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5 statistics from EPA after a year of clean-up at East Palestine

By Kelcey Norris Mahoning Matters

February 21, 2024 11:57 AM

President Joe Biden visited the East Palestine community and saw firsthand the site of the Norfolk Southern train derailment on the one-year anniversary of the disaster.

Michael Regan, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, shared updates into the yearlong clean-up effort and how the EPA has handled the process.

“President Biden has never forgotten East Palestine,” said Regan. “Under the president’s leadership, emergency response personnel from the U.S. EPA arrived on scene within hours of the derailment joining local first responders who heroically prevented loss of life, serious injury and additional property damage at the surrounding residential areas.”

He described the clean-up process as a “year of action.”

“The EPA continues to direct the clean-up in East Palestine, and today we have removed almost 176,000 tons of contaminated soil out of the community for safe disposal,” Regan said.

Regan also said the EPA shipped over 43 million gallons of wastewater off-site to be safely disposed of, and six million gallons of wastewater was treated on-site before being shipped out of the community.

“We have collected more than 115 million air monitoring data points and more than 45,000 samples in and around the community using high-tech EPA aircraft, mobile labs and stationary monitoring,” Regan said.

The air samples have been collected to test for potential contaminants. Samples have also been taken of public drinking water, soil, sediment and private drinking water.

The EPA’s latest sample summary for East Palestine in 2024 can be found online.

After the hazadorous material was removed, crews have started rebuilding the site.

In February, hundreds of trucks started delivering clean stone and gravel into the excavated area to be leveled.