EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Norfolk Southern scooped up and hauled away the last of the contaminated soil from the derailment site in East Palestine.
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News 5 got a view from above with our drone as one phase ended, transitioning to another.
"All the excavation is complete,” Norfolk Southern Manager, Environmental Operations Bob Scoble said.
The scope of what will soon come is massive. Norfolk Southern will backfill roughly the distance of six football fields.
But first, more sampling will be done with a broader list from what was on the train, according to the railroad.
“We’re confident we’re going to get everything," Scoble said. "If for some reason we missed something, we’re going to be here to get it."
News 5 Investigators asked Scoble what he would tell people who might not trust that.
“I can’t tell you how to assuage somebody’s fears. I’ve been out here since Feb. 4. I’ve been out here on site, in the creeks, in the water on this site, walking up and down in the holes with all the workers out here. The science is what it is. You can trust the science,” Scoble said.
“I’m, of course, skeptical as I have been throughout this whole process,” Linda Murphy said.
We last spoke with Murphy at the six-month mark. She’s still considering moving out of East Palestine.
“I think they’re falling short, and I think they’re only doing what they’re made to do, and I also feel like the millions they’ve touted they’ve spent have been placed on things that they find valuable,” Murphy said.
Norfolk Southern says sampling for any trace contaminants will run through March or April, more than a year after the derailment and controlled chemical burn of vinyl chloride.
News 5 asked Scoble that if something were found, would more remediation be done?
“We’ll have to look and see what it is,” Scoble said.
The railroad will also collect samples as it downsizes its staging areas. The largest, Scoble said, is built on top of a containment site.
When the contaminated soil is gone from the derailment, they’re going to bring in clean dirt and bring it up to the original level of the tracks or what property owners prefer.
Norfolk Southern is waiting on EPA approval of its backfilling plans. Scoble says the work will be paced out to keep from disrupting the community again.
The railroad must also again clean Sulfur Run and Leslie Run creeks by EPA orders.
“We’re going to be getting back into those culverts in the town here — the ones that run under the businesses, under the homes, and we’re going to do another cleaning operation,” Scoble said.
Scoble says they’ll remove any sediment built up since the first cleaning.
“We’re here for the long haul. We’re not going anywhere,” Scoble said.
“We don’t know what we’re in for for the long haul, and I don’t feel like it’s good things,” Murphy said.
