By | May 23, 2024 | The New Lede

Norfolk Southern Corp. on Thursday announced it will pay more than $300 million to resolve investigations by three US agencies in the aftermath of a catastrophic train derailment last year that contaminated the town of East Palestine, Ohio with toxic chemicals.

The settlement resolves “all claims and investigations” by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the US Department of Interior arising from the February 2023 derailment in which 38 train cars carrying vinyl chloride and other hazardous chemicals ran off the tracks in northeastern Ohio.

The EPA said the company had agreed to the following:

  • Spending $235 million on past and future cleanup costs
  • Paying a $15 million civil penalty for violations of the Clean Water Act
  • Paying $25 million for a 20-year community health program that includes medical monitoring and mental health services.
  • Spending approximately $15 million to implement long-term monitoring of groundwater and surface water for a period of 10 years.
  • Paying $15 million for a private drinking water monitoring fund that will continue the existing private drinking water well monitoring program for 10 years.
  • Paying an estimated $6 million to implement several environmental remediation projects.

Norfolk Southern additionally said it would repay the EPA $57 million for response expenses and plans to spend $244 million on initiatives to make its trains safer. These will include new monitoring devices along its tracks and better alarms for detecting overheated wheel bearings, according to the EPA.

“We are very, very pleased that Norfolk Southern has agreed to settlement terms that hold them accountable for disrupting the lives of the people of East Palestine, and help to bring some justice and a path towards closure to those who were affected by this disaster,” Rebecca Chattin Lutzko, interim US Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said during a press conference on Thursday. “This settlement communicates to other, similar companies that they must take full responsibility for their actions.”

“Make things right”

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw said in a statement that the company was pleased to reach a “timely resolution… that recognizes our comprehensive response to the community’s needs and our mission to be the gold standard of safety” in the rail industry.

“From day one, it was important for Norfolk Southern to make things right for the residents of East Palestine and the surrounding areas,” Shaw said.

The company is also required to put measures in place to make its trains safer, including new monitoring devices along its tracks and better alarms for detecting overheated wheel bearings.

“Had these provisions been in place on February 3, 2023, this disaster may never have happened in the first place,” EPA administrator Michael Regan said on the press call. “Considering its large market share, we expect that these required provisions will advance safer practices across the railroad industry for many years to come.”

Congress is currently debating industry-wide requirements for some of the rail safety measures the EPA and DOJ included in the consent decree, said Regan, adding that the agreement “clearly demonstrates that these safety practices are both reasonable and achievable by the broader industry.”

The latest settlement comes on the heels of a $600 million class action settlement with Norfolk Southern that received preliminary approval Tuesday, which would include personal injury claims within 10 miles of the site where the train derailed.

That agreement does not include “any admission of liability, wrongdoing, or fault,” Norfolk Southern said in a statement following the class action settlement.

Concerns continue

Accidental chemical releases are not rare in the US, with data suggesting incidents such as train derailments, truck crashes, pipeline ruptures or industrial plant leaks and spills occur every two days, on average.

But unlike many incidents that fly under the radar, the Norfolk Southern derailment captured national attention. Three days after the initial derailment, the company conducted a controlled burn of the hazardous vinyl chloride in five of its tank cars, releasing a toxic plume of chemicals over the town. The move could have been avoided, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Following the disaster, the EPA has collected over 115 million air monitoring data points and over 45,000 air, water and soil samples, said Regan.

“Results confirm our confidence that the air and soil in East Palestine and surrounding communities, including inside homes, is not a concern for incident specific chemicals,” says the EPA’s website.

However, some scientists have questioned the EPA’s testing methods. Many months after the incident, residents have continued reporting nosebleeds, headaches, dizziness, and other health problems.

“The people of East Palestine have suffered tremendously from the Norfolk Southern train derailment,” Acting Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said during the press call. “This resolution cannot undo the damage that was done last February, but we hope that the settlement will be an important step forward in protecting the community, helping it heal, and preventing a tragedy like this from happening again.”

(Featured image by the National Transportation Safety Board, Wikimedia Commons.)