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Residents of East Palestine, Ohio, and nearby areas in Pennsylvania harmed by the Norfolk Southern train disaster say a new $310 million settlement announced by the Biden administration on May 23 will not meet their communities’ most urgent needs, like access to health care for chronic conditions that emerged after the derailment.  

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan told reporters last month that the settlement with Norfolk Southern was an attempt by his agency and the Justice Department “to once again make this community whole” after 38 train cars derailed in February 2023, leading to the venting and burn-off of vinyl chloride, the toxic chemical some of the cars were carrying. 

Regan’s words echoed President Joe Biden’s remarks in East Palestine in February, when he vowed “to hold Norfolk Southern accountable and make sure they make your community whole now and in the future.”

The settlement came after Norfolk Southern announced in April that it would settle a class action lawsuit related to the derailment for $600 million. The class action settlement “does not include or constitute any admission of liability, wrongdoing or fault” on the part of the company. Both settlements are pending approval by the courts. 

Despite the size of these settlements, some residents in Pennsylvania and Ohio say the two agreements do not begin to cover their past and ongoing costs related to the derailment, like prescription medications, environmental cleaning, testing fees and relocation expenses.

“Neither of these deals announced in the past month come even close to making the impacted residents whole again,” said Hilary Flint, who lives about five miles from East Palestine in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.

Flint is one of a number of impacted residents in western Pennsylvania who have struggled to access resources for symptoms they say started after the venting and burning released more than 1115,000 gallons of the carcinogen vinyl chloride into the environment. Flint has been renting a house in western New York for months so she can limit her time at her home in Pennsylvania, because she gets sick whenever she visits. In an interview in May, she said that she has bronchitis that started when she recently returned to Beaver County, and her doctor has advised her to avoid her home. 

In 2023, Flint co-founded the Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment, a community organization meant to help residents affected by the disaster access resources, advocate for their needs and get their questions answered.

“Neither of these deals announced in the past month come even close to making the impacted residents whole again.”

Unity council members traveled to Washington, D.C., last July to meet with lawmakers from Pennsylvania and Ohio as well as representatives from the EPA. 

The council also weighed in on the class action settlement proposal in April. “How can you make an offer when people are still being exposed and you still don’t know the extent or results of that exposure?” council members asked in a statement. Another East Palestine resident called the class action settlement “a slap in the face.” 

Flint said neither agreement would provide her with enough funding to cover the medical and housing costs she’s already paid, let alone her future costs. There is also not enough money available for her or her family to permanently relocate. The government settlement money is not going to individuals or families, and opting into the class action suit requires signing away the right to sue over claims in the future, Flint said. At a town hall held in May to inform the community about the class action settlement, residents criticized the terms and said the awards would not be enough to cover relocation or their medical costs. 

“Why would I sign over my future health claims for less than $20,000? That doesn’t even cover what I’ve spent on hospital bills over the past year and a half,” Flint said. “It’s a bad deal. It’s frankly a really, really bad deal. And I don’t know many people taking it.”

The settlement with the government includes $235 million for “past and future” costs, including water and soil clean-up, $25 million for community health monitoring for the next 20 years and mental health care, $15 million in penalties for violations under the Clean Water Act and more than $30 million for monitoring groundwater, surface water and private drinking water in the surrounding areas. Norfolk Southern will also be required to implement safety measures on its rails. The company said it has spent more than $200 million on improving rail safety since the derailment. 

In a statement provided to Inside Climate News, the EPA said medical monitoring and mental health services were included in the government settlement because “these are services that community members have repeatedly expressed an interest in receiving” that had been identified as “top priorities” in a stakeholder survey. 

Alan Shaw, president and CEO of Norfolk Southern, said in a press release that the company will “continue keeping our promises and are invested in the community’s future for the long-haul.” 

“From day one, it was important for Norfolk Southern to make things right for the residents of East Palestine and the surrounding areas,” he said. 

“Over the last 15 months, the people of East Palestine have remained strong, resilient and committed to healing and restoring their community. But they haven’t spent a single day alone,” Regan told reporters. “Under President Biden’s direction, EPA personnel arrived on site within hours of the derailment. And we’re committed to remaining there until the hazardous contamination has gone.” 

Jess Conard, who lives in East Palestine and whose son has developed asthma since the derailment, was similarly disappointed by the government settlement and by the proposed agreement for the class action claims. “I am glad that the EPA’s pockets are getting refilled by the polluter,” she said. “I think that the same level of responsibility should be applied to the community’s pockets. Our basic needs continue to be ignored.” 

Conard said she has not been reimbursed for costs like her son’s asthma medication or environmental testing she had conducted at her home, which showed elevated levels of vinyl chloride on her porch. She wonders every day if staying in East Palestine is contributing to her son’s health condition. “No one’s looking to get rich off of this,” she said. “They’re just looking to heal and to make sure that they don’t go bankrupt if they relocate or to make sure that their kids get the medication that they need.” 

When Conard requested funding for a filter for her well, she was asked if she lived within one mile of the derailment site, and her request was denied because she lives two miles away. The question is familiar to anyone living near the East Palestine site who has attempted to access aid from the federal or state government, residents say. 

When the derailment first occurred, the EPA set a one-by-two-mile protective radius around the accident site that became the evacuation zone and has since been used as a guideline for allocating resources from the company and the government. 

Residents who live outside the EPA’s radius have struggled to get help with cleaning, medical and relocation expenses, an issue that has not been remedied by the terms of the government’s settlement. To automatically qualify for the medical monitoring program outlined in the settlement, for example, residents must live within two miles of the accident site or near certain nearby waterways. Those living outside the two-mile radius must apply separately to qualify on a case by case basis. 

Experts say chemical exposure and potential harm to the environment and to public health is unlikely to be confined within the EPA’s boundary. EPA models of the plume of soot created by the vent and burn showed dispersal as far as Youngstown, Ohio, 20 miles from East Palestine, and Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, 25 miles away. 

The class action lawsuit covers claims from residents and business owners located within 20 miles of the derailment site and personal injury claims within 10 miles. The mental health care services in the government settlement are available to anyone living in Beaver County or Lawrence County in Pennsylvania or Columbiana County in Ohio as well as first responders. 

The EPA spokesperson said the medical monitoring program is “intended to focus on individuals within the 2-mile radius who were most impacted by the derailment” and noted that the class action settlement’s “potential, average” payment to households within the two-mile radius is $70,000 and drops down to $250 for families living 15 to 20 miles away. 

Flint and Conard said that while funding for medical monitoring and research was important, what their communities needed most was access to covered treatment for the symptoms they are experiencing now. Like other local activists, Conard wants the federal government to issue a major disaster declaration for East Palestine, which she said would guarantee health care coverage for residents and grant access to other resources the community needs. 

In response to questions about the lack of health care or medical treatment programs in the government settlement, EPA pointed to the existence of the East Palestine Clinic at East Liverpool City Hospital in Ohio, set up after the derailment to provide services for residents in 2023. “The clinic provides medical treatment and care,” the EPA spokesperson said. But Conard disputed the idea that this clinic is meeting the health care needs of residents, calling it “useless.” Conard said Pennsylvanians are not eligible to receive care there, and it is not free.

“In my mind, justice means none of us have to pay health care costs moving forward, because we are the guinea pigs now for this,” Flint said. Flint and other residents are being asked to participate in an array of public health studies to better understand the long and short-term impacts of the derailment on the population. 

When she is feeling sick or develops a new symptom, like chronic itching or a need for an inhaler, she said, researchers are eager to collect her hair and blood samples. But they are not able to offer help accessing or paying for treatment or prescription medications. “Research is great, but what about care for the community? You can’t just use them as rats,” she said. 

More than a year on, the physical and mental toll of grappling with the aftermath of the derailment weighs heavily on both Flint and Conard. “Life is out the window,” Flint said. “This has become our life.” Between dealing with her symptoms and working to advocate for herself, her family and her community, she has had little time in the last year for ordinary things like hanging out with friends.

Conard spoke about the often “exhausting” and “terrifying” reality of living in East Palestine in the year since the derailment, trying to figure out how best to protect and fight for her family while contending with normal parenting responsibilities. “When I wake up and I hear news, I think, what fresh hell is this to deal with?” she said.

She compared the settlements to being repeatedly offered cheap coffee when residents only wanted water. “I have gratitude that things are moving forward. But the programs that we need still have not been implemented, and we’ve been asking for the same program since day one,” she said. “I’m tired of being told what I want, when I’m already telling you what I want and what I need.” 

Marianne Lavelle contributed to this report.