© Keith Srakocic/AP PhotoA farmer moves his tractor after turning over the soil in a field on a farm in Prospect, Pa. on Sunday, Nov. 9, 2014.
Farmers in western Pennsylvania began offering their soil samples for collection in recent weeks after contamination concerns about the train derailment in nearby East Palestine, Ohio went unaddressed.
Cliff Wallace, president of the Beaver-Lawrence Farm Bureau, told The Center Square on Tuesday he's spoken with property owners seven miles out from the burn site who say they saw plumes of smoke drifting over their land in the aftermath of the crash.
Wallace, who taught agriculture classes in the region for 35 years, said he soon began compiling video footage and photos of the smoke, knowing that something more had to be done.
"These are my friends, my neighbors, my former students," he said. "I went into my contacts in my phone and started texting people. That's how I found out what I know."
So began Wallace's mission to determine whether the soil in his region became contaminated after Norfolk Southern decided to burn five derailed train cars carrying vinyl chloride just miles from the Pennsylvania border.
He said he understands that, at first, state and local officials had to focus on cleanup efforts closer to the derailment site. But as time went on, the lack of response in Pennsylvania left many residents unnerved.
"In the total scheme of things, if you had a big fire in your backyard, would you ask the fireman to go around to check the neighbor's yard or would you want to get that fire out right now?" he said.
The EPA said Tuesday it has collected 62 soil samples from nearby residences, commercial properties, recreational areas, and agricultural sites across Pennsylvania and Ohio.
It has also completed 615 home reentry screenings through Sunday and continues 24/7 air monitoring at 23 stations. No vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride has been detected.
Those results, however, haven't reassured residents very much. That's why Wallace partnered with the state Department of Environmental Protection, the EPA and its contractors to collect 15 soil samples from farms across the region for more testing.
"There will be a general distrust and a lack of faith in what's going on, so we want to put a face to it and share it with our agriculture community and get them up to speed," he said. "Anything I can do to improve the communication I will, but that's a challenge."
State Rep. Jim Marshall, R-Beaver Falls, said he's heard from residents concerned about ill health effects, as well as farmers worried about tilling soil and losing customers who fear buying "tainted" meat. He said Wallace's efforts have been "instrumental" in helping residents feel heard.
Wallace said its his impression that any concerning test results will undergo further scrutiny.
"Hopefully my neighbors are all going to have some reassurance in a few weeks," he said.
The state Department of Environmental Protection said during a joint policy committee hearing in Darlington on Tuesday that it is skeptical of the private contractor Norfolk Southern hired immediately to run contamination tests.
Richard Negrin, acting secretary for the agency, said derailments seem built into the railroad's business model and the lab they work with appears to be the same for each of the roughly 140 crashes Norfolk Southern records each year.
As such, he added, their results only supplement what the agency's independent testing may show.
Christen Smith joins The Center Square as its Pennsylvania News Editor and brings with her more than a decade of experience covering state and national policy issues from all angles. She's a Pennsylvania State University alumna and has been published in the The Washington Examiner, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, RealClear and Broad+Liberty, among others.
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"Who owns Norfolk Southern? Who owns Intel, which is going into Ohio and needs a lot of water, like the water around East Palestine, or that which is watering 75,000 family farms in Ohio? Who owns Quest and LabCorp? The only labs left after consolidation have suddenly decided not to test for dioxin, Anywhere in the US.
That’s right! The same people: Vanguard, Black Rock, State Street and all the other lovely hedgies preying on every man woman and child, like fearsome vultures needing constant infusions of our life’s energies.
Why are CDC and Health Canada trailers all over the heartland offering $175 per three hour questionnaire, which includes vitamins, gun ownership, vax status and every other health question you can imagine?
Something happened on the way to the Great Reset and it was the Great Awakening. The tsunami of lies that issued from leadership during the Covid hoax has created a hypervigilant populace which flares into suspicion given any excuse. The balloons, the unpopular Ukraine war, government-caused inflation, the parade of food production facilities bursting afire, the unacknowledged excess deaths, have contributed to an almost universal mistrust of anyone official. And then came East Palestine.
The Norfolk Southern railroad was carrying vinyl chloride which when ignited, turns into dioxin, the great-grandmother of all toxins Within days, it spread across the 75,000 family farms of Ohio, across the Nebraska wheat fields into the underground aquifers and has killed, so far, 45,000 fish. Birds fell out of the sky, and most think that anyone pregnant in the vicinity is at extreme risk . The fire released the largest plume of dioxin in history.
The government tried to blame the fire chief of a town of 5,000 for lighting the chemicals. That is not how it works in rural America. The Department of Interior through its various agencies micro-manages every watercourse, farm, range and forest. Whoever gave that order was at the top of the food chain: the governor, advised by Interior by the Office of the President. Every single interest was consulted and signed off in a prescribed chain of decisions, before the train car was drained of vinyl chloride and the fire was lit.
The toxic cocktail..."