EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Some people in East Palestine don’t think they’ll be around to see the creeks back to what they were after a toxic train derailment contaminated creeks in the village and surrounding communities.
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There is promising news from the U.S. EPA about the ecosystem.
Water quality monitoring will happen at both Leslie and Sulphur Run Creeks for the foreseeable future.
Sulphur Run is the creek that goes right through downtown East Palestine behind Kristina Ferguson’s childhood home.
The EPA Administrator checked out the conditions two weeks after the Norfolk Southern train derailed and again after the controlled chemical burn of vinyl chloride.
The U.S. EPA says fish have returned to the areas in Sulphur Run where none were seen after the derailment.
Initial water treatment operations at Sulphur and Leslie Run stopped last month, the EPA citing favorable surface water data.
“This does not signify the end of the cleanup for Sulphur Run. Sulphur Run and the Upper Section of Leslie Run are still contaminated, and targeted work will continue in those areas. A full characterization plan for all waterways potentially impacted by the East Palestine Train Derailment will be finalized soon. Once the assessment and characterization of all waterways is completed, we will better understand final cleanup options,” the EPA said.
Ferguson, who grew up playing in Sulphur Run, says a wipe-down at her house won’t happen until the creek is no longer polluted.
"It might not even be in my lifetime before it's totally clean from the chemicals. It would be the creek bed. It's so heavily polluted in that creek now that it's going to take a long time to get it to undo the damage that was done,” Ferguson said.
The EPA says sediment cleaning at Sulphur Run has shown improvement in both water quality and a reduction in residual contamination.
That same process was expected to start this week near Leslie Run from East Palestine to about Carbon Hill Roads. The EPA said the work had been delayed so aquatic scientists could do a survey of the area to make sure it wouldn’t be more harmful to the ecosystem.
The scientists are overseeing the sediment cleaning at Leslie Run.
