The Ohio Department of Agriculture, (ODA), held a round table discussion with area farmers in Salem Thursday.
While the ODA has said it had no reason to believe crops planted in the area would be unsafe, the discussion was being held to discuss any concerns area farmers might have about the upcoming planting season. Ohio Department of Agriculture director Brian Baldridge said the department had reached out to the local extension of the Farm Bureau to select a number of area farmers to take part in the discussion, to ensure that local voices and concerns were represented.
A farm owner himself, Baldridge said that the department’s response had been guided by what question, and concerns he’d have if his own farm had been in the affected area — and finding those answers and solutions. Baldridge said that thus far the department’s role in the response to the derailment had been mainly through the work of State Veterinarian Dr. Dennis Summers, who has been conducting necropsies on animals potentially affected by chemicals released from the derailment.
Baldridge said 11 species had been turned into the state lab. None of the animals had any indicators linking their death to any chemicals released during the derailment. Summers has also been in contact with local vets since the derailment to ensure any questions residents had could be answered, and that any unusual illness or death which could potentially be linked to the derailment was reported to the state.
Baldridge said that the department’s meat inspectors have been closely monitoring all livestock in the area being butchered, and that the department has an inspector present at every slaughter conducted in the state. Should any abnormalities be detected by investigators, a veterinarian is contacted to further evaluate the carcass in question — ensuring that no unsafe product enters the market. During this extensive scrutiny there has been no evidence of any contamination caused by the derailment.
“To put it in perspective, from the Trumbull, Mahoning, Portage, Stark and Columbiana Counties, we’ve had 35 cases where inspectors called a veterinarian to examine the case,” he said. ‘Of those, five carcasses were eliminated, and none of those were shown to have any chemical contamination. During this time period there were over 1,000 slaughters in the area.”
Baldridge also said the department had been mobilizing similarly strict monitoring and quality assurance procedures in dairy production, and that the department had been collaborating closely with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
“Their concerns are the same as the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s, and that is making sure our communities are heard, and making sure the producers of this area have a safe product, and people know they have a safe product,” he said.
United State Environmental Protection Agency Supervisory Engineer Mark Durno provided an update on the agency’s soil sampling program. Durno said that over the prior two weeks the agency had been compiling a “comprehensive soil screening plan to evaluate the greater East Palestine area encompassing the one-mile radius around the accidents site, and another area one mile to the southeast.” Durno said that the secondary area was determined through the department’s modeling, dust tracking, and on-site observations to be the most likely to be impacted by potential ash and soot from the controlled burn of vinyl chloride.
Durno said the agency would begin collecting upwards of 300 soil samples from this assessment area as early as that afternoon “to determine if there were any increased risks in the area,” with priority given to recreational and agricultural areas. The number of samples will be dependent on the remaining presence of ash or soot from the burn. Should the agency not find any there could be as few as 60 samples taken, as the department is looking to sample “worst case conditions.” If the agency locates any ash or soot, an “individual discreet sample” of the material will be taken. Iff there is no ash present the agency will collect a sample from the top inch of soil. In both scenarios a second sample from between one- and six-inches underground will also be collected. As the agency is looking to sample these “worst case conditions” Durno said they also would not be sampling any areas with heavy tree cover.
The analysis, which Durno said would be begin seeing preliminary results in 7-12 days will include semi-volatile-organics in additions to dioxins and pyrans. Durno noted that while dioxins and pyrans would not typically be tested for in this case — due to a large number of requests from the local community and local leadership– they were being included.
“The science does not suggest there would be a dioxin problem from this incident, however, we have heard very expressly from our local leaders and the community that they would like dioxins as part of our analysis,” said Durno.
This sampling will be conducted by a combination of contractors hired by the EPA, and Norfolk Southern, staff from the United States and Ohio Departments of Agriculture, and in some cases EPA response co-ordinators. These samples will then be sent to an independent lab for testing. Durno noted that a number of samples taken by Norfolk Southern’s contractor would be sent to a separate additional independent testing facility, and some samples tested by the EPA’s on-site lab for quality assurance.
Durno said the results to these tests will be posted publicly to the EPA’s website as well as the websites of a number of their partner agencies.
Following concerns that the existing plants which are used to graze livestock may also have been contaminated, in addition to the soil being raised, Baldridge said the department and its partners were working to develop and implement a testing program to address these concerns. However, Baldridge was unable to provide a timeline for when they would be implemented.
Source: reviewonline.com
Categories: Ohio, General