COLUMBUS – President Joe Biden has issued an executive order instructing various federal agencies to take steps to oversee the cleanup and recovery from February’s fiery train derailment in East Palestine.
“This is an overdue but welcomed step to support the people of East Palestine. There is still much more work to do to make this community whole and I will continue to push the administration to deliver for East Palestine and hold Norfolk Southern accountable,” Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown said.
Biden has ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to designate a Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator to oversee long-term recovery efforts in the affected communities and assess needs that are not addressed by Norfolk Southern and would qualify for Federal assistance.
The order, issued Wednesday, also keeps open the state’s request for a major disaster declaration and says, the FEMA Administrator will submit a recommendation on whether a major disaster declaration is warranted based on changing conditions.
The White House says the Environmental Protection Agency has been instructed to direct removal of contaminated soils and wastewater from the derailment site and report within 30 days on the status of air, soil, and water monitoring and whether Norfolk Southern continues to comply address the environmental harm caused by the company’s derailment.
The order calls on the Department of Health and Human Services to present its findings from public health testing and assessment and continue to monitor the public health consequences of the derailment.
The executive order further instructs the Department of Transportation to detail the actions it is taking in response to the incident and update after the National Transportation Safety Board concludes its investigation into the crash.
The burning of rail cars filled with hazardous chemical sent a plume of toxic black smoke into the sky above the town, the runoff from the derailment site contaminated nearby waterways, and the residents of the town have complained of health problems.
Ohio-Pennsylvania communities near crash site recieve app designed for firefighters
This week, the two counties that handled the initial response to the derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border were set up with the AskRail program that will allow dispatchers to look up everything a train is carrying as soon as they get one car number.
That is part of an effort the Association of American Railroads trade group launched this spring to sign up emergency dispatch centers in the program.
The railroad industry is trying to make sure that emergency responders can quickly look up what is on a train quickly when they respond to a derailment.
In the chaos after a Norfolk Southern train derailed and caught fire in East Palesinte, firefighters couldn’t find that information for roughly 45 minutes.
The railroads are now making the AskRail app they developed for firefighters available to emergency dispatch centers.
The industry has also made that train information available through the chemical industry hotlines that first responders call to get advice on how to deal with specific chemicals.
So the AskRail information that 40,000 users had signed up for by the end of last year is now available to more than 2 million first responders.