EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — With a projected completion date by mid-June, restoration of the site of the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment is expected to be “substantially complete” nearly two years after the rail disaster, Norfolk Southern reported Thursday on its website NSmakingitright.com.

Norfolk Southern Regional Manager of Environmental Operations, Chris Hunsicker has said in recent updates to village council that the focus was beginning to shift from remediation to restoration as clean-up efforts began to wind down at the end of last year and into 2025 and after the railroad addressed “low exceedances” of vinyl chloride and 2-butoxyethanol. The restoration is expected to return the derailment site to “pre-derailment” conditions.

The derailment site consisted of eight areas along and including approximately 1,900 feet of linear track — main line 1 (the south track) main line 2 (north tracks), centerline (at area between the two tracks), burn pits (where the controlled burn took place), north ditch (a tributary to Sulphur Run), south ditch and two car scraping areas follow (the areas where cars were dismantled for disposal).

Norfolk Southern also reported “the re-assessment of Sulphur and Leslie Run has been concluded with the collected data to be evaluated as the laboratory analyses are performed.”

The creeks became a matter of contention between railroad and residents when visible sheen, seemingly as a result of the derailment, could be stirred up in both waterways. The EPA finally ordered Norfolk Southern to investigate the sheen in October of 2023 under the agency’s authority granted by the Clean Water Act. The reassessment of the creeks completes that investigation, pending lab results that reflect no derailment chemicals.

Norfolk Southern also reported that “ongoing monitoring of surface water, groundwater, and drinking water wells continues per the schedules defined in the associated work plans.” Those efforts include the wetland area and water located east of the site and where 2-butoxyethanol. Additional monitoring wells were installed in the wetland area in late March.

In other remediation updates, the railroad reiterated that air-monitoring is ongoing in the areas of “active operations and that” Taggart Street remains open to traffic and the community should anticipate periodic site-related equipment and vehicles on the road.”