EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — As cleanup efforts from the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment continue, Ohio Sen. JD Vance returned to East Palestine on Monday to visit the derailment site and meet with local officials and residents who are growing increasingly frustrated by the protracted pace of those efforts.

Vance shared those frustrations.

“Recovery for East Palestine is basically impossible until we clean up the mounds of toxic dirt,” Vance said. “The fact that we have this massive chemical spill and the people here still don’t have any confidence that this stuff is going to get moved out of their community in a timely way is a complete disgrace and a complete failure of leadership.:

The biggest hindrance to the cleanup efforts has been the refusal of other states to accept the waste being removed from the site as truck loads and trainloads of the dirt removed from East Palestine are being turned away from facilities in Michigan, Oklahoma and other states. Vance said it is the U.S. Environmental Agency’s responsibility to make sure the waste removed from East Palestine is disposed of at the facilities that the agency approved weeks ago. Vance insisted the governments of those states do not have the authority to turn away derailment waste.

“This is not a negotiation between Norfolk Southern and the governor of Michigan. This is a negotiation between Norfolk Southern and whoever is leading these disposal facilities. That is how it should work,” Vance said. “When certain states, Michigan in particular, refuse to take the toxic waste from East Palestine that is in part because the federal EPA has given Michigan permission to do that. At a very fundamental level, this needs to be a negotiation between Norfolk Southern and any waste facility or disposal site. If there’s a disposal site that is willing to take the waste and Norfolk Southern is willing to ship it, that should be the end of the conversation. The governors of those states can try to protest as much as possible but we have federal laws that guide how we dispose of these toxic chemicals.”

It has been over a week since any contaminated soil has been removed from the derailment site and no timeline has been set as to when cleanup efforts will be completed.

“I have been given no confidence and no assurances about when we are actually going to get the toxic dirt out of this community,” Vance said. “I recognize that it takes time and everybody is impatient but the problem is not that it is only taking too much time. The problem is we are now close to day 10 where there hasn’t been a single truckload of dirt taken out of this community. How does that make any sense?”

According to an EPA press release on Monday, all rail cars have been removed from the derailment site with 5.7 million gallons of liquid waste having been already removed and disposed of in the month since the disaster. The EPA also reported that its agency as well as contractors for Norfolk Southern will begin testing soil outside the area to see how far ash or soot may have traveled after the controlled burn of vinyl chloride at the derailment site. The EPA and the railroad continue air-quality monitoring and soil testing at residential, agricultural, commercial and recreation properties in East Palestine. As of Monday, the EPA reported 52 soil samples have been taken and 25 sites inspected.

However, Vance is concerned with the soil that remains at the site. He said 27,000 pounds of contaminated dirt still needs to be removed. He called on the White House to step in and see that cleanup efforts continue in a timely manner and the âmountain of dirtã be removed from East Palestine

âThe Biden administration needs to come in and quarterback this process,ã Vance said. âWhen the federal EPA comes in and says àwe are going to lead the cleanup effort,á they actually have to do it. It is a real travesty that we are two months into this thing and residents still do not have their community cleaned up.ã

Vanceás visit comes on the heels of Thursdayás senate panel hearing in Washington. The Environmental and Public Works Committee questioned Norfolk Southernás CEO Alan Shaw on the railroadás commitment to the people of East Palestine and the surrounding communities impacted by the derailment. Vance said he was satisfied with Shawás testimony but only if Norfolk Southern follows through on their commitments to East Palestine.

âThe question is whether or not Norfolk Southern sticks to their commitment and does the right thing,ã Vance said. âThe people of East Palestine have had a lot of promises made to them. We will see if those promises are kept.ã

While Vance was reserved in his criticism of Shaw and Southern Norfolk, he wasnát when it came to the lack of federal relief for East Palestine. Two weeks ago, Vance made a case for a Paycheck Protection Program plan ­ similar to resources allocated during the pandemic ­ for businesses and workers affected by the derailment but was met with resistance on Capitol Hill. He continues to call for a federal aid package of some kind for the area and said that some of that aid can come from remaining TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) that bailed out the big banks in 2009.

âWe spent $20 billion just last year on just Ukraine.We have a lot of money in the United States. The problem is none of that money is making its way to East Palestine.ã Vance said. âI will continue to hammer the Biden administration on down to make sure they donát forget about their own citizens right here in northeast Ohio.ã

selverd@mojonews.com