EPA Orders Norfolk Southern to Clean Up Chemicals After Ohio Train Derailment

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

Norfolk Southern Railway has been ordered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct “all cleanup actions” associated with the Feb. 3 derailment of a train carrying hazardous chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio.

“Norfolk Southern will pay for cleaning up the mess that they created and the trauma that they inflicted on this community and impacted Beaver County [Pennsylvania] residents,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced at a Feb. 21 news conference in East Palestine.