And leading this hour,
confusion and uncertainty
in East Palestine, Ohio,
after the toxic train derailment
Is the water safe to drink?
Is the air okay to breathe?
Moments ago, Ohio Governor Mike
DeWine announced that the water
Palestine is safe to drink
after new tests detected no contaminants.
But property owners
with private
wells are encouraged
to keep drinking bottled water
until their wells are tested.
We've also just learned
that the soil at the derailment
has not been removed
by the rail company yet.
Experts say removal is key to cl
because the soil
acts almost like a sponge
soaking up the toxic chemicals
and then releasing them into the
and the air and the water over t
Adding to the mounting
concerns of the dead fish
that CNN saw in a waterway
near the derailment site.
CNN's Jason Carroll has been tal
to East Palestine residents
who no longer know whom to trust
We are
strongly recommending
those who have not yet
had their water source checked t
bottled water.
And bottled
water is being made available
more than a week
after a toxic train derailment
that led to the evacuation
of much of this small Ohio town.
State health
officials are urging some East
Palestine residents
to drink bottled water
until water tests are complete.
This is going to be
particularly important
if you are pregnant,
if you are breastfeeding,
or if you are preparing formula
for an infant.
Officials say the toxic spill
was largely contained
the day after the derailment
and that tests have shown
the air quality is safe.
But they have found low
levels of contaminants
in four nearby waterways spannin
seven and a half miles,
including Leslie Run
R Creek, which runs through
east Palestine
and neighboring Negley,
right through the back
of Kathy Reece's property.
In the back of your property bac
they found.
Yeah, they saw that first
Rice says she has been drinking
bottled water instead of, well,
ever since she started spotting
fish in the creek
following the derailment.
She says she's still waiting
for the state to come and test h
Well, water air wise.
I feel okay.
Waterways. No, I know.
There's just too many chemicals
that were spilled that they stil
want to identify completely.
And Ohio Department of Natural R
official estimates some 3500 fis
the state
have died following the train de
These people saw the flames
from their homes
and worry
their neighborhood still may not
What about testing water or grou
Nothing yet.
No. And I get that.
I don't recommend you
put anything in the ground, gree
vegetables or tomatoes or anythi
this year because we don't know.
I don't think they're going to d
And some residents say
they've been frustrated
by what they describe
as a lack of communication
with officials. On the ground.
We pass all of the creeks
and there's crew after crew
with white hoses
and black hoses all through the
They're not telling us why.
And this is this is daily.
I'm driving my children
to school past all of this.
And they're asking me questions
that I don't have answers to.
Some of their questions unanswer
We found getting information
just as challenging a key issue.
Are they pumping water out
or are you pumping water back in
Talk to the guys
at the top of the hill, sir.
We're just growing.
We're just trying to get a sense
what those pumps are.
Can you just someone just.
Norfolk Southern can tell you ev
That's the hotline.
They can tell you everything.
You realize
people are calling this number
and no one is getting back to th
We're just told to direct people
that no help.
The governor asked by reporters
if he would feel comfortable
living in East Palestine.
I think that I would be
drinking the bottled water
and I would be
continuing to
find out
what the tests were showing
as far as the air.
I would be alert and
and concerned,
but I think I would
probably be back in my house.
But residents like Kathy Reese s
they are left with few choices
just as pray and keep drink bott
until we know for sure what's go
And again, Jake,
while the state EPA says
the municipal water
source is now
safe to drink, that according
to their most recent testing,
still recommending that those wi
who have private wells, people
like who
you just heard from, Kathy Reese,
they're still recommending that
those residents in East
Palestine
make sure that they get their wa
tested.
People like Kathy
Reese will be one of many tonigh
attending a meeting
with officials
hoping to get more information
about everything that's going on
including some of the cleanup ef
that are going on right behind u
Jason, you mentioned Norfolk Sou
I just want to note that their r
of $3.3 billion declared last Oc
were at an all time quarterly re
Norfolk Southern,
which is not getting back
to the good people of East
Palestine, Ohio,
Well, it should also be noted,
they said that they were going
to be setting up
a fund,
a $1 million
fund for the folks in East Pales
and I have to tell you,
some people on the ground
feel like that's a drop in the b
compared to their profits.
Yeah, that's the change in their
in their sofa.
Jason Carroll, thanks so much.
My next guest is an associate
professor
of environmental health science
at the Ohio State University.
Karen. Danny Miller.
Professor Danny Miller,
thanks so much for joining us.
Right now,
officials are monitoring
a large plume of contamination
moving down the Ohio River.
At least 3500 fish and surrounding waterw
have died.
There's a 1000 square foot area
around the immediate site
of the derailment
where toxic chemicals were burne
Is it too soon, do you think, fo
out there to be saying that the
is safe or the water is safe
It's really in the
early phases of
of this particular phase
of what's happening.
We've moved now past the acute i
danger of one this happened
and residents were asked to evac
And now that people are able
to come back to the area.
We're starting the more long
term phase of determining
what's going on.
There's a lot of ongoing
testing in the different environ
in the soil and the water and th
to determine
what's in different locations.
And we'll we'll find out
answers to these questions
as time goes on.
Does it alarm you at all
that some of the people who retu
the area are reporting
strong chemical smells
and that they're suffering from
So
a lot of the compounds
that were on
the train are VOCs or volatile
organic compounds.
And these are chemicals
that tend
to partition into the gas phase.
Anything that you can smell
is a volatile organic compound.
One thing to keep in mind
is that while our ozone,
our noses
are pretty good indicators of ch
within our environment,
they the odor threshold doesn't
always correspond to the level
at which you would expect
to have potential health
effects occurring.
So for an example,
you might peel an orange
and smell
those smells,
but those aren't necessarily
harmful to you.
And there are other chemicals
that you can't
necessarily smell at levels
at which they may potentially be
So that's something important
to keep, to keep in mind.
The thing
that's really going to determine
what potential risks
are resulting from the chemicals
that might be in these different
areas are the measurements
that are currently ongoing.
One of the chemicals on the trai
vinyl chloride, is used to make
piping.
Exposure has been linked
to rare forms of liver, brain
and lung cancer.
When it burns,
as in the controlled release,
it creates a toxic gas,
one that was actually
used as a weapon during World Wa
Federal and state officials clai
they're testing the air every da
It's safe.
They're not finding it.
Are you at all worried that the
might not be expansive enough
As you mentioned,
this is a pretty complicated situation i
of where these chemicals
went into the environment.
A lot of the chemicals
that enter into the air
initially are going
to have a relatively short
timeline on which they're at tha
before they move away from the a
As you said,
the phosgene
that was being released at the t
has probably stopped to be relea
after the burning was completed.
Some of the other questions
that remain are
how much of these chemicals
got into the soil,
which you mentioned, acts like a
and might hold those chemicals t
that can then continue to off ga
So we're really waiting
for those measurements
to come back to determine
where those chemicals
are in the environment
and looking for those numbers
from the ongoing sampling.