This article sheds light on a disturbing incident in East Palestine, Ohio, where the deliberate burning of toxic chemicals after a train derailment potentially violated EPA regulations. The revelation of a disregarded EPA memo raises questions about public safety protocols and the potential risks posed to communities in similar emergencies nationwide.

From Common Dreams. A day after the head of the National Transportation Safety Board told Congress that the deliberate burning of toxic chemicals in five crashed train cars in East Palestine, Ohio last year was unnecessary, a former Environmental Protection Agency official said the so-called “controlled burn” also likely went against EPA regulations.

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Kevin Garrahan, who worked for the agency for 40 years and focused on environmental risk assessment and hazardous waste cleanup, told HuffPost that soon after a Norfolk Southern train derailed in the town of 4,700 people, he alerted a former EPA colleague to a 2022 memo on the open burning and open detonation of waste explosives.

The memo described when local EPA officials can issue permits for the pre-planned combustion of waste explosives, and said the open burning of hazardous waste should be a last resort. …

Considering laws banning the open burning of chemicals and the EPA’s knowledge of the danger that was spelled out in the memo, the decision to allow emergency crews to blast holes in five train cars, drain the toxic vinyl chloride they were carrying into pits, and set the chemicals on fire seemed “incredibly stupid and reckless,” Garrahan wrote to his colleague. …

In a case of a private company directing a public official regarding their response to a potential public safety threat, East Palestine fire chief Keith Drabick told the NTSB that Norfolk Southern and its contractors pushed him to approve the deliberate burning of the vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen that has been linked to liver, brain, lung, and blood cancers as well as neurological damage. Drabick said railroad officials gave him just 13 minutes to make the decision.

Garrahan told HuffPost that the EPA, which deployed state and federal officials to the crash site, should have stepped in and cited the 2022 memo as proof that the so-called “controlled burn” that Norfolk Southern was suggesting actually fit the definition of open detonation.

“It’s inconceivable that there wouldn’t have been someone from the enforcement office, or general counsel, saying, ‘Oh, Norfolk Southern wants to do an uncontrolled burn—that’s illegal, you cannot do that,” Garrahan said, calling the memo a “bombshell.” …

Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator, told the outlet that the EPA went against their previous protocols, which were in place in 2012 when a train carrying vinyl chloride derailed in Paulsboro, New Jersey.

Officials in that case sealed off the affected cars and vacuumed the hazardous materials before taking it to a facility for safe disposal. …

The EPA’s decision-making in the case of East Palestine raises questions about the future safety of other American communities if a similar accident happens. …

Spread the word about this crucial article to ensure that the residents of East Palestine and their community’s safety concerns receive the attention they deserve.

(Excerpt from Common Dreams. Photo Credit: National Transportation Safety Board)