The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general will investigate the agency’s response to the 2023 East Palestine train derailment after residents and Vice President JD Vance pressed for the review, the office announced Oct. 27.
Jami Wallace, who has tracked more than 80 cancer cases among area residents since the derailment, said “I’m going to cry” when she learned of the investigation.
Wallace and other East Palestine residents had long pushed the EPA to test for cancer-causing dioxins and pressed for this review, WTAE reported. The vice president and the EPA administrator also requested the investigation.
The inspector general’s office will assess the agency’s handling of the worst rail disaster in more than a decade and the health concerns that developed despite EPA assurances that no toxic chemical levels lingered.
A failed bearing sent the Norfolk Southern train off the tracks late one Friday night in February 2023, spilling an assortment of chemicals that caught fire. Residents fled when officials opted three days later to open five rail cars and incinerate the vinyl chloride within.
The National Transportation Safety Board determined the “vent and burn” that sent a black plume across several states was unnecessary, though emergency officials at the time worried the tank cars might explode.
Norfolk Southern agreed to a $600 million class action settlement with residents, but the money has been largely tied up in courts over questions about the initial settlement administrator mishandling funds. A group of residents sued, arguing attorneys misled them into signing.
A distinct federal settlement featuring a $15 million fine and $55 million for decades of medical exams and groundwater testing has remained under review for more than two years without a judge approving it.
The inspector general’s office said it will determine whether the EPA fulfilled its responsibilities and had sufficient data to support public assurances that residents were safe weeks and months after the derailment.
The National Transportation Safety Board found the move unnecessary, but officials making the call feared the tank cars might explode and cause more harm.
The railroad agreed to a $600 million class action settlement and a federal deal with a $15 million fine plus $55 million for long-term medical monitoring and groundwater testing.
“We’re not going to stop when you poison our kids,” Wallace said.
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