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EAST PALESTINE -- While air, soil and drinking water continues to test safe in East Palestine six months after the Norfolk Southern train derailment and resulting chemical release, samples from area waterways still detect constituents of interest (COIs) associated with related to the derailment with the heaviest contamination in Sulphur Run -- the creek that snakes through the village, under homes and directly beneath the municipal building.
On Thursday, Gov. Mike DeWine issued a press release to mark the six-month milestone and provide an update on the recovery efforts. In it, DeWine's office reports compounds associated with the derailment (acrylates and vinyl chloride) are still being detected in the waterways, though the detections were described as "infrequent" and referred to as "low levels of continuing contamination."
However, the Region 5 Environmental Protection Agency called Sulphur Run "grossly contaminated" as recently as two weeks ago. The EPA also just recently reported that the agency has finally approved work plans to thoroughly assess the creeks and address the contamination. Those plans are the Surface Water Sampling and Analysis Plan and the Sulphur Run Characterization Work Plan.
The Sulphur Run plan, authored by Norfolk Southern contractor Arcadis, is meant determine the extent of sediment contamination in Sulphur Run and determine whether Sulphur Run is serving as an ongoing point-source for contaminants of potential concern (COPCs) to Leslie Run and bodies of water downstream. The plan acknowledges that three covered sections of the creek totaling 1,000 feet have not yet been characterized and that heavy sheen is still visible in the creeks. During an EPA informational session, the process of assessing sheen was explained as the turning over of rocks and kicking up the creek bed and then grading the sheen uncovered on a scale of 0-3 with 0 being no sheen visible and 3 being heavy sheen. No areas within Sulphur Run scored as no sheen. All were graded 2 or 3.
The Surface Water Sampling and Analysis Plan was compiled by CTEH - another Norfolk Southern contractor - and gave a better understanding of what exact compounds were found in the waterways. That plan noted 875 exceedances of 18 COIs have been detected in surface water samples since the derailment but none last since May 1. However, COIs were still detected as late as June 12 -- the date the appendix used was last updated on. The most exceedances were 2-butoxyethanol (277), N-butyl acrylate (146), 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (83), Benzo(a)Pyrene (28), diethylene glycol (28), vinyl chloride (13), and Indeno (1,2,3-cd) Pyrene (13) and fluoranthene (11).
While DeWine's press release stated that the Ohio EPA continues to appraise water quality from Sulphur Run to the Ohio River with more than 20 monitoring stations, an interactive map on epa.ohio.gov that allows the public to track that process it not current and has not been updated since the end of June. DeWine also said the stations were reviewed daily, but the EPA stated in its latest East Palestine Newsletter that "surface water is tested every three days."
The newsletter collaborated Arcadis report that no exceedance has been detected since May 1, but it also stated that "further investigation is needed to determine what contamination remains in sediment."
Whether or not monitoring of surface water includes ongoing sampling of sediment - the loose sand, clay, silt and other soil particles that settle at the bottom of a body of water - has been a source of confusion. During an informational session dedicated to the surface-water conditions on May 12, the EPA's Water Quality Supervisor Bill Zawiski said that not enough sediment samples were collected during the first phase and that the last was taken in March. It is unclear if additional sediment samples have been taken since. What is known is that no sediment samples have been retrieved from the underground portion of Sulphur Run and that the EPA is adamant that both Sulphur and Leslie Runs should be avoided.
Despite the delay in approving the surface-water plans, cleanup efforts in the streams have been ongoing. Those efforts include air knifing ( injecting air into the sediment to liberate anything underneath and bring it to the surface to be collected by a booming system downstream) and sediment washing (disturbing the sediment to bring contaminants to the surface to be removed by vacuum trucks).
As for potential damage of the derailment to the aquatic ecosystems, the EPA and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) both report that wildlife has returned to and around the creeks. The EPA said the return of wildlife is additional endorsement that the conditions in waterways are improving. The ODNR has continued to monitor the rivers and streams for any long-term consequences on aquatic species and its investigation found no significant impacts. However, the investigation did confirm that the derailment and related events killed 43,701 wild animals, including small fish, crayfish, amphibians, and macroinvertebrates, worth an estimated $15,000 in wildlife restitution.
selverd@mojonews.com