East Palestine’s ‘containment dam’ overflows

The makeshift dam designed to prevent toxic water contamination in East Palestine, Ohio following the toxic train derailment, has failed and overflowed. Mainstream media reports that “heavy rain” caused the water to overflow near East Palestine’s city park, causing more concern among residents.

Many residents are already ill from the initial toxins released into the air and waterways after a train carrying said toxins derailed in early February. Some have taken to Twitter and other social media outlets to express their concerns that the media continues to brush off.

Mary McCarron, a public information officer for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, tells Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 the large pool was a containment dam that “was actually part of mitigation work surrounding the storm.” WTAE4, an ABC News affiliate, further reported that McCarron also said no visible waste was released into nearby streams.

“This water is not coming from the derailment site,” Thomas A. Crosson, senior director of strategic communications with Norfolk Southern said. “We have purposely dammed this area to raise water levels to allow for aeration. In heavy rain events, those waters can rise and is not a reason for concern.”

Residents feel otherwise.

Eric Cozza tells 19 News Cleveland that he’s frightened to think about what this new threat could mean, “I fear that now the chemical is in the ground, it’s going to leach towards the water ducts, our aquifer for drinking water. I’m concerned that the park is now contaminated. Kids won’t be able to play there or walk through there on their way to school.”

Cozza’s family has already been diagnosed by a doctor with chemical irritation or rashes on their skin, with the overflow of water Cozza says the odor of chemicals is back in the air again, “I have fear, I’ve had fear and now this just put the anxiety over the top.”

The bad news just keeps rolling in for Ohio as well. Another Norfolk Southern train derailed in Springfield yesterday. Nearby residents were asked to shelter in place after a Norfolk Southern train derailed near a highway in the Springfield, Ohio, area on Saturday.

Norfolk Southern confirmed in a statement to CBS News that 20 cars of a 212-car train derailed. The railway company said there were no hazardous materials aboard the train, and there were no reported injuries.