Major US City Closing Down Ohio River Intake After Train Derailment

City of Cincinnati announces move being done 'out of an abundance of caution'

An environmental company is removing dead fish downstream from the site of the train derailment that forced people to be evacuated from their homes in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 6, 2023. Alan Freed/Reuters

The City of Cincinnati announced on Friday that it will shut down its Ohio River intake to prevent any possible contamination from the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment earlier this month.

The city, in a statement, said that it and the Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW) are monitoring the Ohio River, one of the largest rivers in the United States, after the chemical spill in East Palestine. Earlier this week, an Ohio environmental official confirmed that a plume of chemicals was observed traveling down the Ohio River, and at the time, it was located near Huntington, West Virginia.