Residents of communities across Appalachia, such as those in Parkersburg, W.Va., who wondered what was inside a warehouse that burned for eight days back in 2017, will feel some sympathy for those living around the site of a derailment near East Palestine, Ohio, as those folks are now learning there might have been a lot more released from the damaged cars than we were told at first.

According to a letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, delivered to the Norfolk Southern Railway Co. Friday, several chemicals — ethylhexyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether and butyl acrylate –“either are known to have been and continue to be released to the air, surface soils and surface waters.”

The letter also states air and water sampling showed “materials released during the incident were observed and detected in samples from Sulphur Run, Leslie Run, Bull Creek, North Fork and Little Beaver Creek, Little Beaver Creek, and the Ohio River.” Some of that may have gotten into storm drains. And there were rail cars and tankers “derailed, breached and/or on fire that included, but were not limited to, the following materials: Vinyl chloride, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, isobutylene and butyl acrylate.”

What a mess. And, as the EPA points out, it is likely Norfolk Southern will be responsible for cleaning up that mess. Should any damage have been done to the health of people or animals as a result of the release, Norfolk Southern must be on the hook for that, too.

For now, the company’s response is predictable. It told reporters it was going with initial comments made by the Ohio and U.S. EPA two days earlier, and that it was therefore “offering in-home air monitoring, well water testing and other services free of charge through its Family Assistance Center in partnership with local and federal agencies. We will continue to work with all stakeholders to remediate the site, which will take several weeks.”

Monitoring and continuing “to work with” are one thing; doing all it can to make things right will be quite another. Officials and courts at all levels must be vigilant in ensuring they do. Residents living near the site of the derailment are worried, and have good reason to be. Perhaps Norfolk Southern will, indeed, go above and beyond to do right by those folks. If they do not, they must experience the full press of state and federal law.