a political problem. It’s about people. “
“There’s a lot of abandonment among those people. “
Melissa Smith’s circle of relatives has lived in eastern Palestine for seven generations.
His ancestor, Revolutionary War veteran Bernard Boatman, bought a farm there in 1802, he said. (She is similar to Kat Smith or Scott Smith. ) Today, she runs a candle shop in eastern Palestine. Their eclectic products are sold in Pittsburgh and at the Anthropologie clothing boutique.
“We’ve had a connection here for a long time. The thought of leaving would be tragic,” said Melissa Smith, 54, whose 165-acre farm is less than half a mile from the derailment site. I have my home and business. We have a lot of history here.
Melissa Smith continues to move forward. His circle of relatives this spring sold fattening farm animals and steers — not intended for food — as well as horse hay, after water and soil tests revealed a lack of contaminants.
Norfolk Southern reimbursed him $400 for the tests.
He also worked with researchers at Ohio State University on “plant tissue sampling” in his grass, all down to the root. Nothing has emerged.
“People were looking for things, but they didn’t,” he said. “I have a lot of other people who find it hard to believe. “Oh, you’ll have to have infected water,” “Oh, your animals will have to be sick. “But I feel confident that we’re okay. “
Then Kat Smith.
She thinks Eastern Palestine has even more to do.
“We’re getting to where we want to be, but we’re not there yet,” he said. “Farmers, workers, those are other people who get their hands dirty for a living. That’s the mentality, dig and move on. “
“There’s a lot of neglect in those people. “
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