Trending
EAST PALESTINE -- Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is seeking public feedback on the U.S. Department of Justice's preliminary settlement with Norfolk Southern over last year's train derailment.
Yost will hold a community discussion from 2-4 p.m. Saturday in the East Palestine High School Gymnasium concerning the $310 millon settlement between the railroad and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The DOJ's Environment and Natural Resources Division filed suit against Norfolk Southern in March 2023 on behalf of the EPA and in coordination with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio. The complaint sought "penalties and injunctive relief for the unlawful discharge of pollutants, oil, and hazardous substances under the Clean Water Act, and declaratory judgment on liability for past and future costs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act."
After the EPA and DOJ announced the settlement in May, Yost immediately spoke out against the agreement in a joint statement with U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio.
Both believe a settlement should not have been considered until the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation into the cause of the derailment and the events that followed it is complete.
"This federal settlement ... risks undercompensating the residents of East Palestine," the statement said. "The Department of Justice would have better served East Palestine and surrounding communities by negotiating against Norfolk Southern armed with all relevant facts surrounding the disaster - facts which can only be revealed by the NTSB. The residents of East Palestine deserve full compensation to account for the hardships they have faced in the months since the derailment, but they also deserve the full truth about why the derailment and vent and burn occurred."
The settlement still requires approval from a federal judge for the Northern District of Ohio. That approval is expected within 30 days, but Yost's office wants that approval to wait until Aug. 1 - after the final NTSB report is expected.
The NTSB will hold a public board meeting on June 25 at the East Palestine High School Gymnasium, where board members will vote on the final findings, probable cause and recommendations. The board will also vote on any changes to the draft final report. Last year, the NTSB held a two-day investigative hearing in East Palestine.
The NTSB has questioned the decision to vent and burn five tank cars of vinyl chloride in the days following the rail disaster. In March, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy challenged the narrative that incident command faced just two choices - a controlled burn of the cars or the uncontrolled explosion. Homendy said a third option of waiting for the tanks to cool down was not presented to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro or East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick, despite evidence temperatures inside the tanks were decreasing and despite OxyVinyls' (the company transporting the gas) expert opinion that polymerization was not taking place.
The joint statement from Yost and Vance said the State of Ohio should been consulted before agreeing to the settlement, which requires Norfolk Southern to pay a $15 million civil penalty to resolve the alleged violations of the Clean Water Act, $25 million for a 20-year community health program, $15 million to implement long-term monitoring of groundwater and surface water and an additional $15 million to fund a drinking water monitoring fund, noting that Ohio "bore the brunt of the damage caused by this derailment."