People are getting sick
we we should not have been, like,
back into town
until all of this was done.
This morning, people in East
Palestine, Ohio,
scared the toxic chemicals
from a massive train
derailment are putting
their lives at risk.
CNN has obtained
new videos of the train before the crash,
and they're helping us
pieced together a timeline.
So let's check out some of this.
First, you see videos
from along the train tracks
This is in Alliance, Ohio,
and you see the train passing.
This is on the right side of your screen.
Now, this was about 15.
This was about 57 minutes
before the crash.
And you can see there are no sparks.
The train keeps heading down the tracks.
And by eight, 12 p.m.
it's in Salem.
Now you can see
sparks from an apparent wheel
bearing overheating.
Here's another surveillance camera.
Same time, same town.
The train keeps going for 20 miles
after that point.
Headed for East Palestine.
And that is where it derails at eight 55.
A full 43 minutes
after we saw those sparks.
And Salem.
CNN's Jason Carroll is live
in East Palestine.
And Jason,
we just want to start with
what the NTSB is saying
about the video and the investigation
Well, this is clearly going to be a key
part of the investigation
into what exactly went wrong out here.
And according to the NTSB,
that surveillance video
that you just referenced there
and I'm going to quote here, appears
to show a wheel
bearing in the final stage
of overheat failure.
Moments before the derailment.
Now, of course, that wheel bearing
is a key component.
Hopes to connect the wheel to the axle.
The parts in question
have all been collected
They've been examined.
They're going to be taken
now to Washington, D.C.,
where they will be
examined by investigators
there at a laboratory with the NTSB.
We should also tell you,
Audie, that the NTSB
has also collected
the locomotive event recorder.
That is also going to be key
to the investigation
going forward in Turin
in terms of trying to determine
exactly what went wrong.
Now, the EPA administrator
actually was visiting East Palestine
and you got to speak with him.
What did he tell you
Well, it was a short
conversation,
but an important conversation.
The EPA administrator, Michael Regan,
made it very clear
that he knows
that people are scared,
that they are very worried
about their health.
He also said that he knows that
people do not trust the government
when they say that
the air and the water is safe.
Here's more of what he had to say.
You've heard
some of the stories that are coming
in, people
talking about
having rashes, their pets
getting sick, things like that.
What I would say is
if anyone is experiencing
any kind of adverse symptoms,
have their pets go to the veterinarian?
They should seek medical attention.
We need for this information
to get to the state health department
so that we can coordinate
and be sure that people
are getting the help that they need
to help us clear up
what specifically you're testing for.
Is it just for vinyl chloride?
We are testing for the full breadth
of toxic chemicals
that were on that train that was spilled.
We have the capabilities to detect
every single adverse impact
that would result from that spill.
And that's what we're doing.
We will be here
for as long as it takes
to see this process through.
I want to assure the people
I just want to say,
when you say as long as it takes,
I think the question is long
term, is someone going to be here
a year from now,
two years from now to come back?
Test the water, test the soil.
I'm very clear when I say as long
as it takes,
we will go through this process.
With the citizens of East Palestine
for as long as it takes.
The federal government will be here
for as long as it takes.
So, again, you heard it there, Audie.
The EPA
administrator says
as long as it takes,
whatever that ends up being.
Also want to tell you
that Ohio's governor
has asked the CDC to get involved.
He wants CDC experts
here on the ground
to examine
people who say they are having symptoms
Audie.
Jason Carroll,
thank you for your reporting.
Joining us now
is the water quality
and treatment
superintendent of Greater
Cincinnati Waterworks,
Jeff Sweat for her.
Thank you so much.
You serve more than a million
people in the Cincinnati area.
You get 88% of the drinking
water from the Ohio River.
So that's obviously
why so many people have questions.
I know you've been doing testing.
What exactly do you test for?
What does that look like?
So we're working with
a lot of partners
here, with regional partners
from U.S., EPA, Ohio,
and especially or Sankoh,
the Ohio River Valley Water
Sanitation Commission.
So we're going.
We're working with that group,
getting samples
from all of them down the Ohio River.
We're bringing in here into our lab
and doing these analysis.
Now, fortunately,
we're not finding the high concentrations
that they're seeing up in up in the East
Palestine area.
Our concentrations are much less.
And as it's coming down the Ohio River,
what we're seeing is
especially one compound
that what's been detected
is called futile accolade.
that compound
is actually decreasing a bit
as it's coming down the river
between its apologizing being up, but
the concentration
becoming less and less
as it's moving towards us.
So it's becoming less
and less
that you are seeing a difference, though,
since this train wreck has happened.
Yeah. So this is something
that we would not have detected before,
but we would the test that we do.
We have a suite of tests
that we do all the time
anyway to make sure
that the water's safe.
So if there's anything in there
we don't know about or detect it.
This would,
this compound
would have been detected in that.
And we don't detect it
because we haven't detected before.
But now we're detecting upstream of
of the city, Cincinnati.
One thing,
Jeff, that we've heard
from a lot of people is
they're skeptical of the testing
I know we hear from you.
We've heard from officials in East
Palestine
and the EPA that they're doing this
testing, telling us what they see.
But how do people know they
can trust the testing
Well,
I think
in our part,
you know, we're drinking the water, too.
You know, I'm
drinking at my family's drinking
if I don't want to drink this stuff.
So I want to make sure
that we're doing that as good
as job as we can to to
to characterize what's happening.
And also looking at our treatment,
we've done a lot of work
looking at our treatment plant
and making sure that we can remove it.
And we feel that where we
we have several barriers here.
We can we can remove it.
And even before that,
we can actually shut down
and not bring the water in for a while.
So if we see the contaminants
getting close to us,
that's usually our first action is just
shut down and let it go by altogether.
And one aspect of this is the rain.
You know,
I mean, we talked about the soil
in East Palestine,
the rain happening, washing it down
What concerns do you have about that?
Well, we have quickly
our monitoring system that we have set up
will detect something else
or something else
gets washed into the river.
We will detect that
and we'll have a good notice
of several weeks notice
probably before it will get to us.
So because of this monitoring system
that we have set
up, we feel that
we're in really good condition
to be able to detect something
if it does get washed out of there.
So that sounds like you're saying that
if people are concerned
in Cincinnati, people
who are downstream from East Palestine,
that they should not have concerns.
Is that is that what you're telling me
Yeah, very much.
We've done away in Cincinnati,
but we're working with a lot of utilities
up and down the river.
About over 5 million people
get the water from the Ohio River,
and we're working
with the water utilities
to send in a group to
to make sure
that we're all aware of what's happening,
what treatment is effective,
and to make sure that this doesn't
get into the drinking water.
How long does this change
how you do your job?
You know, you're monitoring now. I know.
24, seven is basically
what you are on schedule.
How long does this go on for?
Because I think
a lot of the residents in East
Palestine are concerned
that it's a short term attention span
and not something that people
have been paying attention to
as long as it needs to.
Yeah.
So this particular event, maybe will be,
oh, maybe
three weeks
or so in duration to look for it for us.
But again, we had a monitoring system,
so something else comes down
to check the end of all.
Well, we'll start over
then with with the monitoring
and some of the residents
in East Palestine,
just given your expertize on this,
they've complained about the idea
that they're told the water is safe,
but they're still told to drink
bottled water.
How did you do if you lived there?
How do you square those two?
Yeah.
Well, I think what the Health
Department of Health is saying
is get your water tested.
A lot of people up there
in East Palestine
have their own private wells.
And that's a very different situation
than what we have
where we have a centralized drinking
water system.
So there is free
testing that everybody is doing
for those people.
So absolutely, they should have
the wells tested, not just now,
but later on in the future to
to make sure that nothing else
gets into there.
Does it ever become a situation
where do you think that is?
Palestine should be designated
as a Superfund site where it gets
the federal attention in its it changes
the contamination
and how they are
allocating resources for it.
Should it be a Superfund site?
I don't know about a Superfund site.
Both. I certainly think that
there needs to be a lot of effort
put into it right now to characterize
what's there, to clean up what's there.
But yeah,
I think they do need a lot of attention
up there.
All right, Jeff
Fager, thank you so much
for sharing that expertize with us
and your testing procedures
and saying that you and your family
are drinking the water.
And so you do believe it's safe
Absolutely. Thank you.