EPA Administrator to Return to Ohio’s Toxic Train Crash Site on Feb. 21

Ohio senators raise concerns about dioxins from vinyl chloride burnoff

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan left, walks with his staff through East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 16, 2023. Residents of the Ohio village upended by a freight train derailment are demanding to know if they're safe from the toxic chemicals that spilled or were burned off to avoid an even bigger disaster. Lucy Schaly/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP

Less than a week after visiting East Palestine, where he told reporters that “we’re trusting the science” and that he would let his children drink the water there if testing showed it was safe, EPA administrator Michael S. Regan is returning to the eastern Ohio village that continues to recover from the aftermath of a train derailment that sent toxic chemicals into the air and onto the ground.

In a press conference scheduled for Feb. 21 at 12:30 p.m., Regan will provide an update on the agency’s efforts to address Norfolk Southern Railway’s train derailment and chemical spill that happened on Feb. 3, and the subsequent controlled release of vinyl chloride on Feb. 6.