Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio went to East Palestine on Thursday to see for himself what the conditions look around the area where a controlled burn of hazardous chemicals took place following a train derailment earlier this month.
"There are dead worms and dead fish all throughout this water," Vance said in a video at Leslie Run Creek.
Scraping the bottom of the creek with a stick, Vance said it shows “chemicals coming out of the ground.”
"This is disgusting," he commented. "And the fact that we have not cleaned up the train crash, the fact that these chemicals are still seeping in the ground is an insult to the people who live in East Palestine. Do not forget these people. We gotta keep applying pressure. That's how we're gonna fix this problem."
Visited a local creek in East Palestine today. These waterways are still very polluted. It’s time for Norfolk Southern to finish the cleanup. Check this video out: pic.twitter.com/4lsHBmrMJj
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) February 16, 2023
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimated that 7.5 miles of streams have been affected, resulting in the death of 3,500 fish.
In addition to dead fish, one woman who lives 10 miles from East Palestine reported that all of her chickens died following the burn, while a fox keeper claims one of his animals died and the rest got sick due to the "smoke and chemicals from the train."
"The thing I came away from after visiting today is that one, residents are very, very scared obviously," Vance told Fox News's Tucker Carlson, "but they're also not getting answers from their authorities about exactly what's going on, what's being done to clean up the disaster."
"The railroad has completely failed to clean up the toxic soil that's leaking into the river ways...The question that I have is why haven't they cleaned up the contaminated soil that's going to eventually contaminate the ground water no matter what?" - Senator @JDVance1 pic.twitter.com/HDESu9PH6P
— Senator Vance Press Office (@SenVancePress) February 17, 2023
Today I spoke with residents of East Palestine and met with local elected officials. I heard a lot of new questions and left with all sorts of concerns that need to be addressed.
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) February 16, 2023
I won’t stop working on this until people get the answers they deserve. pic.twitter.com/mWwT4dydB7
During a news conference, EPA Administrator Michael Regan assured East Palestine residents the agency is "testing for everything," promising the community the federal agency will be present "as long as it takes to ensure the health and safety of this community."
He also said the EPA will hold train company Norfolk Southern accountable.
“We issued a notice of accountability to the company, and they’ve signed that, indicating that they will be responsible for the cleanup,” Regan told CNN. “But as this investigation continues, and as new facts arise, let me just say, and be very clear, I will use the full enforcement authority of this agency, and so will the federal government, to be sure that this company is held accountable.”