The president of the National Transportation Safety Board told Congress Wednesday that blowing open five tank cars and burning the deadly chemical inside them after a freight train derailed in Eastern Ohio last year was unjustified.
She said critical decision-makers who worried the tank cars would explode three days after the incident never obtained the information they needed. The vinyl chloride released that day and the other chemicals that poured and caught fire following the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, have raised concerns about long-term health.
Oxy Vinyls, which produced the vinyl chloride in those tank cars, told Norfolk Southern railroad contractors that no harmful chemical reaction was occurring, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said. Oxy Vinyls was excluded from command. “They informed them that polymerization, they believed polymerization was not occurring, and there was no justification to vent and burn,” Homendy added. We could also let it cool down.”
She alleged that information was never given to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and the first responders. NTSB hearings in East Palestine last spring revealed some of this. Wednesday's remarks by Homendy were the strongest indication that the controversial vent-and-burn move was unnecessary. The government will have another hearing in June before releasing its final assessment on the Feb. 3, 2023, derailment.
Dan Tierney, DeWine's spokeswoman, said it's upsetting to hear that blowing open those tank cars wasn't necessary a year after the derailment. Tierney said just two scenarios were considered: a catastrophic explosion that threw shrapnel in all directions to a one-mile radius or a controlled vent and burn. “Nobody ever said if you did nothing, it wouldn’t explode.” East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick said the command center agreed that unleashing and burning the chemicals was the “least bad option.”
But Homendy stated they never heard Oxy Vinyls say vinyl chloride was stable. Instead, decision-makers relied on contractors who were frightened by the limited temperature readings and the violent way one tank car expelled vinyl chloride with a roar from a pressure release valve after hours of stillness. Last March, Specialized Professional Services' Drew McCarty testified that the tank car “frankly scared the hell out of us.”
The NTSB believes a railcar bearing overheated causing the derailment. For miles, trackside detectors detected the bearing heating up, but it didn't reach a high enough temperature to trigger an alarm until just before the collision. That prevented the crew from stopping the train.
East Palestine residents are ready to move forward after the derailment cleanup is complete later this year, but others still have respiratory issues, rashes, and other health issues. Norfolk Southern estimates that their catastrophe response and local aid cost over $1.1 billion. Now an investor group dissatisfied of the railroad's response and its poor profitability over the previous several years wants to oust CEO Alan Shaw and take control.
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