EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — A woman with bright pink hair stands next to a long front porch. She doesn’t smile, only introduces herself as Krissy Ferguson and walks to the front door. Before entering, she says, “I must warn you, the smell may be alarming.”
She’s right. The house has a funny metallic odor, but what’s even more striking is how full the house is knowing no one lives there. There is food still sitting on the tables. The kitchen is stocked with cooking utensils. And family photos containing three generations’ worth of memories still hang on the walls, now coated in dust.
She doesn’t want to take the photos or take anything for that matter. She’s afraid her old belongings may be contaminated by the dust.
Ferguson lives a little less than a mile from the site of the Norfolk Southern train derailment that happened a year ago, on Feb. 3, 2023, in East Palestine, Ohio, just a few hundred feet away from the border of Pennsylvania.
About 50 cars derailed, 11 of which contained hazardous materials, and caught fire. The flames could be seen from miles away and the wreckage smoldered for days afterward.
Some of the train cars also ruptured, spilling their harmful contents into a drainage ditch that leads into Sulphur Run, a small stream that runs through the heart of East Palestine.
Three days later, five cars containing toxic vinyl chloride were purposefully vented and the chemical was burned off to avoid a more dangerous uncontrolled explosion as temperatures within the tanker cars became volatile. The subsequent dark cloud of smoke and chemicals was again seen for miles around.
Despite the passage of time — and reassurance from government officials, environmental regulators and Norfolk Southern that East Palestine is safe — problems linger.
Sulphur Run, which runs in a culvert below Ferguson’s house, remains polluted with various contaminants from the derailment. Some residents continue to experience health issues they believe stem from the derailment and confusing test results have left them feeling unsafe in places they once called home.
“I can’t begin to get out of Feb. 3,” Ferguson said. “It has been the longest year in my life and it’s the same day, all year every day. You just find out more and more and nothing has changed.”
Sulphur Run
On a dreary, late afternoon in early January, Christina Siceloff opens up the trunk of her car and gathers up equipment to go down to Sulphur Run. This includes a pair of polka-dot waterproof boots, a shovel and a respirator mask.
“This is the last time I’ll be going down to the creek, at least for a while,” she says.
Siceloff lives in South Beaver Township, Pennsylvania — a community near East Palestine across the state line — but she visits East Palestine frequently to inspect the creek.
The first time she went to the creek was about two weeks after the derailment. Since then, she has been down there numerous times with a group of locals turned activists called the Creek Rangers. The grassroots watchdog group was formed to inspect the cleanup progress. But the more often they go to the creek, the sicker they get.
Siceloff feels nauseous every time she goes. She’ll sometimes get rashes on her ankles and lately, she’s been getting a twitch in her hands and eyes that increases the more she visits.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has advised people to stay out of the creek and posted signs at numerous access points reading “Keep out — Testing and cleaning in progress.” The group has also been criticized by others in the community who just want to move on.
But Siceloff says it’s about holding those responsible accountable: “I continue to expose myself, and people have told me to stop, but if you stop it just goes away. They’re not gonna do anything about it or they’re gonna say the creeks are clean and they’re not.”
According to EPA Response Coordinator Mark Durno, the chemicals released into Sulphur Run from the derailed cars were butyl acrylate, ethyl hexyl acrylate, lube oil and some benzene residuals. Thousands of fish and other aquatic life in Sulphur Run and Leslie Run died as a result of the contamination.
The EPA and Norfolk Southern have taken numerous steps to clean the creeks, including aerating the water, washing sediment, using booms and earthen dams to collect chemicals and power washing culverts.
However, almost a year later, the sediment in the creek still produces a white and rainbow-colored sheen when moved or stepped on. The soil on the banks of the creek is also black.
In late November, Siceloff took a crew from Three Rivers Waterkeeper, a non-profit organization in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania dedicated to protecting the water quality in the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, down to Sulphur Run to test the water and sediment.
Sulphur Run is a tributary of the Ohio River. The stream flows into Leslie Run in downtown East Palestine, which eventually connects to Little Beaver Creek, a nationally designated wild and scenic river. From there, it drains into the Ohio River.
Heather Hulton VanTassel, executive director of Three Rivers Waterkeeper, says the most striking findings were the levels of contamination in the sediment. Test results showed high levels of several different benzene derivatives and fluoranthene, a component of oil, both of which are harmful when ingested.
The EPA tested the creeks in August and November. Although the results didn’t line up exactly, Durno said the EPA’s August results also showed elevated levels of hazardous chemicals like fluoranthene compared to pre-derailment conditions. The results from the November testing will be released soon, he said.
Durno also pointed out, in an interview with Farm and Dairy, that conditions in Sulphur Run weren’t the best even before the derailment.
In 1985, the water quality in Sulphur Run and Leslie Run was severely impacted by mining and land use activities, according to routine testing conducted by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. Between 1999 and 2022, the conditions in the creek significantly improved.
An EPA newsletter from October says fish populations have returned to pre-derailment conditions, but the sediment and sheen require further investigation.
What is the sheen?
Standing in the creek in ankle-deep water, Siceloff plunges her shovel into the ground and moves the sediment around in the water. She does this repeatedly, pointing out the little trails of white milky sheen oozing out of the mud.
Then, she hits one spot in particular, and suddenly a rainbow-colored sheen bubbles up to the surface. For a split second, it feels like hitting gold. It’s beautiful, the way the colors reflect off the water — but in reality, the sheen could be highly dangerous.
Before the derailment, there was no sheen in Sulphur Run. Durno said the rainbow sheen is from the lube oil spilled during the derailment, but, he is unsure what chemical compounds make up the milky, white sheen that is present in the creeks. He guesses it is a combination of acrylates, like butyl acrylate and ethyl hexyl acrylate.
But Andrew Whelton, a professor of environmental and ecological engineering at Purdue University, says guessing is not enough. “If you don’t know what chemicals are in the lube oil, then you can’t predict what levels are safe for exposure,” said Whelton.
Whelton was asked by East Palestine residents to come and assess the derailment impacts. He has a wealth of experience in assisting with cleanup efforts after environmental disasters.
Whelton was called in to inspect the contamination of homes after the Maui wildfires in August 2023. He was also involved in the clean-up efforts after the 2014 Elk River chemical spill in Charleston, West Virginia, where 10,000 gallons of an industrial coal processing liquid were spilled into a tributary of the Kanawha River.
Three weeks after the derailment, Whelton took samples of the sheen in Sulphur Run. The results showed no butyl acrylate. After providing the U.S. EPA with his test results, they assured him the sheen was lube oil.
The EPA ordered Norfolk Southern in October to clean out all of the culverts in town, assess how much of Leslie Run and Sulphur Run creek had a sheen and conduct testing to find out what exactly is producing the sheen.
Norfolk Southern collected samples of the sediment and the sheen from Sulphur Run in November. Chris Hunsicker, the Northern Regional Manager for Environmental Operations at Norfolk Southern, said they are still waiting for the test result to come back, but their next steps for the creek will focus on identifying what exactly the sheen is and what to do about it. Currently, the EPA is reviewing Norfolk Southern’s action plan to further clean the creeks.
In the EPA’s January newsletter, Norfolk Southern’s findings showed that 59% of Leslie Run and 66% of Sulphur Run still had a sheen.
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Houses
Ferguson walks down a set of narrow steps into a cold, concrete basement. She stops above what appears to be a hole in the concrete floor where an uncapped water pipe lies. Like other old houses in East Palestine, the uncapped water pipe is part of an old sewer system.
Unlike others, though, Ferguson’s house sits right above a culvert in Sulphur Run Creek and the pipe directly connects from her basement to the culvert. Her basement often floods if the creek water rises significantly.
“We knew (about the flooding) and we just dealt with it over the years,” Ferguson said. “But now this is totally different. They’ve ruined that creek and nobody should have to live like this.”
Ferguson’s home, like many in East Palestine, was tested for chemical contaminants using handheld air monitoring devices. Early on, her home was labeled a “special case” because of her proximity to the creek and culvert, Durno said.
Despite the culvert being cleaned, Whelton believes Norfolk Southern and the EPA’s attempts to aerate the creek in the spring could have filtered chemicals into Ferguson’s home and other surrounding buildings. Whelton wrote a letter to Ohio’s U.S. Senators in June pleading for the decontamination of buildings surrounding Sulphur Run.
“They basically just flushed it downstream to dilute it, or they blew it into the air or it’s still present in the environment or attached to other things,” Whelton said.
Durno says air monitoring and sampling were conducted while the creeks were aerated to ensure no chemicals were redistributed back into the air. There were also mobile air monitoring vans driving around the community at the time.
“We’re confident that the process did not create any additional risk to the community,” he said.
However, many residents and experts have questioned the accuracy of the handheld air monitoring devices, which were used to measure potential volatile organic chemicals, VOCs, in houses following the controlled burn of vinyl chloride.
The devices found low levels of butyl acrylate early on in some homes, including Ferguson’s, but Durno says because VOCs have short half-lives, they will dissipate over time.
VOCs are also emitted by many common household items, like gas-burning stoves, cleaning products, office supplies like markers and correction fluid and home furnishings with flame retardants or stain repellents.
Durno said the devices used are accurate but have limitations. They can’t detect low levels of vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate under 20 ppB. Due to community concerns, the EPA conducted a study last summer testing the device’s accuracy. The study found that “as long as limitations are understood, an inaccurate but discernable response may still indicate the presence of a target chemical.”
A ProPublica investigation in March consulted several experts who said low levels of some chemicals like butyl acrylate can still cause health effects like irritation of the eyes and throat, headaches and nausea. They also noted that although VOCs eventually dissipate from the air, they can penetrate surfaces like furniture.
Whelton said the hand-held devices weren’t equipped to pick up all the chemicals released from the derailment and didn’t sample the air long enough for an accurate reading.
“When the evacuation order was lifted and people were told that no chemicals associated with the derailment were found, people went home and started cleaning. And some of them got sick,” he said.
Staying or leaving
For the past few months, Ferguson has been living with her parents and daughter in a house in Columbiana, Ohio, paid for by Norfolk Southern. She avoids coming back to her home in East Palestine as the smell makes her sick.
When she visits the house, her eyes burn and water, sometimes watering for days after she’s been there. Since the derailment, she has experienced increased health issues. Her eyesight has gotten worse and, although she has diabetes, her doctors say the damage to her eyes is not related.
“I went to the doctor and they looked and the damage to my eyes is not from diabetes. There’s no swelling and there’s no bleeding,” said Ferguson. “They’re at a loss for how much my sight has gotten worse through this.”
The EPA created a home cleaning service for residents who were unsure if their homes were safe. The program entails basic cleaning techniques, like dry dusting walls, vacuuming rugs and carpets and wet wiping horizontal surfaces.
Ferguson hasn’t participated in this program yet because she doesn’t feel it’s thorough enough. And if she gets her home cleaned, the relocation aid she’s receiving from Norfolk Southern will end.
“My mom has lived in his home since 1970. She brought me home from the hospital in it. I brought my daughter home in it. Every childhood memory of me and my daughter’s was right here,” Ferguson said. “To just have your home where you can walk in it and it still looks like home, but it’s not home anymore. You don’t feel safe in it.”
For those who want to relocate, Norfolk Southern came up with the Home Value Assistance Program which compensates the homeowner for a decreased value of their home because of the stigma of the derailment.
If the property sits on the market for a while and the price continues to decrease, Norfolk Southern hires an appraiser after it is sold. If the appraised price is higher than the sale price, the resident receives that money and can use it to buy a new house. So far, nine families have gone through the HVAP program.
However, Mark Bryant, a lawyer from Paducah, Kentucky, specializing in train derailment cases, believes HVAP doesn’t offer East Palestine residents a good way out.
Bryant and his team of colleagues went to East Palestine to help after several residents reached out looking to get justice for their health and housing problems. He says many residents aren’t happy with the program because it leaves the liability on them.
“You got to sell your house first before who knows what the deal is gonna be. They won’t tell you ahead of time,” Bryant said.
Ferguson doesn’t want to participate in the program but for different reasons. She doesn’t want the liability of selling the house to a family in its current condition when she feels it’s unsafe. She also doesn’t want to leave her home behind; the home she was raised in, the home she raised her daughter in.
But Ferguson doesn’t want to move back in either and Norfolk Southern’s relocation aid is set to end at the beginning of February. She was granted an extension by the company to stay in her current home until May, but eventually, she will have to decide.
Ferguson’s mother has Parkinson’s disease and her stepfather has dementia. She’s afraid that moving back into the house could kill them.
“My mom would ask me every day, ‘Do we get to go home,’” said Ferguson. “(But) there’s too much deceit with testing. I’ll never feel safe here again, it doesn’t feel like home. My home was my safe place and I feel like if I bring my family back here, they’re gonna die because of it.”
(Reporter Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 800-837-3419.)
