Life is back to normal for farmers in rural western Pennsylvania, just across the state line from where a train derailed and caught fire in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this year.
It’s been nearly four months since the Norfolk Southern train derailment Feb. 3 that resulted in five tank cars of vinyl chloride being vented and burned off, sending a plume of black chemical smoke high into the sky and onto surrounding farms. That’s become the image associated with the train derailment for people living outside the region.
But for farmers living and working in the rural areas surrounding East Palestine, it’s been like any other spring. In the last week of May, many of them were finishing planting and making hay, trying to take advantage of the unusually long stretch of dry weather before Memorial Day. That’s what Sam Kuhlber was doing.
“I’m operating as normal,” said Kuhlber, a farmer in Darlington Township, who plants row crops and raises some beef cattle. “I always had a gut instinct that things were fine. It was one incident. It was brief. I’ve always felt comfortable that things are OK. Now, we have the data to provide it.”
Good results
According to government sources, field crops and soil in fields around the derailment were not contaminated by the initial fire or subsequent chemical burn.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture and Ohio State University on May 16 released final results from plant tissue sample testing on crops within five-mile radius of the derailment. The samples showed plants did not contain semi-volatile organic compounds associated with the train derailment, according to an Ohio EMA press release.
These results came a few days after the U.S. EPA posted final soil test results from samples taken at agricultural, residential and recreational properties throughout the area that also showed no contamination from the derailment.
“The picture coming together is that the particles have not created a noticeable burden of contaminants on people’s properties,” Mark Durno, EPA response coordinator, told Farm and Dairy. “Our advice at the EPA is to continue to use properties as you typically would.”
Source: farmanddairy.com
Photo Credit: istock-imaginegolf
Categories: Ohio, Crops