Simon Kent
A federal lawsuit has been launched in the wake of the fiery derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals along the Ohio-Pennsylvania line last week.
The action seeks to force Norfolk Southern to initiate health testing for residents in both states.
Undetermined damages are also being sought as well as a full insight into the nature of the chemicals released into the atmosphere and water table in the accident.
AP reports the lawsuit filed Thursday by two Pennsylvania residents calls for the rail operator to pay for medical screenings and related care for anyone living within a 30-mile radius of the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed Feb. 3 in the village. No one was injured in the derailment investigators said was caused by a broken axle, as Breitbart News reported.While five of the cars contained vinyl chloride, another five also were transporting unspecified “hazardous materials.
Dead fish are being pulled from rivers outside East Palestine, Ohio.
The trucks doing the work are labeled EnviroScience, an Ohio-based company that provides “time-sensitive solutions to environmental challenges.”
Join @CBKNEWS pic.twitter.com/yoZhZwxgEJ
— ??Texas Tweetheart?? (@MechelleChristy) February 13, 2023
Three days after the accident, authorities decided to release and burn vinyl chloride inside five tanker cars, sending hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosgene into the air.Environmental regulators have been monitoring the air and water in surrounding communities and have said that so far the air quality remains safe and drinking water supplies have not been affected.
#8 There are reports of dead fish in rivers and creeks 5 miles away from the train derailment.https://t.co/5Jgs1L52W4 pic.twitter.com/G43pdY41RB
— kanekoa.substack.com (@KanekoaTheGreat) February 13, 2023
The Ohio and federal environmental protection agencies, working with local teams, “established a series of containment measures to help limit environmental impact to local streams and rivers from water runoff from the site,” Ohio EPA spokesperson James Lee said in a statement last Wednesday designed to ease local fears of contamination.
