Norfolk Southern faces new questions about toxic burn in East Palestine | Guest editorial

GUEST EDITORIAL | The Toledo Blade

Norfolk Southern railroad already had extensive blame for the derailment and subsequent release of toxic chemicals from the accident in East Palestine, Ohio, one year ago.

Following a March hearing, it appears increasingly likely that the intentional torching of the five cars containing vinyl chloride was unnecessary — and for reasons that Norfolk Southern’s experts on the scene knew about but did not relay to the incident commander and Gov. Mike DeWine.

Under questioning in a Senate committee by U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said the burning of the contents of the derailed cars could have been avoided.

Jennifer Homendy said the shipper’s experts were on the scene and had explained to Norfolk Southern’s contractors the five rail cars were cooling and were not in increasing danger of exploding.

Vance raised the topic during a meeting of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, diverting the committee temporarily from the subject of the door plug that fell out of an Alaska Airlines aircraft.

In direct language, Homendy said that contractors employed by the Norfolk Southern rail company “lacked the scientific background” to decide that a vent-and-burn was necessary to head off a chemical reaction that could cause the cars to explode. She testified that a better option would have been to allow the tank cars time to cool down.

Vance noted that very soon after the cars stopped burning, they were moved aside and rail traffic started to move again.

“This town very well may have been poisoned to facilitate the rapid movement of freight,” he said.

The Norfolk Southern train crossed northwest Ohio from its starting point at the border of Missouri and Illinois. The crew involved in the derailment took operations in Toledo and passed across northern Ohio before derailing in East Palestine near the Pennsylvania border. Dozens of Ohio communities including Toledo could have been the site of the optional chemical burn.

It appears that the OxyVinyls shipping company had representatives on scene who told Norfolk Southern’s contractors that the cars were cooling and not in danger of exploding.

If Gov. DeWine and the incident commander, East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick, had been given this information they might not have set off the blaze that filled the sky with toxic smoke.

We already knew that Norfolk Southern had failed to detect the burning wheel axle that caused the derailment in East Palestine. The derailment and the initial toxic leak from those cars was bad enough. The burning of the vinyl chloride multiplied the environmental impact of the disaster.

We have observed that Norfolk Southern has been taking appropriate responsibility for the disaster. That was before the public has learned that Norfolk Southern’s blame didn’t end with the faulty wheel bearing but apparently included concealing of critically important information just to get the trains running again.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Norfolk Southern faces new questions about East Palestine toxic burn