Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio. Published February 3, 2025 7:19 P.M.
The image above shows two women holding signs awaiting the arrival of Vice President JD Vance.
(East Palestine, Ohio) Monday marked the second anniversary of the fiery and toxic train derailment that took place in East Palestine near the Pennsylvania border. Clean up efforts and recovery is still ongoing after two years.
Many residents in East Palestine waited along streets in the community for Vice President JD Vance to arrive.
The Vice President was joined by Ohio Governor Mike Dewine, EPA Administistrator Lee Zeldin, and Senators Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted.
During a press conferance, Vance relayed that President Trump and himself are in it for the “long haul” regarding East Palestine. He went on to say that it’s a shame that the Biden administration didn’t complete the job and vowed that it will be completed during Trump’s second term.
Beaver County Radio had the opportunity to speak with individuals who were present in the community. One man said he is still afraid to drink the water and another said that it’s still too early to see the full potential health effects.
Multiple individuals are frustrated with the fact that they are still waiting on their settlement payments.
A $600 million dollar class action settlement lawsuit was approved by an Ohio judge last year, however a small group of individuals has delayed a large amount of that money from being dispersed. The group that appealed the settlement was recently ordered by a judge to pay $850,000 to cover costs to continue their appeal.
An individual of that small group spoke to Beaver County Radio with the condition of anonymity. The person, who lives in Beaver County, does not agree with signing away rights to go after Norfolk Southern in the future should more serious health effects occur. Furthermore, those against the settlement terms also believe that health care should be provided by the government to those who were affected.
According to Kroll Settlement Administration, those who filed for the personal injury payments portion of the settlement have started to receive their payments over the last month. They say that they are actively processing more of these claims to be dispersed in the coming months.
Beaver County Radio also spoke with a representative of the Golumb Research Group. Janhavi Kulkarni says the group led by Dr. Beatrice Golomb received a grant to perform testing for free to residents who want to be involved.
While Kulkarni was not at liberty to discuss specifics of their findings, she says that some preliminary results show “it’s been similar to what we see in veterans who suffer from Gulf War illness”. These symptoms include, fatigue, muscle weakness, and “nosebleeds in a lot of residents”.
The group is performing their research through a combination of questionnaires, blood tests, wrist bands, and respiratory assessments for those within a 20 mile radius of the derailment site.
116,000 gallons of vinyl chloride was burned following the 2023 derailment and the chemical is still being detected in the community and surrounding areas.
