By Stephen Lester.
Just over a month ago, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded its investigation into the train accident that occurred in February last year in East Palestine, OH. A Norfolk Southern train with more than a hundred cars many of which were carrying toxic chemicals derailed causing 38 cars to come off the tracks. Five of these tanker cars contained vinyl chloride, a highly toxic chemical known to cause cancer, liver damage, central nervous system and other adverse health effects.
Concerned that the derailed cars might explode causing a disaster in the community, Norfolk Southern made the decision to drain the liquid chemicals in the derailed tanker cars and burn them. This released a huge toxic cloud which contained its own toxic ingredients including dioxin, a potent carcinogen and one of the most toxic chemicals ever tested. The decision to intentionally burn the five tanker cars of vinyl chloride has remained a controversial issue for the community which continues to report various health problems that they believe were caused by the intentional burn.
The community now has a clear answer about what happened. The NTSB concluded that intentional burn-off of toxic chemicals was unnecessary. At the public meeting in East Palestine where the NTSB released its findings, Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the NSTB committee, described the impact on the community of the derailment and hazardous material release as “devastating.”
The committee found that the derailment occurred because a bearing on one of the cars overheated and caused an axle to separate. The NTSB Report described a number of factors including design constraints and Norfolk Southern’s (NS) standard operating procedures that led to the train crew not having adequate warning to stop the train before derailment. The committee found that the vinyl chloride in the 5 derailed tanker cars “… remained in a stabilized environment (that is, was unable to undergo polymerization, a potentially dangerous chemical reaction) until those tank cars were deliberately breached with explosives (the vent and burn procedure).” They went on to say, the “vent and burn procedure was not necessary to prevent a polymerization induced explosion.“
Furthermore, “NS and its contractors continued to describe the polymerization as an imminent threat when expert opinions and available evidence should have led them to reconsider their course of action. NS compromised the integrity of the decision to vent and burn the tank cars by not communicating expertise and dissenting opinions to the incident commander making the final decision. This failure to communicate completely and accurately with the incident commander was unjustified.”
The chair of the NTSB committee Jennifer Homendy also criticized Norfolk Southern for its reluctance to provide information to the committee. A Washington Post news report cited Homendy saying that “the company delayed handing over or failed to provide information to the NTSB and attempted to ‘manufacture evidence’ outside of the NTSB investigation.” According to the Post, Homendy also alleged that a senior Norfolk Southern executive delivered what she and other NTSB employees interpreted as a “threat” several weeks before the public meeting when a “ … senior executive allegedly asked her to ‘put to rest’ speculation about whether Norfolk Southern pushed for the vent-and burn to get the train cars moving and suggested the results of the investigation could ‘close a chapter’ for the railway.”
I learned a long time ago that when someone protests too loudly, there’s usually a good reason. We may never know the real reason why Norfolk Southern pushed for the vent-and burn. Maybe it was to quicky and efficiently reopen the rail line, or not. One can’t but help wonder. To read the published synopsis of the NTSB report, click here.