A watchdog group says the Environmental Protection Agency should conduct additional soil studies around the site of a toxic train derailment in Ohio after independent testing found high levels of chemicals in locally grown garlic. The Government Accountability Project filed a formal petition on Thursday with the EPA.
East Palestine, Ohio , resident Marilyn Finley, right, talks with Scott Smith , in her garden on Wednesday, June 12, 2024. Finley did not plant a garden last year after the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train near her home. She decided to plant a garden this year after using one of her husband’s tractors to remove the top three inches of soil and replace that with fresh dirt.
The EPA has been telling people it’s safe to garden since nearly three months after the February 2023 derailment, based on tests conducted by state agriculture officials at 31 locations around town and on surrounding farms. The officials tested winter wheat, malting barley, pasture grasses and rye from area farms.
The EPA has said that previous testing conducted by contractors hired by the railroad did not show high levels of dioxins or other chemicals outside the train derailment site after the initial evacuation order was lifted, and therefore, additional tests in individual yards and gardens weren’t needed.finding high levels of cancer-causing dioxins was in the area immediately around the derailment about two weeks after the crash.
Last summer, the local farmers market made a point of bringing in produce from several states away because of all the worries about anything grown in the area. Smith has visited East Palestine more than two dozen times since the derailment to test soil and water for dioxins and other chemicals. He is not a scientist by training but has traveled to chemical disaster sites for years. His testing is reviewed by a team of scientific advisers, including a former top Ohio EPA expert, and he sends all his samples to a laboratory that the EPA and others agree is reputable.
In Flint, some of Smith’s results were used by a nonprofit group affiliated with actor Mark Ruffalo that questioned whether it was. Smith’s actions put him in conflict with scientists who were conducting their own tests and with EPA Response Coordinator Mark Durno, the same agency representative overseeing the cleanup in East Palestine.
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