Federal, state, local officials host press conference detailing latest information after train derailment
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (KDKA) - Three weeks after a Norfolk-Southern train derailed near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, federal, state, and local agencies are working together on the ground in East Palestine.
The Biden administration directed federal workers Saturday to start connecting with families affected by the crash to provide support and outreach as they continue to recover. KDKA also had the chance to ask questions to certain federal officials for the first time.
The federal response is expanding in the village as FEMA, and the CDC, increase their response efforts.
Thomas Sivak is the FEMA Region 5 administrator.
"We see you. We hear you, and [we] are here to help," Sivak said. "Our teams went to four fixed location states throughout the community and engaged with the community emergency response team who were out there."
CDC and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Team Lead Jill Shugart said they had a team going door-to-door throughout the community Saturday to inform residents about a chemical exposure survey, an assessment that will collect info including health symptoms.
"Some demographic information and whether they were in the area during the incident, whether they evacuated," Shugart said.
U.S. EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore said their agency has conducted 574 home reentry screenings so far and continues to monitor the air quality at 15 stations. She said air and water are still at safe levels.
Also, she adds that the EPA temporarily stopped Norfolk-Southern from disposing of waste from the derailment as they check to ensure the company is doing so legally and safely.
"One thing that's been made clear to me is that everyone wants this contamination gone from the community," Shore said. "They don't want the worry, and they don't want the smell, and we owe it to the people of East Palestine to move it out of the community as quickly as possible."
Moving forward, disposal locations and transportation routes will be subject to federal EPA review and approval as a part of the administrative order the agency issued this past week that put it in control of the situation.
Questions remain – Why are people and their animals becoming ill if air and water are declared safe?
The CDC couldn't give a clear answer.
"We do understand that there were a lot of hazardous materials that were spilled at the incident. However, we really need to look a little bit more at the data," Shugart said.
At the same time, what about the soil underneath the railroad tracks?
The company just started the remediation process, but only after feedback challenging its decision to continue operations.
Federal Railroad Administration Deputy Administrator Mikel Cipollini had trouble responding.
KDKA's Lauren Linder asked him, "Why wasn't the soil removed first and dealt with before getting these tracks back up and running?"
Cipollini stood perplexed for seven seconds before responding.
"I don't know, I mean, it's not a part of the plan on remediating the derailment and all the stuff, so now that, you know, they did all that remediation, now they're going to come back in and probably do a full-fledged capital program to redo everything," Cipollini said.
Officials said their goal is for federal teams to knock on at least 400 homes by Monday.
