Ever since Feb. 3, 2023, residents of East Palestine have struggled with serious health conditions that were nonexistent before the derailment. When the EPA allowed the Norfolk Southern Railway to burn five cars filled with vinyl chloride and other toxic chemicals, more than 100 dangerous compounds including dioxins and phosgene were formed, blanketing the town and nearby Pennsylvania communities with a black cloud.  Dioxin, the most dangerous forever chemical known to man, was the active ingredient in Agent Orange, a human rights atrocity in the Vietnam War.

Despite this hardship, residents banded together to make sense of why our government told them it was safe to return to homes that were not safe. Most of all, they wondered why the government and agencies that swore to protect them were keeping them in the dark while they scrambled to put their lives back together. However, with a new administration featuring Ohio’s former senator, Vice President J.D. Vance, they may have a chance. This chance will only become reality if the new administration and Vance provide real, tangible support that makes a difference. 

The greatest impact would come if the new administration declared a national disaster in East Palestine and affected communities. For months following the toxic derailment, residents of the community along with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine asked the president to declare a national disaster. With this declaration, affected residents would have access to Medicare, long-term health monitoring, and financial assistance to relocate permanently to a safer home away from the toxic chemicals. Nevertheless, even after visiting East Palestine and talking with a hand-picked group of residents, former President Joe Biden only praised the EPA for its “Herculean” efforts.

In September 2024, four whistleblowers and scientists testified in legal challenges about the ongoing public health concerns from the chemical contamination following the derailment. The whistleblower disclosures from Scott Smith, George Thompson, Stephen Petty, and an anonymous toxins expert supplemented a legal petition filed in June demanding the EPA immediately honor its duty to warn residents about the dangers of consuming wild game and garden crops.

The four whistleblowers in the supplemental petition all reached the same conclusion: The community’s water, air, and soil were still contaminated from the chemicals released during the vent and burn, as well as the spill after the derailment. The EPA and state officials did no dioxin testing on crops in East Palestine but wrongly fell back on flawed dioxin soil sampling by Norfolk Southern. Despite the lack of testing and a petition showing whistleblower and independent tester Scott Smith found dioxin levels hundreds of times higher in East Palestine than in control samples canned before the derailment, the EPA continued to encourage residents to eat from their home gardens.

Former EPA contractor and whistleblower Robert Kroutil submitted a disturbing declaration to the EPA Office of Inspector General. The agency’s airborne surveillance program to assess chemical releases was grounded for five days, and when it did fly over East Palestine on Feb. 7, the day after the vent and burn, EPA program managers ordered airplane operators to turn off the chemical sensors over contaminated creeks. Kroutil further exposed falsification of the EPA’s data, stating that legally required quality assurance plans were created six weeks after the disaster and backdated. The request for a backdated quality assurance plan for the East Palestine mission was allegedly made by a program manager on Feb. 28, 2023, and the falsified documents, including multiple technical inaccuracies and inconsistencies, were provided to the Government Accountability Project as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. 

The Government Accountability Project’s own investigator has filed several FOIA requests against the agencies involved with cleaning up after the derailment. These agencies were tasked with providing community assistance and resources. The residents, however, did not receive the assistance they needed — or virtually any support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The initial FOIA request to FEMA to access records and communications about the derailment was submitted on Jan. 31, 2024, then again on April 12, 2024, to address the unmet needs of the community. Due to FEMA’s procedural failures, the agency refused to provide any communications requested, which is rare. Despite the request being expedited, FEMA has yet to provide any documentation. As a result, the Government Accountability Project recently sued FEMA for the records related to an executive order from Biden that tasked FEMA with assessing the unmet needs of the community and could have led to a disaster declaration, free medical care, and medical monitoring. 

At the end of 2024, the Government Accountability Project filed an additional complaint with the EPA OIG after a legal recording of a conversation between an EPA official and East Palestine resident surfaced. In this conversation, the official acknowledged that Norfolk Southern’s environmental contractors are biased toward the responsible party that hired them. The EPA employee said the contractors’ reports cannot be trusted because they were written to minimize liability for the polluter. Meanwhile, residents continue to face severe medical complications, PTSD, and financial hardships.  

Under the Biden administration, we saw government agencies lie and cover up mistakes for the sake of corporate appeasement. The EPA stood aside for Norfolk Southern’s burn because it allowed trains to get back on the tracks weeks sooner. Instead of protecting people, it protected profits and then lied to the public to cover a severe public health threat. Brave whistleblowers had to come forward to shed light on the wrongdoing federal agencies were committing. There was no assistance and no sense of hope from the president’s visit, with residents’ concerns swept under the rug for the sake of a publicity stunt and photo op.

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However, with a new administration in the White House, residents whose pleas were ignored in the previous administration are hopeful for a new opportunity under President Donald Trump. Vance has the opportunity to help real people in his home state who have overwhelmingly supported him since his time as an Ohio senator.

The Trump administration has a choice to make. It can listen to the community, whistleblowers, and independent scientists, or continue allowing the federal government and former senator to abandon this town. The fight to help East Palestine, Ohio, and the surrounding areas is still underway, and we will not stop until every hardworking American can rest easy without the fear of living in a poisoned community that is still making residents sick.

Tom Devine is the legal director at Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection and advocacy organization. He and his team have been investigating the derailment in East Palestine since September 2023.