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The Environmental Protection Agency ordered Norfolk Southern to clean up the site of its derailment on Tuesday, nearly three weeks after the company’s train leaked toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio.
Federal regulators stepped in to ensure Norfolk Southern exhausts all available measures to sanitize the air and water contaminated during the Feb. 3 train wreckage — utilizing its power under the federal Superfund law.
“In no way, shape or form will Norfolk Southern get off the hook for the mess they created,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan vowed at a news conference in East Palestine, a town near the Pennsylvania border.
“I know this order cannot undo the nightmare that families in this town have been living with, but it will begin to deliver much-needed justice for the pain that Norfolk Southern has caused.”
Norfolk Southern will face a steep penalty — at three times the cost of damages — from the EPA if it fails to comply, forcing the agency to do the work itself.
The railroad company has already removed 4,600 yards of contaminated soil and 1.1 million gallons of contaminated water, according to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. However, he said it failed to eliminate the contaminated soil beneath its train tracks before repairing them to run freight again.
Norfolk Southern must now pull up the tracks again to clear out the polluted soil, DeWine said.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro slammed the company over what he called its “failed management of this crisis.”
“The combination of Norfolk Southern’s corporate greed, incompetence and lack of concern for our residents is absolutely unacceptable to me,” Shapiro said at the news conference.
