I took notes during the Ohio government update on the East Palestine train derailment and toxic chemical spill response. The full press briefing is below. The media present was a mix of uncurious stenographers and some inquisitive journalists.
After about 20 minutes of generally obtuse outlines intended to downplay the seriousness of the crisis, which included a game and fish commissioner saying 3,500 fish were killed by the chemical pollutants – yet never actually saying *what* about the chemicals killed the fish, suddenly the Ohio EPA official admitted something important.
WATER QUALITY – After the Ohio EPA spent several minutes saying the released chemicals are *CURRENTLY* dissipating to “non traceable levels” at various points in the downstream waterways, suddenly she admits the “initial slack” of chemicals did reach the Ohio River. [Prompted 19:34, WATCH] The “Contamination Plume” is travelling down the Ohio River at approximately 1 mph, providing the various municipal water systems the ability to disconnect from the Ohio River intake as the toxins pass by.
Top men: “we are pretty confident the low levels of toxins are not being passed on to the customers“…. So, there’s that.
AIR QUALITY – Well, the next soundbite below tells you a lot about the situation, TEN DAYS after the initial crisis…
Prompted, just hit play:
An interesting 10 minute video showing the timeline of local media reports and citizen reports of the train derailment and subsequent chemical disaster in/around East Palestine, Ohio.
The video takes the viewer through the initial train derailment, then shows citizens raw footage video of the next several days, including the impacts from the decision of the authorities to detonate and “burn off” the destabilizing and toxic chemicals. WATCH: