Group Says Soil is Toxic Near Ohio Train Derailment, Petitions EPA

Last month, the Government Accountability Project (GAP), filed an Emergency Administrative Procedure Act (APA) petition with the EPA to spur the Agency to take action to warn residents in and around East Palestine, Ohio, not to eat homegrown garden produce due to dioxin and other chemical contamination in the soil from the Norfolk Southern train derailment.

“Independent tests on garden crops, soil, and surface waters in East Palestine show elevated dioxins, Semi Volatile Organic Compounds (SVOCs), and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs),” according to the petition. “Recently, tests conducted by [GAP] whistleblower Scott Smith, which were analyzed and confirmed by independent scientists, also revealed alarming levels of dioxin congeners and [PAH] compounds in 100% of the sampled garden vegetables grown in East Palestine.”

Dioxins are called persistent organic pollutants (POPs), meaning they take a long time to break down once they’re in the environment, the EPA states. Dioxins are highly toxic and can cause cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, and damage to the immune system and can interfere with hormones.

“It is unconscionable that the EPA has not conducted its own testing on garden crops in East Palestine, nor have they sampled for dioxins in the home produce,” said Lesley Pacey, the GAP’s senior environmental officer, in advance of the petition filing, according to The Associated Press. “Yet, the EPA has told residents to garden and eat home produce as usual.

“The agency has been telling people it’s safe to garden since nearly three months after the February 2023 derailment, based on tests conducted by state agriculture officials at 31 locations around town and on surrounding farms,” The Associated Press continues. “The officials tested winter wheat, malting barley, pasture grasses and rye from area farms.”

The petition also states the EPA has a duty to warn residents of the potential health threat from consuming fish and wild-caught game in and around East Palestine.

Residents should also be “cautioned against preparing home garden soil for the 2024 season. Further, no hand contact or breathing of garden soil and dusts should be advised until such a time that rigorous and systematic garden soil tests prove that dioxin and PAH concentration levels in the soil are no longer a human ingestion or inhalation concern.”

The group urges the EPA to abide by the Precautionary Principle, which advocates a “better safe than sorry” approach.

The GAP petition alleges:

• The EPA didn’t do any soil sampling of home gardens in East Palestine to warrant any of its claims that garden produce in the area is safe to consume.
• The EPA knew as early as February 17, 2023, that Norfolk Southern’s composite soil samples at the derailment site showed dioxin toxic equivalency quotients (TEQs) as high as 19 times above the levels at which the EPA mandates immediate further testing.
• The EPA has failed in its duty to warn area residents of the remaining dangers.
• The EPA was aware that the Norfolk Southern dioxin sampling plan at the site was flawed.

On May 1, 2023, the EPA released preliminary findings of Norfolk Southern’s soil sampling plan, announcing the results showed little soil contamination from the derailment and subsequent burn. However, railroad contractor Arcadis’s plan and findings drew sharp criticism from dioxin expert Dr. Stephen Lester, who said the EPA’s dioxin data, which is Arcadis’s data, “is not worth the paper it was written on.”

Lester said that the “EPA used a nonstandard approach for selecting sample locations that was uncharacteristic, unscientific, and unprofessional.” … And what EPA did, the first thing they did was they said to the contractor, ‘You can do whatever you want.’ And the contractor said, ‘Well, we’re going to decide where to take our samples by walking the site and looking for evidence of contamination. If we see it, we’ll take a sample there.’ Well, in all my years of doing this work, I’ve never seen EPA give anybody carte blanche like that. It’s so subjective.”

The petition calls for the EPA to issue an immediate rule with the following provisions:

1. Immediately issue a public warning advising residents in and around East Palestine not to consume produce from their gardens or prepare soil for future planting until further notice.
2. Immediately issue a public warning advising residents in and around East Palestine not to consume fish or farm animals or wild-caught game from the region until further notice.
3. Conduct comprehensive timely and ongoing independent testing of soil and garden produce in the affected area to determine the extent of dioxin and PAH contamination.
4. Implement remediation measures to mitigate the risks posed by contaminated soil and garden produce to public health.
5. Warn residents before air knifing, sparging, and sediment “washing” activities in contaminated creeks.
6. Immediately warn residents when dangerous chemicals are detected in the community.
7. Establish standards to provide mandatory warnings for affected communities in future accidents.