In the three weeks since the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment, federal and state officials have flocked to the village to show their support, meet with residents, and drive home one message: their drinking water is just fine.
State EPA officials have said they are monitoring and assessing the water quality after the 110-car freight train derailment and subsequent release of toxic chemicals.
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Both federal and state officials have stressed repeatedly that the water supply is free of contaminants, that testing has been done to ensure any leaked chemicals did not seep into public wells, and that residents can return to normal life.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan joined Gov. Mike DeWine on video this past week to drink glasses of East Palestine water from the tap. “It’s good water,” Regan said.
The public remains unconvinced.
Water contamination is a major source of anxiety for residents returning to East Palestine after the catastrophic derailment.
Many say they are anxious about air quality, unknown health hazards, and the health of their friends and family. For some, thinking about tap water and its possible contaminants is a bridge too far.
So what does constitute safe water in East Palestine? And who is charged with keeping it that way?
WHO MEASURES CONTAMINATION?
The state of Ohio is leading the water sampling effort in East Palestine, whose public water system is serviced by a system of five municipal wells. The state EPA said last week that to date, treated drinking water in East Palestine shows “no detection of contaminants associated with the derailment.”
State EPA officials will continue the weekly tests of the public water supply for the foreseeable future, as will a separate private company, Eurofins. (The EPA samples are analyzed by an independent lab.)
The Columbiana County Health District is tasked with sampling private wells outside the municipal water system.
As of this week, Ohio EPA and county health officials have tested a total of 56 wells, including 53 in Ohio and 3 in Pennsylvania. They are also continuing to monitor Sulphur Run and Leslie Run, two nearby creeks that contained contaminated surface water in the immediate aftermath of the derailment. (Contractors have since installed underflow dams to restrict the flow of contaminated water, EPA said.)
Meanwhile, sampling of the Ohio River, located some 30 miles downstream, is conducted by the Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission, or ORSANCO. Their weekly sampling draws from 30 locations in three separate states and is sent to the Greater Cincinnati Water Works for analysis. As of the latest sampling, all locations showed contaminants below the 1.00 ppb detection level.
Still, some are anxious about groundwater contamination — which could easily end up seeping into larger waterways, such as streams and creeks. And due to its slow-moving nature, some have noted it could take as long as two years for groundwater contaminants to become detectable in nearby wells.
(Norfolk Southern has said it plans to install a number of monitoring wells to measure groundwater contamination, though details or a time frame for the project remain unclear.)
WHAT DO THEY MEASURE, AND HOW?
Water quality and safety are the responsibility of individual states, which often work closely with local authorities in responding to an emergency.
Under the Safe Water Drinking Act, or SWDA, however, the EPA has the authority to intervene and take charge in situations where “substantial endangerment exists” and/or actions taken by state and local authorities have proved inadequate to protect public health.
In East Palestine, the Ohio EPA is conducting regular surface water sampling and well testing to screen for contaminated materials that may have been spilled into the water or nearby soil. That includes screening for contaminants vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, and ethylhexanol — toxic chemicals that were all released during the derailment.
But that’s a difficult process. Under SWDA, anyone screening drinking water for contaminants must abide by a lengthy set of rules and stringent monitoring requirements.
Testing for volatile compounds such as vinyl chloride, for example, requires an intimate knowledge of both the compound itself, which easily switches from a liquid to a gas, as well as the chromatographic-mass spectrometric method, used to alter its properties and allows for proper testing.
WHAT ARE SAFE LEVELS?
The EPA regulates more than 90 drinking water contaminants based on several criteria: The level of harm or health risk the contaminant poses to the public, whether or not it is likely to spread through drinking water systems, levels of public health concern, and if its regulation presents a “meaningful opportunity for health risk reductions for persons served by public water systems.”
Beyond the 90-item list, there is no single rule or standard for the EPA to determine what a “safe” or unsafe contaminant level is in drinking water.
Rather, the EPA assesses these “safe” levels on a largely case-by-case basis: identifying the contaminant that poses a risk, determining what the risk of exposure is, and then calculating a Maximum Contaminant Level Goal, or MCLG.
Simply put, the MCLG is the maximum amount of a single contaminant that could be contained in drinking water with no known or anticipated adverse health effects occurring as a result.
Still, this varies based on the type of contaminant — whether it is chemical or microbial, whether or not it is a carcinogen — and the health of the general population or nearby residents.
There are also many unknown compounds that may have been released due to the spill and combustion process, said Andrew Whelton, a professor of environmental and ecological engineering at Purdue University.
Setting these chemicals on fire “just created a whole bunch of different byproducts,” he said in an interview.
Nicholas Proia, a pulmonologist and clinical professor of internal medicine who lives not far from East Palestine, stressed just how many unknowns there still are in terms of possible contaminants and long-term health impacts.
“It’s also a caveat to remember that you’re only going to find what you’re looking for,” he told NPR. “And who knows what else is out there, especially after a large fire with a bunch of different, pretty interesting chemicals.”
REMINDERS OF FLINT:
Those in search of a cautionary tale only have to look to the neighboring state of Michigan, home to the city of Flint and the most infamous water crisis in modern memory.
The Flint crisis began in 2014 when the city opted to switch its water from Detroit’s system to the Flint River to save money. Residents immediately voiced concerns about the water’s odor, color, and taste, only to find themselves dismissed by city and state officials.
The water was never treated properly to protect against the lead from the aging pipes, which then leached into the city’s water supply and put thousands of people in danger. More than 9,000 children were estimated to have been supplied lead-contaminated drinking water for 18 months.
Still, it took months before city and state officials acknowledged the deadly health problem unfolding before their eyes.
The federal government took even longer: A 2016 inspector general report has since concluded that the EPA had sufficient authority and information to issue an emergency order and intervene in Flint seven months before it did so.
Without EPA intervention, “the conditions in Flint persisted, and the state continued to delay taking action to require corrosion control or provide alternative drinking water supplies,” the report said.
In total, 15 people were charged as criminally responsible for causing or contributing to the Flint water crisis.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
East Palestine residents remain in a state of limbo, anxious about their air and water quality, frustrated with the rail operator, and deeply skeptical of the officials insisting they return to business as usual.
Some have reported mysterious rashes, coughs, sore throats, and other ailments since returning to East Palestine. Others fear for the safety of their children.
These anxieties prompted hundreds of residents to flood into the bleachers of a high school gymnasium this week for an emotional community meeting.
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“Is it OK to still be here? Are my kids safe? Are the people safe? Is the future of this community safe?” resident Lenny Glavan asked during the event.
“Why are people getting sick if there’s nothing in the air or in the water?” yelled another.
