Truck Carrying Toxic Soil From East Palestine OverturnsVideo

A truck carrying 40,000 pounds of soil contaminated with toxic chemicals from the train derailment near East Palestine, Ohio crashed on Monday evening while en route to a disposal site.

In a statement, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that roughly half of the tractor-trailer's load had spilled onto the road and into a nearby ditch on State Route 165, which runs from Unity, near East Palestine, toward Beloit. The aftermath of the crash was captured on video and posted to Twitter on Tuesday.

The incident comes as federal workers and contractors for rail company Norfolk Southern continue to clear up the toxic waste from the February 3 crash, in which 38 rail cars out of 150 came off the tracks, 11 of which were carrying hazardous material.

The derailment caused toxic chemicals including vinyl chloride to leech into the soil surrounding the derailment site, as well as in nearby waterways. The crash also caused a large fire, which led emergency responders to execute a controlled burn, venting noxious gases into the atmosphere.

Since being allowed to return home, residents have complained of symptoms associated with exposure to toxic chemicals, despite monitoring by the EPA and Norfolk Southern contractors showing safe readings.

The rail company and the EPA have been working to contain the contamination from the spill in the months since, including aerating water in nearby streams to remove toxic particles and excavating the soil around the crash site to be disposed of at EPA-certified facilities.

A spokesperson for the EPA told Newsweek that the Ohio EPA and the East Palestine Fire Department had led the clean-up of the soil spilled by the tractor-trailer on April 10, but that a federal EPA coordinator was also on the scene. The Ohio EPA said the spill "was contained and is not a threat to nearby waterways."

The EPA noted that it was a single-vehicle accident, adding that soil sampling had been undertaken at the crash sight last night under the supervision of the EPA coordinator, the results of which "will inform if additional containment measures are needed and what those would be."

Footage from the scene shows the truck tipped on its side near Cobbler's Ranch, a shoe repair shop along the route, approximately a two-minute drive from Unity, with soil dumped along the road behind it. Another similar truck is stopped behind it, and ambulances are also visible on-scene.

The Ohio Department of Transportation closed a section of State Route 165 between State Route 617 in Mahoning County and State Route 14 in Columbiana County. The state highway patrol had reported that the driver of the truck sustained minor injuries, according to the Ohio EPA.

Newsweek reached out to the office of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine via email for comment.

The shipment of toxic waste from the derailment site initially caused controversy, after local lawmakers in Michigan and Texas expressed outrage at the news that shipments had already been made to disposal sites in their areas without being forewarned. At the time, five truckloads carrying around 280 tons were returned to East Palestine.

Norfolk Southern temporarily paused shipments in late February following the outcry, before they resumed under the EPA's authority, heading to safe disposal facilities across several states. Debra Shore, the EPA's regional administrator, said elected officials would be informed before shipments were made.

Shore faced questions from members of Congress at a March 28 hearing of the House Environment, Manufacturing and Critical Materials Subcommittee about the spill as to why shipments had been rejected and returned from licensed disposal sites.

A memo produced for the meeting noted that "a state or local government cannot discriminate against the disposal of out-of-jurisdiction waste" and referenced a March 17 letter from the EPA to state environmental regulators stressing that they "cannot unilaterally stop shipments."

Shore told the committee that the turning back of a shipment of hazardous waste occurred before the EPA had assumed responsibility for the shipments and that it was unclear who told the trucks to return to East Palestine.

At the same hearing, Anne Vogel, director of the Ohio EPA, said the agency was "doing everything we can" to stop the further spread of contamination from the soil being disposed of, including using plastic covers, washing the wheels of the trucks to remove any contaminants, and disposing of the water used to wash the wheels as well.

Uncommon Knowledge

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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