EPA orders rail company to clean up toxic spill
We turn next this evening our team on the ground in East Palestine, Ohio. Tonight the EPA now ordering the rail company behind that toxic train derailment to clean up the mess and to pay for it all or the government will do it and send them the bill. And amid the fear and suspicion in those communities, Ohio's popular Republican governor and the head of the EPA visiting people's homes today drinking water from the tap. ABC's Mona Kosar Abdi is there for us. Tonight state and federal officials working to get their message out telling people in East Palestine, Ohio that their water supply is safe. Governor Mike DeWine assuring resident Carolyn Brown. We just need to continue to test them.
Yeah, we just need to continue to test them. We think things are all right. We know things are right now and we just need to make sure that in the future they're all right. Like Brown, most of the villages, roughly 4,700 residents get their water from the municipality. And tonight the EPA pledging to hold the rail company responsible for the entire cleanup. Let me also be crystal clear. Norfolk Southern will pay for cleaning up the mess that they created and the trauma that they inflicted on this community.
More than two weeks after that toxic train derailment, Norfolk Southern says 4,500 cubic yards of contaminated soil and 1.5 million gallons of contaminated water already have been removed from the site. Outside that press conference, we met farmer Jan Douglas. She's now worried about how that plume from that controlled burn conducted after the derailment could potentially affect her crops. I'm only 3.75 miles from the epicenter and I'm concerned for what could be the toxicity of my soil and does that indicate how we can plant this spring? Douglas says she's now paying out of pocket to have a lab test her soil. In a statement, Norfolk Southern says they are committed to doing right by the people of East Palestine and will continue to pay for the cleanup.
And after much public pressure, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says that he will visit the village. David? Hi everyone, George Stephanopoulos here. Thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel. If you'd like to get more videos, show highlights and watch live event coverage, click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts. Thanks for watching.
ABC, Agency, EPA, Environmental, News, Protection, Tonight, World, chemicals, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-97371701, spill, toxic, toxins