Anyone who attended the June 28 hearing on the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, would have left with the impression that vinyl chloride monomer and other plastics feedstocks are potential bombs rolling through towns across the country, monitored by malfunctioning equipment and protected by unprepared local safety forces.
Of course, that's not the case. The great majority of chemical shipments are made safely. But that's how bad the hearing went for Norfolk Southern Corp., the owner of the train that derailed. The derailment led to a controversial burnoff of VCM that caused a local evacuation.
At the hearing, NS continued to defend its decision to initiate the burnoff. Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board have said the burnoff was unnecessary.
I live about 90 miles away from East Palestine and attended the morning session of the hearing at East Palestine High School. I also have family who have lived in East Palestine for many years, a coincidence that remains hard for me to believe.
Oxy Vinyls LP, the company that made the VCM in the tanker cars that derailed Feb. 3, 2023, said its expertise was not properly considered in the decision to burn off the material, a PVC feedstock. In a late June statement to Plastics News, officials with Oxy in Dallas said "it's surprising to us that Norfolk Southern continues to challenge the results of a thorough government investigation led by the NTSB and supported by multiple federal agencies."
In a news release issued after the hearing, officials with Norfolk Southern in Atlanta defended their decision to burn off the VCM at the site. "After carefully considering all alternatives, Norfolk Southern and its specialist contractors recommended a controlled vent and burn … as the only option to protect the community from a potential catastrophic explosion," they said.
There were more he said/she said exchanges between the railroad and Oxy, but NTSB clearly agreed with Oxy's assessment. A lack of access to data on the train's contents also was criticized at the hearing. A malfunctioning sensor that would have detected the overheated bearing that caused the derailment also was cited. NTSB officials also described a lack of training for volunteer fire departments, such as the one in East Palestine that responded to the derailment.
The hearing got personal when, in her closing comments, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy called out NS for its behavior during the investigation. In a meeting with NTSB board members two weeks before the final hearing, according to Homendy, a NS senior executive said that it was their hope that the NTSB would put to rest the "rumor" that NS made the decision to vent and burn to move trains.
"That is not only unethical and inappropriate, but defending an entity's decision-making is not our role," Homendy said. NS then stated that "this is an opportunity to close a chapter and allow the community and the railroad to move on," she added.
"The entire exchange ended with what everyone from the NTSB heard in the room was a threat…to use every avenue and opportunity to vigorously defend their decision-making in media and hearings going forward."
Homendy said that she "struggled a lot with whether I wanted to share all this detail with the public as I don't want it to overshadow our findings…But Norfolk Southern's actions were unconscionable. I want everyone who works with the NTSB… to understand this: We are impervious to anything but the truth."
Early in my career, I covered many public meetings involving government entities and local or regional businesses. I don't recall ever hearing a company being on the receiving end of anything like the verbal thrashing that the NTSB unleashed on NS at the hearing.
NS apparently realized how bad the hearing went for the company, because on July 10 — less than two weeks later — the firm hosted Homendy during a safety seminar at its headquarters. In sports terms, this was a football team doing a scramble drill when a play goes wrong.
NS put out a news release that day saying that the firm endorsed safety recommendations made by NTSB as part of the investigation. Officials added that the recommendations "align with safety initiatives currently underway."
"We have a deep respect for Chair Homendy and the important work of the NTSB," NS President and CEO Alan Shaw said in the release "We appreciate her leadership, willingness to collaborate with us on next steps, and direct engagement with our operational leaders."
It's not clear what the future holds for East Palestine and so many other towns that are the equivalent of flyover country for chemical shipments. After the morning session of the hearing, I took a walk along the tracks that were involved in the derailment. A faint but noticeable chemical odor remained in the air, even 16 months after the accident. It smelled like a mix of burning plastic and swimming pool chlorine.
Let's hope for the best for East Palestine and take to heart what Homendy said in a news release after the hearing. "We objectively analyze the facts and evidence to make recommendations that, if implemented, will ensure this never happens again," she said. "Thanks to the hard work of our world-class investigators, we now have a roadmap to do just that."