Train Derailment East Palestine Ohio - news blackout?

[Pens1566]

The future cancer cluster from this will be awful. But, sure, $5 now will cover it.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Remember that $5 comes with all kinds of Hold Harmless clauses!

 

[Amused]

Posting this for no reason reason in particular, certainly not anything related to current events...

Trump Rolls Back Train-Braking Rule Meant to Keep Oil Tankers from Exploding Near Communities | Fortune

An Obama rule to require new brakes to reduce the risk of oil train derailments, causing explosions and spilling gas, was reversed by Trump

fortune.com

 

[MrSquished]

Posting this for no reason reason in particular, certainly not anything related to current events...

View attachment 76437

Trump Rolls Back Train-Braking Rule Meant to Keep Oil Tankers from Exploding Near Communities | Fortune

An Obama rule to require new brakes to reduce the risk of oil train derailments, causing explosions and spilling gas, was reversed by Trump

fortune.com

Yep. And from what I have read, Mayor Pete avoided bringing that rule back, which if true, is very disappointing. If he is selling out on relatively small potatoes shit like this as SOT, then he will drop the ball big time on big issues as president. Not interested if so.

 

[gothuevos]

Ugh, preventable?

 

[UNCjigga]

Wait...what? The US EPA is now saying Norfolk Southern made a bad mess worse and covered up the toxic chemicals in order to rebuild the rail line faster?? But--they were allowed to do that??? Apparently Ohio EPA gave them the all-clear on the cleanup plan, US EPA is now crying foul.

EPA says contaminated soil was covered to rebuild rail line

Vinyl chloride is expected to be highly mobile in soil and may leach to the groundwater.

www.wkbn.com

“According to the letter, “Five railcar tankers of vinyl chloride were intentionally breached; the vinyl chloride was diverted to an excavated trench and then burned off. Areas of contaminated soil and free liquids were observed and potentially covered and/or filled during reconstruction of the rail line including portions of the trench /burn pit that was used for the open burn off of vinyl chloride.”

First News sent the following questions to the Ohio EPA, which is handing the cleanup:

Are you able to confirm whether or not the contaminated soil was ever removed and by who?

What type of dangers does the contaminated soil being covered/filled pose in the near and long-term future?

Was any soil/gravel removed from the area, and if so, by who?

Can there be any discipline if the contaminated soil is not removed and disposed of?

When it is removed, where is it disposed of?

Was any testing done on the soil prior to it being covered/filled and if so can you share those results?

As of 6 p.m. Monday, we have not gotten a response.

—
Remember, red states get the government they deserve.

 

[MrSquished]

Wait...what? The US EPA is now saying Norfolk Southern made a bad mess worse and covered up the toxic chemicals in order to rebuild the rail line faster?? But--they were allowed to do that??? Apparently Ohio EPA gave them the all-clear on the cleanup plan, US EPA is now crying foul.

EPA says contaminated soil was covered to rebuild rail line

Vinyl chloride is expected to be highly mobile in soil and may leach to the groundwater.

www.wkbn.com

“According to the letter, “Five railcar tankers of vinyl chloride were intentionally breached; the vinyl chloride was diverted to an excavated trench and then burned off. Areas of contaminated soil and free liquids were observed and potentially covered and/or filled during reconstruction of the rail line including portions of the trench /burn pit that was used for the open burn off of vinyl chloride.”

First News sent the following questions to the Ohio EPA, which is handing the cleanup:

Are you able to confirm whether or not the contaminated soil was ever removed and by who?

What type of dangers does the contaminated soil being covered/filled pose in the near and long-term future?

Was any soil/gravel removed from the area, and if so, by who?

Can there be any discipline if the contaminated soil is not removed and disposed of?

When it is removed, where is it disposed of?

Was any testing done on the soil prior to it being covered/filled and if so can you share those results?

As of 6 p.m. Monday, we have not gotten a response.

—
Remember, red states get the government they deserve.

They are owning the libs by getting cancer.

I feel bad for any actual libs there though.

 

[Pohemi]

Norfolk Southern is obviously a corrupt rail corp only interested in profits, and perhaps it's why they hired a scamming cleanup company as well.
They've done this before, faking and covering up cleanups of dangerous chemical spills and leaks. Both Norfolk Southern AND Tetra Tech (the company doing the cleanup) have done this in the past.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Can you imagine drinking the water in that area? Supposedly the water for millions will be affected in the region.

 

[Pens1566]

Can you imagine drinking the water in that area? Supposedly the water for millions will be affected in the region.

Not just "that area". It's going to fuck the Ohio watershed and on into the Mississippi as well.

 

[Brainonska511]

Given that vinyl chloride is both volatile and reactive (with burning resulting in release of carbon monoxide and hydrochloric acid), I don't think this is like Chernobyl levels of environmentally bad, or even close to the top 10 worst environmental disasters in the US. Like, this is a bad situation, but let's not blow it all out of proportion.

Also, further reading on the rail car brake rule that was withdrawn under Trump: seemed like it would only apply to hazardous material in more than 70 car blocks. It was a rule that could have been easily circumvented by railroads (ie, single car loads, or have a block of 69 hazardous cars then a single railcar of newspaper, then another 69 cars of hazardous materials), and it likely wouldn't have even applied to the train involved in the current incident.

 

[K1052]

Between gaming friendly regulations that they helped to write and outright lying like rugs to government regulators it's safe to presume that all the Class Is have major problems and until they literally kill like a thousand people through profit driven negligence thats not going to change. That day is surely coming.

 

[UNCjigga]

Several tweets are asserting that vinyl chloride contamination has been detected in the Ohio River. If true, this got real bad, real fast. This could be the worst environmental disaster since Flint???

Looking for sources…

Edit: Twitter is less than reliable at this point, but I saw a tweet asserting that journalists trying to cover the story are being arrested?? Again, no true sourcing or verification available, which is a public disservice unto itself.

Final edit: Not gonna update this—there seems to be a building Twitter troll/bot effort to smear the federal government and Pete Buttigieg in particular wrt this story. The arrested reporter thing was sourced back to a tweet from MTG days ago and is missing context (NewsNation rabble rouser was removed from a press briefing room for disorderly conduct).

Guys—fact check on your own, don’t get sucked into conspiracy theories.

Interesting how quickly a “grassroots” effort appears to deflect blame from Ohio EPA and Norfolk Southern who worked on the cleanup plan (not US EPA/Transportation Secy.)

 

[hal2kilo]

According to Fox, this town is being neglected by libruls due to it being in deplorable country.

 

[UNCjigga]

According to Fox, this town is being neglected by libruls due to it being in deplorable country.

See my edited post above. It’s a budding smear job on Biden and Buttigieg. Talking points haven’t gelled yet. As Rachel Maddow was fond of saying, “watch this space…”

 

[Brainonska511]

According to Fox, this town is being neglected by libruls due to it being in deplorable country.

I think Fox can stuff it with their disingenuous talk. As if conservatives give 2 fucks about: a) the environment, b) improving government regulation and oversight of big business, and c) people that get hurt by the actions of big businesses.

 

[Pens1566]

Several tweets are asserting that vinyl chloride contamination has been detected in the Ohio River. If true, this got real bad, real fast. This could be the worst environmental disaster since Flint???

Looking for sources…

Edit: Twitter is less than reliable at this point, but I saw a tweet asserting that journalists trying to cover the story are being arrested?? Again, no true sourcing or verification available, which is a public disservice unto itself.

Final edit: Not gonna update this—there seems to be a building Twitter troll/bot effort to smear the federal government and Pete Buttigieg in particular wrt this story. The arrested reporter thing was sourced back to a tweet from MTG days ago and is missing context (NewsNation rabble rouser was removed from a press briefing room for disorderly conduct).

Guys—fact check on your own, don’t get sucked into conspiracy theories.

Interesting how quickly a “grassroots” effort appears to deflect blame from Ohio EPA and Norfolk Southern who worked on the cleanup plan (not US EPA/Transportation Secy.)

Huntington, WV was preparing to switch it's source away from the Ohio.

https://wvmetronews.com/2023/02/13/wvawc-installs-temporary-intake-on-guyandotte-river/

They must think it's going to be needed.

 

[HomerJS]

Fox News just making up unadulterated bullshit. While at the gym today I saw a headline while showing the fire burning, “where is the EPA?” The subtext is they are doing nothing. It took me 1 min to confirm my suspicions of an outright lie. Article below states the EPA was onsite 24 hours after the derailment which happened Feb 3. Today is Feb 14 so their headline was once again an outright lie. They also smeared Pete Buttigieg saying he only got his job because of his intersectionality. In other words just because he is gay.


https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/st...r-debra-shore-east-palestine-train-derailment

Fox News is an evil lying organization that continues to get away with it. What can be done to stop them??

 

[HomerJS]

And before Fox and those shithead Republicans can blame Biden’s response he called Gov Dewine of OH and offered any help needed. Dewine said we got this

After Train Derailment, Ohio Governor Mike Dewine Says “I’m Not Seeing” Any Problems

Well, there are more than a few.

newrepublic.com

Just wait for the bitching moaning blaming Biden. It will yet again be another lie

 

[Pens1566]

And before Fox and those shithead Republicans can blame Biden’s response he called Gov Dewine of OH and offered any help needed. Dewine said we got this

After Train Derailment, Ohio Governor Mike Dewine Says “I’m Not Seeing” Any Problems

Well, there are more than a few.

newrepublic.com

Just wait for the bitching moaning blaming Biden. It will yet again be another lie

He says that because everything fucking blew eastward ...

 

[MrSquished]

One of the most reliable and consistent things in the world today is that Republicans become more and more evil every single day. It's a guarantee. Death and taxes and Republicans being evil.

 

[gothuevos]

"Ohio EPA"

LOL

 

[gothuevos]

Anyways, has anyone checked on Norfolk Southern to see if they're doing ok?

 

[evident]

Can you imagine drinking the water in that area? Supposedly the water for millions will be affected in the region.

this is the world you long for, buddy

 

[Jaskalas]

Fox News is an evil lying organization that continues to get away with it. What can be done to stop them??

It is rather fascinating to see how mature the alt-reality machine is. To fabricate such BS on this story so rapidly.

Sooner or later, every single news story will have a conspiracy webbed around it for partisan fuel. To mask the truth and more effectively pit American against American. A meteor could be striking the earth tomorrow and right wing media would still be entirely dedicated to owning the libs and saying some liberal cult of satan summoned it. The messengers of our information are no longer meant to inform and unite us behind a common truth and a common purpose. Instead, it appears all information is disseminated with the intent to harm and destroy us.

Sooner or later our endurance will run out.