EAST PALESTINE — Residents who filled the East Palestine Municipal Building for a special informational meeting regarding a proposal for the village to accept and discharge derailment wastewater left with more questions than answers on Monday.

While water superintendent Scott Wolfe, who initially presented the proposal to council in August, gave a general explanation on how the village would receive the wastewater from the Norfolk Southern temporary treatment facility, he nor council could provide community members with any details to alleviate concerns brought forward. Among the questions asked by residents was the exact number of what the lab testing the wastewater considers “undetectable,” a full list of what chemicals the wastewater will be tested for, how much the village stands to gain monetarily from each accepted truckload of wastewater, whether an already contaminated Leslie Run can handle the burden of the additional discharge, and who becomes legally responsible if any derailment contaminants are later detected downstream in other municipalities as a result of the wastewater discharged by the village.

Wolfe insisted that the wastewater is safe and would meet “drinking water standards” before being discharged by the village. He also reiterated that the wastewater would be treated twice — once by Norfolk Southern and again by the village — before being released into Leslie Run. In August, when Wolfe first presented the proposal, the plans called for a series of pumps and a hard tap-in to the village’s sanitary lines by Norfolk Southern. On Monday, he said the water would be “trucked in” instead but still supported the idea, saying the wastewater had to be disposed of somewhere and that he believed the village should take advantage of the opportunity to make additional money.

However, all of the public comments offered at the meeting were against the proposal and some went as far as accusing the village of “putting profits over people” and subscribing to the same way of thinking that many believe led to the derailment.

“We keep talking about monetary gains, but what about the people? This community has already been traumatized and this is retraumatizing them,” said Chad Conard, a mental health worker who has been helping residents navigate through the emotional turmoil in the wake of the disaster. “You’ve said multiple times in this meeting that it’s about profits. But I don’t care about money. I care about this community and what the people here have been through. Haven’t they been through enough? I care about the trauma.”

Wolfe dismissed Conard’s comments after asking Conard if he currently pays a water bill. Conard said he did not.

“Well residents who pay a water bill might care about the profits,”Wolfe said. “This prevents a lot of rate increases for future mandates that we are given through the Ohio EPA.”

The money generated through the proposal would likely keep water rates down for East Palestine residents but that didn’t change the narrative coming from residents in the room.

One resident asked Wolfe if there was vinyl chloride in the water the village was considering discharging. Wolfe insisted there was not, which prompted the resident to ask Wolfe “where did it go then?” Wolfe replied he didn’t have the answer.

“I know you don’t,” the resident said. “Why should we take this water if we don’t know what’s in it? So we can send it downstream to Negley. I don’t think it’s right. We didn’t ask for it. Ship it away. They brought it to us. Let them get rid of it. It’s only fair.”

Heather Hulton Vantassel, executive director for Three Rivers Water Keepers, also expressed concern for Negley as well as the towns that pull their drinking water from the Ohio River where the discharge will eventually make its way to.

“Just think about what the real consequences are. What you do know and what you don’t know,” she said. “And what that may look like for the future of this community, other communities and all of our Ohio River friends.”

Vantassel also said by discharging the derailment wastewater into Leslie Run, the village could open itself up to Clean Water Act violations.

Those concerns were shared by East Palestine resident Dave DiPello.

“If the village approves this, does it not take the burden of liability off of Norfolk Southern?” he asked. “Say five years from now, if someone’s well leaches downstream and gets contaminated and someone gets sick from it and someone dies from it, are they going to come back to the village or to Norfolk Southern? I think it takes the liability off of Norfolk Southern and puts it all on the village.”

Council said it will continue to mull over the proposal and community concerns at the next council meeting before making a decision.

Reports of construction on the temporary water treatment plant were confirmed by the EPA in May and explained that on-site treatment of derailment wastewater would “make it non-hazardous so that it could be potentially disposed of at more facilities and removed from the site more safely and efficiently.” The plant began operations in September.