The Environmental And Health Fallout Of Rural Train Derailments
The Norfolk Southern train derailment in eastern Palestine, Ohio, has hurled debris across the country, and residents say they are concerned about long-term mental health issues, the city's economic stability and air and water security. .
"It's terrifying," said Courtney Wisherman, 50, a full-time resident of eastern Palestine, which has fewer than 5,000 residents. "There is a lot of trouble because there are many questions and no answers."
Vischerman said the thought of a train wreck in his hometown never even crossed his mind until the night of February 3. After the incident, he said he had a bad smell and a headache after the derailment. A few days ago, rescuers burned the chemical. "I felt like my nose was burning."
Of the 141 railcars that derailed in eastern Palestine, 38 were loaded with volatile chemicals. Among them was vinyl chloride, a known human carcinogen used in the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride plastics and vinyl products. After the catastrophic derailment, first responders burned vinyl chloride to prevent an explosion, temporary evacuation orders were issued for nearby residents, reports of headaches and nausea from residents, and about 3,500 fish kills in the waterways near the derailment. An earlier report by the National Transportation Safety Board attributed the derailment in part to overheated wheel bearings.
For Wisherman, who has breast cancer, the sight of the train crossing East Palestine raises the fear of getting cancer again. "It looks awful," he said. "I don't want to go all the way."
He and his family are also worried about how quickly the working class town will recover from the economic shock. Some residents plan to leave the village to avoid possible health risks, but other owners are afraid to sell their homes after a natural disaster.
"People aren't going to want to come to town," said Wisherman's husband, Christopher Wisherman. He expects the value of his property to go down.
Ann Junod, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute that studies train derailments, said her concerns were not unfounded.
"When you see house prices falling, you see economic development activity on top of all the social disruption that has been going on for years," Juneau said.
Train derailments are more common in rural and tribal areas, where communities have fewer resources to respond and recover, Yunod said. There are more than 140,000 miles of railroad track in the United States, and more than 100,000 of them pass through rural areas. Just a month after the East Palestine derailment, another train from Norfolk Southern in Ohio derailed, although it was carrying no dangerous material.
Juno's research into train derailments shows that residents of rural cities like eastern Palestine, at the heart of oil, gas and freight development, often bear the environmental and health threats, as well as the economic and social burden of these disasters.
Younod said that after a disaster like that in eastern Palestine, suspicions and tensions usually arise as insecurity increases.
Natural disasters "can increase social divisions about choices and priorities," he said. "We see that in every community that has experienced this type of disaster."
As with natural disasters, communities affected by such disasters have a long way to go to recover, Junod added. Chronic concerns that similar accidents could happen again, which could affect the health of local residents and the economic well-being of communities, are common concerns raised in communities where trains are derailing.
Immediate concerns were about municipal water and air quality, but now residents are wondering what the long-term effects might be, said Nick Messenger, a researcher at the Ohio River Valley Institute who studies the East Palestine derailment. According to him, such disasters constantly affect the local economy.
"People don't travel, they don't go on vacations, they don't buy real estate for a while after it happens," Messenger said. "The cost to the people of his city following this disaster will continue to materialize and not only increase for years, but potentially for decades."
Chaney Nesbett, Wisherman's sister and executive director of The Way Station, a faith-based organization that coordinates nationwide donations for affected residents of eastern Palestine, foresees both short-term and long-term recovery.
"The first thing to do is make sure they feel safe at home and get their doctor's appointments," Nesbett said. The next step in their efforts to support communities in eastern Palestine is to continue raising funds to deal with the impact of the incident on residents' mental health and then on property values and how to resell the town.
"There is a psychological toll when residents go through a catastrophic event like this, deal with the immediate aftermath and fear how it will affect them further," Nesbett said.
According to a 2019 study, the psychological impact of disasters, particularly industrial disasters, is more severe for dependent children, women and the elderly.
Although derailments are common, they have decreased in recent years. More than 1,000 cases emerged in 2021, the lowest number in three decades. However, as the average length of trains has increased with fewer workers per car, they have become heavier, according to Vox.
Although railroads are primarily regulated at the federal level, Junod noted that additional regulations such as lower speed limits are often imposed in medium-sized and large cities, exposing smaller communities to increased risk of disasters, which can transform the way local residents live. . As a rule, get used to the rhythm of the train, watch the tracks.
“We find that in small rural communities where the railroad is more part of the community for people, everyone knows when the train is coming and it's just part of the community. infrastructure,” said Junod.
In 2016, a train derailed in Mosier, Oregon, a town of fewer than 500 people, spilling more than 40,000 gallons of oil and contaminating soil and groundwater.
In the Columbia River Gorge, support from tribal members, local residents and environmentalists led to a statewide rule in 2019 aimed at reducing the number of railroad accidents in Oregon. The new rules require railroads to develop plans to respond to oil and hazmat spills, provide the state with proof of adequate insurance to pay for cleanup costs, and require notification if trains are carrying large quantities of oil or hazmat in freight. materials
Kevin Gorman, director of Friends of the Columbia Valley, a nonprofit that works to prevent freight train derailments, said the incident seven years ago made them more cautious about operating railroads in the region.
"No more rose-colored glasses," he said. "I think [watching the train] is mentally tiring for people, and sometimes they don't know what the effects are because it's always there."
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, told residents in the days after the derailment that the water was safe to drink and they would continue to monitor air quality and protect homes while they went home.
However, Wisherman and his family, including Bella, a mini pit bull, only drink bottled water, much of which comes from numerous donations to their community from across the country. Many other city dwellers are still doing the same, questioning the reliability of the tests being conducted by the federal government and Norfolk Southern, whose train derailed and conducted aerial surveillance tests on more than 575 homes. According to the New York Times, some residents are even paying out of pocket for their own testing.
After the natural disaster, local residents filed more than a dozen lawsuits over the train derailment.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency ordered Norfolk to pay all costs associated with the derailment. DeWine's organization asked for a fund to cover the medical costs of the victims. Norfolk Southern said it has paid eastern Palestine more than $21 million in clean-up costs, including more than $7 million in direct payments to affected citizens -- about $1,400 for each of the city's approximately 5,000 residents and $1 million Dollars for community needs and improvements.
But the social and psychological impact of these disasters is often independent of the costs attributed to the businesses and communities that pay them, Yunod said.
Societies "say they bear most of the environmental costs," he said, "as well as the long-term social and economic costs."
Aidali Campo speaks about environmental justice on Inside Climate News.
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