EAST PALESTINE, Oh — Three months after the train derailment in East Palestine, Norfolk Southern has announced plans to compensate homeowners for depreciated properties. However, homeowners are skeptical.
Shelby Walker bought her home on East Taggart Street 19 years ago.
“We come from a small town in East Palestine where our homes aren't worth a whole lot to people,” said Shelby Walker. “They are to us because we've worked so hard for them.”
For almost two decades, her home served as the heart of the family, but that all changed on Feb. 3. Walker lives 900 feet from the train derailment.
“Not just did they disrupt me, but my three girls lived with me, with their families,” Walker said. “So, it's like they disrupted multiple families in just one home.”
This week, in a letter to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Norfolk Southern has accrued nearly $400 million in charges for the derailment. The company now plans to compensate homeowners whose properties have depreciated after the February derailment.
Norfolk Southern tells News 5, while it’s developing full details of the real property fund, to be eligible homeowners must live within a 5-mile radius of the derailment and will sell their homes for less than what it is was worth prior to Feb. 3.
Homeowners with such claims for property value diminution must submit claims through the family assistance center. Norfolk Southern expects to begin making payments to homeowners within one year.
“My home was only worth 60-something thousand before all this, now it’s down to 40-something thousand,” Walker said. “Even if they came and offered me what my home was valued before. That’s not even a down payment nowadays. For me, I am still going to be stuck here.”
Landlord, William Foster, who owns a duplex also on East Taggart Street, said he feels he’s at a standstill.
“I believe they owe people something because like I said what’s that house worth now?” Foster said.
All his tenants have moved out due to health concerns.
“It’s kind of a mess,” added William. “I am paying utilities on the building and everything and just deciding what I am going to do with them. I can’t charge them rent if they’re not living there.”
Cleanup by the EPA and Norfolk Southern remains underway. 16.6 million gallons of liquid wastewater have been removed and over 25,000 tons of soil are still waiting for removal.
Walker said some of that soil continues to grow by the pile in her backyard.
“I walked outside this morning to go to work and it smelled so bad,” said Walker.
And in the meantime, Walker’s patience is growing thin.
“I'm not asking to become a millionaire,” Walker said. “I'm not asking that at all. All I want is safe homes that we can get back to some kind of normalcy.”
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