Fresh, June 25, 2024: Chemicals Spilled in East Palestine Train Derailment Spread to 16 States, Study Suggests

June 25, 2024

Fresh is a biweekly newsletter from Circle of Blue that unpacks the biggest international, state, and local policy news stories facing the Great Lakes region today. Sign up for Fresh: A Great Lakes Policy Briefing, straight to your inbox, every other Tuesday.

— Christian Thorsberg, Interim Fresh Editor

This Week’s Watersheds

Fresh from the Great Lakes News Collaborative

• How much can wetland restoration reduce farm fertilizers getting into Lake Erie? — Michigan Public
• Heat Islands in the Great Lakes: Community, infrastructure and fresh water solutions — Great Lakes Now
• This waste management company says it’s ‘Green For Life’ — its neighbours disagree — The Narwhal
• The Great Lakes are warming ahead of the start of summer — Bridge Michigan

Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, Michigan Public and The Narwhal work together to report on the most pressing threats to the Great Lakes region’s water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work here.

Chemical Pollution from East Palestine Derailment Affected One-Third of U.S. Population

Roughly 14 percent of U.S. land area and 110 million people have been affected by the spread of chemicals originating from the February 2023 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, according to new research.

Rain, snow, water, and soil samples collected at 260 sites across the country in the weeks following the incident showed significant spikes in pH levels and compounds compared to local averages, the Guardian reports. At the time of the derailment in Ohio, at least 11 cars were carrying toxic chemicals. Massive, smoky plumes from several fires at the site and strong wind gusts lifted these compounds into Earth’s troposphere, distributing them as far away as Maine, Wisconsin, and South Carolina, the researchers found. Southern Ontario was also likely affected. The study was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Toxic chemicals such as vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate were found in large concentrations in local waterways following the derailment — prompting environmental cleanup efforts and prolonged legal battles, for which Norfolk Southern has already agreed to nearly $1 billion in fees and class-action settlements. 

And yet in other states, levels of chloride in soils and waters reached decade highs, Grist reports. Michigan and Wisconsin, and all of the Great Lakes except Lake Superior, were likely affected, albeit temporarily, the study’s authors say. Nowhere outside of the incident’s immediate radius was affected more than Freedonia, a town on the New York-Canada border. 

It is likely, the authors say, that the measured contamination constituted only a short-term spike in many locations — lasting for around two weeks, before gradually dropping to normal levels. 

“But I think what most people don’t understand about this fire is how big it was and how wide-ranging the implications are,” David Gay, coordinator of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the study’s lead author, tells Grist. “This accident wasn’t just in Ohio. It touched a lot of people.”

In the News

Soggy Soils: Flooding from several inches of rainfall in Minnesota has “put a nail in the coffin” of the economic hopes for some farmers who haven’t yet planted their final crops of the season, Minnesota Public Radio reports. Soils are soggy and underwater following the deluge, which was preceded by about two years of consistent drought. The effects of climate change are being felt particularly acutely by Black and brown farm communities, which generally own smaller parcels of land that are less resilient to washouts caused by flooding. 

Carp: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is waiting on Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to sign an agreement which would allow the construction of the Brandon Road Interbasin Project to proceed without delays or extra costs. The project is a $1.1 billion barricade in the Des Plaines River in Joliet, Illinois, meant to block invasive carp from Lake Michigan. Of the total bill, the federal government has pledged $1 billion, and Michigan and Illinois appropriated about $115 million together to finish the job. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer expressed her state’s commitment in 2021, while Pritzker’s hesitations — over both potential contamination at the site, and overcommitting state funds — has brought the project to a standstill, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.  

In context: Bubbles and Electricity Designed to Deter Invasive Carp from Lake Michigan

Looking Ahead

Christian Thorsberg

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer from Chicago. He is passionate about climate and cultural phenomena that often appear slow or invisible, and he examines these themes in his journalism, poetry, and fiction.