Newsletter: East Palestine Train Derailment Response, 2-14-2024

Newsletter serving Serving East Palestine, Negley, Darlington, and surrounding communities

• Progress Made
• The Look Ahead
• Project Spotlight
• Community Corner
• In the News
• Reponse by the Numbers
• About this Publication
•  

Progress Made

Backfilling Excavated Areas

Easing Taggart Street Traffic Restrictions

Truck traffic on E. Taggart Street will decrease with the completion of major backfilling operations in Car Scrapping Area 4. As this heavy equipment traffic eases, E. Taggart Street traffic controls will be reduced, including fewer cones and signage. The speed limit will remain at 15 mph to ensure both community and worker safety while site restoration and other work continue.

The Look Ahead

Anticipated Completion in	Actions
June	Site restoration (and water flow to North & South ditches)
July	Creek assessment and cleanup
September	Demobilize wastewater treatment plant, tank farms, staging areas, offices
September	Restore roadways/traffic
October	Site characterization/confirmatory soil sampling (Appendix E)
October	Surface water, groundwater, drinking water monitoring (prior to transition to long-term monitoring)
Ongoing until site work is complete	Communications (outreach, press, community relations)

Project Spotlight: Wastewater & Surface Water Update

Wastewater Management and Disposal

Throughout the response, rainwater and snow melt that have touched potentially contaminated soil areas have been collected and put into storage tanks. Initially, this water was then shipped to off-site disposal facilities as hazardous waste. Following construction of the on-site wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) most collected water has been sent through the treatment system before being shipped off-site as nonhazardous waste.

Now that all contaminated soils have been removed, and after many months of testing the collected water before on-site treatment, it has been determined that it can be disposed of as non-hazardous even without treatment if it is first tested to show it doesn’t contain vinyl chloride and other hazardous materials’. This represents great progress, is a significant step towards final site restoration and reflects how successful the removal of contamination has been.

Planning for the final phases of water management, and endpoints for when it will no longer be necessary to collect and manage it as waste, are underway and will be described in upcoming newsletters.

Creek Assessment and Cleanup Update

In the coming weeks, keep an eye out for summary reports from recent creek assessment work. Also, an interactive map detailing the sheen survey has been added to the website. EPA has previously posted all of its sediment sampling results to its website, which includes data from February, summer, and late fall of 2023. Planning is underway for additional cleanup actions necessary to address sheen and sediment contamination that will begin in early spring. Details of these plans will be explained as they are finalized.

Community Corner

Sound the Alarm Campaign 

In the village of East Palestine, the American Red Cross is partnering with the fire department to install free smoke alarms for residents who don’t have adequate smoke alarms (one per each level of the home). Please check the EPFD Facebook page for the registration form and additional details.

Response by the Numbers

Waste

Over 176,000 tons more than 350 million pounds of contaminated soil^*

201 drums of site-related material contained^*

49 million gallons of contaminated liquid managed^*

_{*shipped off-site for certified disposal}

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Samples

• 1,025 groundwater
• 28,000 air
• 3,872 surface water
• 233 sediment
• 1,309 private well
• 6,323 soil
• 288 public drinking water

Fact Sheet Coming Soon

More details on wastewater and surface water, plus information on the status of additional cleanup activities for Sulphur and Leslie Runs, will be mailed in a separate fact sheet.