Trending
EAST PALESTINE -- Dan Hunt, senior manager of Environmental Remediation at Norfolk Southern, gave East Palestine village officials an update of the remediation process -- which Norfolk Southern hopes to see completed by the end of September -- at Monday's village council meeting.
"We have completed the main line soil removal. All the soil beneath Main Line 1 and Main Line 2 and those tracks have been restored at this time," Hunt said. "We have moved to what we call the 'north car scrapping area' which is directly across from Leake Oil. We have begun to scrape and remove that soil and we continue to sample that."
The derailment site was split up into segregated work areas -- Main Line 1 (the south track), Main Line 1 (north tracks), the centerline (area between the two tracks), burn pits (where the controlled burn took place), north ditch (a tributary to Sulphur Run), south ditch and two car scraping areas (the areas where cars were dismantled for disposal). During the sampling process, which is conducted with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency oversight as well as U.S. EPA taking co-located samples with Norfolk Southern contractors, each area is separated into grids.
The remediation process involves excavating the contaminated soil and digging down until a "safe" sample is obtained. One foot of glacial till is scraped off the top. Visible inspections and screening of the material are conducted. Split samples taken at depths of 0-2 inches, 12 inches and 24 inches (by hand and with a geoprobe) are then packaged and shipped off to onsite and offsite laboratories for testing in 24-hour return. The data is reviewed the next day by both the federal and state EPA and Norfolk Southern contractors. If any exceedances are detected, work in the grid continues. If both agencies approve the samples, lead EPA Incident Commander Ralph Dollhopf reviews the data. If he agrees with the analytics, he issues a letter to Norfolk Southern to backfill the area.
Once work on the north-car scraping area is complete, Hunt said remediation efforts will then shift to the Leake Oil property itself and the south ditch which runs behind the 80,000-square-foot CeramFab building on East Taggart Street.
Hunt said all remediation work is projected to wrap up in mid to late September.
When asked by council member Jessica Rocco if Norfolk Southern foresees any delays to the cleanup efforts, Hunt was cautiously optimistic.
"When we move into Leake Oil property, it's going to be a pretty sophisticated excavation," he said. "But we have a lot of engineers and we are working through that plan now."
Hunt also reported that East Taggert Street will remain closed through the entire remediation for the safety of village residents.
"A lot of truck traffic and equipment move through there and we want to maintain that area for everybody's safety," Hunt said. "You are to continue to see tanker truck traffic along Pleasant Road and the blue tanks. That's the primary location where we load and send that water out."
East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway asked Hunt to better explain the dust mats that have been placed over storm drains across the village.
"The mats are a preventative-measure practice," Hunt said. "It's a pollution prevention plan to help protect the streams from any of that sediment from the dust and dirt that the street sweepers are not collecting."
In other news, council moved forward on a new ordinance allowing golf carts and low-speed vehicles to operate on village's streets, despite concerns raised from council member Mark Walker that the slow-moving vehicles will potentially impede car traffic. The ordinance is expected to go into effect Aug. 10.
Council also moved forward on legislation repealing and replacing the village's ordinance on vendors, solicitors and peddlers.
The new ordinance will greatly reduce the fees for vendors doing business in East Palestine.
Council also heard a proposal from Jeffry Harris of the law firm of Bricker Graydon regarding the village's economic development in the wake of the rail disaster.
Council requested Harris re-pitch his proposal at a special economic developmental meeting set for July 24 at 6:30 p.m. where other firms will also be heard.
"We just need to be sure that we are making the right decision for our village moving forward," said Councilwoman Linda L. May, Development Committee chairman.
"We need to make sure all our ducks are in a row before we agree to a long-term commitment."
Stephanie Elverd can be reached at selverd@mojonews.com