EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (NewsNation) — Chemical test results shared exclusively with NewsNation show levels of a dangerous chemical in East Palestine reminiscent of a disaster in Missouri that forced the abandonment of an entire town.
Scientists have been doing regular soil testing since the February Norfolk Southern train derailment and subsequent chemical burn.
Independent testing expert Scott Smith told NewsNation the total dioxins in a recent soil sample were present at 2.5 parts per billion.
To put this figure into context, NewsNation traveled 630 miles away to Times Beach, Missouri.
In the 1970s, the roads of Times Beach were sprayed with oil contaminated by dioxins. A decade later, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found dioxins in the soil there.
The result?
The town of 2,000 people was evacuated and, to this day, remains a ghost town.
“They told us on Dec. 23, 1982, that if we were in our homes, to leave, and if we were out, not to come back,” said Marilyn Leistner, the last mayor of Times Beach.
“Of the approximately 225 samples collected from the soil of Times Beach, dioxin levels in one home showed levels greater than one part per billion and less than five parts per billion,” the EPA’s news release says.
The EPA, FEMA and the state of Missouri permanently relocated every resident and bought all the properties after advisement from the CDC. The agency said the move was necessary because the “hazard posed by dioxin contamination is a continuing threat to the health of citizens in the community.”
“There were 2,242 residents, 801 families, 28 businesses, four churches and two taverns,” Lesitner said. All of it was evacuated. In 2023, it’s overgrown and most would never expect it was ever once a town.
The 28 miles of roads that were sprayed are also gone. The buildings were bulldozed and put into a trench five football fields in length. It’s a site nearby residents call “Town Mound.”
These days, though, Leistner is focused on what she is seeing in East Palestine, Ohio.
“I cannot believe they are leaving people within 10 feet of the site of the derailment,” she told NewsNation.
She believes the precautions taken decades ago in Times Beach should also be taken in East Palestine.
“They need to remove those people from the threat. No doubt about it,” said Lesitner.
Dioxin results from East Palestine resident Shelby Walker show 2.5 parts per billion — a number in the same range that prompted the evacuation of Times Beach. Scott Smith also tested Walker’s soil for a TEQ level, a method that weighs the toxicity of the less toxic compounds as fractions of the toxicity of the most toxic. Her level was 27 parts per trillion.
“Experts from all over the country agree that residential soil background for TEQ is six parts per trillion. Shelby Walker’s were 27 parts per trillion,” Smith said.
The EPA, however, disagrees with that assessment.
“Twenty-seven parts per trillion dioxin TEQ is well within typical background levels for soils, especially in mixed-use land areas. However, without seeing the data and associated sampling work plans, the EPA cannot provide any further context to this information.”
Walker’s home is 900 feet from the derailment site, which is also where five tank cars full of vinyl chloride were set ablaze after the derailment.
She told NewsNation that she, her husband and their 12-year-old son have all been diagnosed with vinyl chloride in their system. She said she begged the EPA to test her home and soil.
“The EPA has not tested my house, my soil, nothing,” she said. “And when they came to my house the other day, they said they will not test until they’re done with the tracks. Our yard is not safe and our homes are not safe. It hasn’t been from day one.”
But Walker said she’s not even surprised.
“Just with as much bogus and bullcrap as we are getting from everybody, we don’t know who to trust anymore,” she said. “Clearly, we can’t trust the EPA. We sure the heck can’t trust Norfolk Southern for nothing. And our government is not here for us. So where do we turn? Where do we go?”
The EPA declined an on-camera interview with NewsNation but issued the following statement:
“EPA would be happy to review the data and associated workplan of the independent testing of Ms. Walker’s soil. Importantly, EPA will need to fully understand the investigation’s sampling methodology and data quality objectives before we can evaluate the investigation’s conclusions.”
Smith, in a statement to NewsNation, said the agency is complicating the issue.
“The EPA continues to obfuscate the increased dioxin burden on the East Palestine community subsequent to the Norfolk Southern train derailment and controlled burn. Six parts per trillion is an accepted background level for dioxins for residences, throughout the U.S., that have not been impacted by contamination events such as the Norfolk Southern derailment. Clearly, the subject residential property in East Palestine, along with other testing results, points to an increased dioxin burden on the community as a result of the Norfolk Southern train derailment and controlled burn.”