Justice Department, EPA sue Norfolk Southern for toxic East Palestine train derailment

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) person filed a suit against Norfolk Southern Corporation and Norfolk Southern Railway Company (Norfolk Southern) for the toxic bid wreck successful East Palestine, Ohio past month.

On Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern bid with 10 cars carrying hazardous materials derailed, causing hazardous chemicals, including vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate and ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, to spill onto the crushed and sent a plume of fume into the air. The clang forced astir fractional of the 5,000 colonisation of East Palestine to beryllium evacuated for a time. 

DOJ's ailment seeks to clasp Norfolk Southern liable for the unlawful discharge of pollutants, oil, and hazardous substances nether the Clean Water Act, and past and aboriginal costs of the cleanup and harm of the lawsuit nether the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

"When a Norfolk Southern bid derailed past period successful East Palestine, Ohio, it released toxins into the air, soil, and water, endangering the wellness and information of radical successful surrounding communities," Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said successful a connection Friday.

OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL ANNOUNCES LAWSUIT AGAINST NORFOLK SOUTHERN OVER EAST PALESTINE DERAILMENT

Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks astatine the Department of Justice successful Washington, D.C. (Carolyn Kaster-Pool/Getty Images)

."With this complaint, the Justice Department and the EPA are acting to prosecute justness for the residents of East Palestine and guarantee that Norfolk Southern carries the fiscal load for the harm it has caused and continues to inflict connected the community." 

"From the precise beginning, I pledged to the radical of East Palestine that EPA would clasp Norfolk Southern afloat accountable for jeopardizing the community’s wellness and safety," EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said.

"No assemblage should person to spell done what East Palestine residents person faced. With today’s action, we are erstwhile much delivering connected our committedness to guarantee Norfolk Southern cleans up the messiness they made and pays for the harm they person inflicted arsenic we enactment to guarantee this assemblage tin consciousness harmless astatine location again."

EPA ORDERS STATES TO STOP BLOCKING EAST PALESTINE WASTE FROM STORAGE SITES

This video screenshot released by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) shows the tract of a derailed freight bid successful East Palestine, Ohio.  ((NTSB/Handout via Xinhua via Getty Images))

DOJ notes that the occurrence caused by the derailment burned for respective days. On Feb. 5, monitoring indicated that the somesthesia successful 1 of the obstruction cars containing vinyl chloride had been rising, truthful to forestall an explosion, Norfolk Southern vented and burned 5 obstruction cars containing vinyl chloride successful a flare trench the pursuing day, resulting successful the merchandise of adjacent much toxic chemicals.

On Feb. 21, the EPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order nether CECA to Norfolk Southern, which required the institution to make and instrumentality plans to code contamination and wage EPA’s effect costs associated with the order. 

SEE IT: EAST PALESTINE RESIDENT POSTS PHOTOS OF RESIDUE ON WALLS, SAYS HOUSE 'REEKS' OF CHEMICAL SMELLS

Smoke successful East Palestine pursuing the toxic bid wreck.  (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, Zsuzsa Gyenes)

Since that order, the EPA has been overseeing that company’s work, noting that astir 9.2 cardinal gallons of liquid wastewater and an estimated 12,932 tons of contaminated soils and solids person been shipped off-site.

The DOJ said Friday that the EPA and different national agencies "continue to analyse the circumstances starring up to and pursuing the derailment" and that the DOJ would "pursue further actions arsenic warranted successful the aboriginal arsenic its investigatory enactment proceeds."

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The suit was filed successful coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio and the Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division.