"Accidents that result in the release of hazardous materials are rare, but when trains do crash, the consequences can be serious. Most of the recent ones that caused evacuations have happened near small communities, NPR found. Local firefighters who respond are uniquely vulnerable to the effects. But across the country, they are often under-prepared to handle the chemicals when they come off the tracks."
"Last month, Brenda Foster stood on the railroad tracks at the edge of her yard in East Palestine, Ohio, and watched a smoky inferno billow from the wreckage of a derailed train. The chemicals it was carrying — and the fire that consumed them — were so toxic that the entire area had to evacuate."
"Norfolk Southern’s corporate PAC has donated more than $375,000 to members of the Senate committee that grilled the railroad’s chief executive on Thursday about the toxic derailment of one of the company’s trains in East Palestine, Ohio."
"The chief executive of a railroad company that operated a train that derailed and caused a release of toxic chemicals in February told the Senate on Thursday that he is “deeply sorry” for the impact on East Palestine, Ohio, and he is personally committed to “make this right.”"
"The chief executive of one of the nation’s largest railroads is coming to a Senate hearing with an apology and a commitment to send millions of dollars to the village on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border disrupted by a fiery derailment as senators investigate railway safety and the Biden administration’s response to the disaster."
"Norfolk Southern Railway will pay for temporary relocation for people who live within a mile of the site of a train derailment that spilled hazardous chemicals, amid ongoing cleanup efforts."
"U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado on Monday wrote a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urging him to formally suspend federal authorization of a Utah rail project that will send up to five, two-mile-long oil trains a day along the Colorado River, under the Continental Divide at Winter Park, and through downtown Denver."
"Contaminated soil from the site around the East Palestine train wreck in Ohio is being sent to a nearby incinerator with a history of clean air violations, raising fears that the chemicals being removed from the ground will be redistributed across the region."
"On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered rail operator Norfolk Southern to begin testing for dioxins."
"President Biden on Thursday threw his support behind a bipartisan bill that would tighten federal oversight of trains carrying hazardous materials in the aftermath of a derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that spilled toxic chemicals."
Advertisement 
