History Repeats itself in Ohio
A
train carrying a massive amount of hazardous
chemicals, including highly volatile vinyl
chloride, benzene, and butyle acrylate, derails
in a rural town. Fearing a potential explosion
that could launch deadly shrapnel as far as a
mile, officials evacuate the town and burn, yes
burn, some of the chemicals instead,
sending large, toxic plumes into the
air. In five days, which is hardly enough
time for a proper cleanup, residents are told:
All good. Come on back. But, just in case,
don’t drink water from local sources. When
they return, they find the air still reeks of
fumes. Their eyes smart and heads spin.
Their animals
fall ill and fish die by thousands in
local waterways.
If you’ve been
following this unfolding
public health disaster in East Palestine,
Ohio, you’ll know that it’s playing out in the
same old way such disasters always seem to play
out. People are told not to worry much, but
reliable information about the extent of damage
done and risks posed is really hard to come by.
Meanwhile the corporations responsible, one
iteration or the other of the peterochemical
industrial complex, offer crisis-management PR
speak and try to shift blame as much as possible
and state actors don’t do nearly enough to help
those in harm’s way.
As news
reports have pointed out, this is the eighth
major train derailment in the greater
Pittsburgh region in the past five years, and
the third derailment involving hazardous
material in the country this month. Given the
fossil fuel industry’s ongoing plastics
buildout, including Shell’s new petrochemical
complex in western Pennsylvania, the transport
by rail of volatile chemicals is only going to
ramp up in Pittsburgh and elsewhere. Which means
the next big derailment probably isn’t far
off.
The incident reminds me of the
2015 Aliso
Canyon gas storage facility blowout in Los
Angeles that spewed out an oily mix of methane
and other toxic compounds for 111 days
on communities living downhill. Seven years
after what’s been called the largest gas blowout
in US history, tens of thousands of Angelenos
are still living with the fallout, including
illnesses that may be related to their toxic
exposures, and are still seeking
justice.
I’m hoping the residents
of East Palestine will be better taken care of,
but so far, the evidence hasn’t been reassuring.
All in all, this is a stark reminder of the
great risk communities living on frontlines of
petrochemical development face every day, one
more reason why we should wean off of fossil
fuels and their byproducts asap.
Maureen Nandini
Mitra
Editor, Earth Island
Journal Photo by William
Warby
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