Thread by @CleanAirCouncil

The Senate hearing on the East Palestine train derailment is happening now. Norfolk Southern needs to be held accountable. Make the people whole. Make Norfolk Southern pay.

Can't tune in? No problem, we're live tweeting it. Follow along for updates on this 🧵

@SenatorCarper says this hearing is a time for all of us to put ourselves in the residents shoes, find out what happened, how to hold @nscorp accountable, and how to make sure this doesn't happen again #MakeNorfolkSouthernPay

@SenatorCapito thanks first responders for all of their work in responding to this disaster. She says the public deserved a better communication & transparency. Why did it take so long for @EPA @OhioEPA to get data to the public? The confusion fuels misinformation & confusion

Why did it take weeks for @EPA director to drink the water? Why did it take EPA so long to go door to door to talk to residents? Why is EPA sending contaminated soil to a facility that has Clean Air Act violations?@SenatorCapito is asking all the right questions

@SenMullin says residents are fearing their health even though @EPA says there's nothing to worry about. What are we going to do about the town moving forward? The residents don't feel safe & we need a plan moving forward. Leaders take responsibility & not dodge and point fingers

It's important to note that residents of East Palestine were not invited to speak at the hearing. @RiverValleyOrg sent two residents to try and deliver their demands yesterday. Why weren't the residents invited to speak? Don't you want to hear from the people themselves?

@SherrodBrown demands Norfolk Southern pay every residents medical bills from now until further notice. For every hospital visit. For every doctor's appointment. They will foot the bill.

@JDVance1 is frustrated @EPA is making it hard to get that soil out of the state.There are piles of dirt just lying around. @EPA needs to aggressively get these piles out of the state & into properly licensed facilities

@JDVance1 says @nscorp enjoys special carve outs that no other industry enjoys and asks the government to bail them out but then resists regulations public health and safety.

@nscorp says they will be in the East Palestine community for as long as it takes to clean it up and provide help. They've hired a community liaison that will directly report to Alan Shaw. And have started a $1 million community fund. That's a start, but y'all better step it up.

Debra Shore with @EPA says they are currently conducting 24/6 air monitoring at 21 stations around the community. VOCs above levels of health concerns haven't been detected.

@EPA has been assisting with indoor air screening. 200 homes have been screened for vinyl chloride & hydrogen chloride have been detected. In ohio, the water is continued to be tested and monitored.

On 2/21, @EPA issued an order to @nscorp to to hold them accountable that included directives to identify and clean up soil, to attend and participate in public meeting and to post info online, to pay for epas cost, to oversee the work, as a way to hold them accountable.

If @nscorp fails to complete these demands, @EPA will step in, do the work, and force Norfolk to pay triple the cost.

Again, why aren't we hearing from the residents? Why aren't they testifying about the health and environmental impacts they've been seeing and experiencing? Why do we need to hear it from the elected officials?

@SenatorCarper to Alan Shaw, "Will you commit Norfolk Southern to be there for as long as it takes to make East Palestine, Beaver Co., Darlington Co. whole again?"

Alan Shaw: Yes, it's my personal commitment.

Mhm. Alan we'll be watching.

@SenatorCapito says there are facilities in Texas & Michigan that are most qualified to receive the contaminated soil. Why were the trucks stopped at the gates & still sitting in Ohio? What's happening? When is the contaminated soil going to leave Ohio and where will it go?

@EPA says waste is moving off site to a number of facilities that are EPA approved & have the capacity to receive the waste & have contracts with @nscorp Results from the dioxin testing that Indiana requested came back with very low levels, so waste will be moving later today.

Why did you wait a month to order dioxin testing when the community was requesting it? @EPA air monitors were searching for primary indicators such as phosgene and hydrogen chloride after the burn. Low levels were detected and went down to nondetect.

Without the primary indicators, dioxins wouldn't have been created, but EPA was listening to the community and their expressed concerns about dioxins in the area. Norfolk Southern has submitted a soil sampling plan to test for dioxins.

Again, why are we hearing from just Alan Shaw? We want to hear from the residents who are experiencing the effects of the derailment first hand.

East Liverpool is receiving the waste from East Palestine, but Alan Shaw doesn't know how true that is. Aalan says they're in the process of deciding, but @SenMullin wants to know where the spot will be. And why does Alan keep dodging?

Some of the cars that were part of the derailment were not owned by @nscorp but by another rail company who was not in the room during the decision making for the controlled burn. The cars they owned worked properly. Which means to vent & burn wouldn't have been the best option

@OhioEPA is testing ground water in 20 different locations and are posting the results online. They're continuing to see dilution of the chemicals of concern. They will continue to test. Monitoring wells have been installed at the site of derailment.

@SenatorRicketts asks what are some of the things @EPA has learned from their response to the derailment? EPA says they're still enmeshed in the clean up and that's their primary focus, then focus on long-term remediation. There will be an after action report.

@SenatorRicketts asks Alan Shaw the same question. Alan says they've helped 4400 families and set up a website for residents to access information. And that communication can always be improved. But, we can't seem to find the website at all. 🤔

@SenSanders asks Alan Shaw will you guarantee paid sick days for your entire workforce and not just some employees?

Alan deflected 4 times and said he would commit to continuing conversations. Boooooo Alan Shaw

@SenSanders asks if @nscorp will commit to paying for all of the healthcare?

Alan says everything is on the table and they'll pay for residents healthcare.

@LindseyGrahamSC is calling on @POTUS to ask Alan Shaw and Debra Shore to go with him to East Palestine to talk to the residents about the trauma they've experienced.

Yet again, we want to hear less from Alan Shaw and more from the residents who are being directly impacted by corporate oversight and greed.

@SenWhitehouse says the rail industry has spent 650 mill on federal lobbying and 80 mill on state lobbying. He says Norfolk Southern spent $69 million in that lobbying period. They lobby through the association of manufacturers.

@nytimes reports that @nscorp paid stock shareholders nearly 18 bill in stock buybacks and dividends in 2022. Alan said he has a different perspective on that.

To be clear, Norfolk Southern has been lobbying against safety regulations and improvements. @SenJeffMerkley wants Alan to commit to lobbying for safety regulations and improvements.

@SenJeffMerkley wants Alan to pledge that Norfolk Southern pledge to do no more stock buybacks until safety improvements are completed?

Alan, yet again, deflects. Alain is coming to the Senate with 3 derailments in the last 3 months.

If you have coordinated breaks on every train car, you can prevent the kind of accordion derailment that happened in East Palestine.

@SenMarkey is telling Alan that overconfidence breeds complacency and complacency breeds disaster. And disaster has struck East Palestine. Norfolk Southern has reduced their workforce and that reduction threatens safety.

@SenMarkey wants @nscorp to commit to providing financial assistance to all families affected, not just in the arbitrary 1 mile radius? Alan says they already are, but @SenMarkey says it's unclear & wants them to commit to compensating homeowners for their declined property value

@SenMarkey says doing the right thing is compensating them for their property values in their homes and small businesses because they are the one's bearing the burdens for Norfolk Southern's mistakes. "We're not hearing the right things today from you, Alan" CALL HIM OUT SENATOR

@SenStabenow is calling Alan out for not alerting Michigan of shipments of waste to the state. EPA has stepped in to oversee these operations and are taking the additional steps of keeping congressional staff and the state informed.

@nscorp has had 20 train derailments since 2015 that have resulted in hazardous chemical release. So why haven't they learned from the first time?

@SenCapito is still concerned about the communication issue especially around getting rid of the hazardous materials. Where is this material going? Both EPA and Norfolk Southern say it's going somewhere, but they don't know where. Why don't you know?

We're going to say it again. We want to see the residents in the room and on the stand, so the Senate can hear what's really going on on the ground. We need their first hand accounts on record @EPWCmte

@GovMikeDeWine has a daily newsletter and press release that goes out with update information and facts about what's happening on the ground. This is @nscorp site: nsmakingitright.com

@SenCapito says these daily debriefs should've happened from day 1 to prevent gaps in communication

The hearing has wrapped. Lot's more work to do and questions to be answered. Let's continue to hold @nscorp and Alan Shaw accountable. And amplify the residents voices as they weren't there today. Make the people whole. #MakeNorfolkSouthernPay #EastPalestineOH