The EPA along with members from the CDC welcomed a packed house to a public info session on the train derailment's aftermath in East Palestine. This comes as progress continues to be made this week with clean-up efforts at ground zero. Both government organizations say they're continuing to work to make the village as safe as possible. 

More answers are given to concerned residents as the East Palestine community passes the 4-month mark since the life-changing train derailment.

The EPA, CDC, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry joining forces in efforts to be transparent with the public on cleanup efforts and health concerns.

"Also, to lay out some of the draft findings from their assessment of chemical exposure or ACE survey that they conducted back in March," said Mark Durano with the U.S. EPA.

In the ACE survey, 88% of Ohioans surveyed said they were exposed to harmful substances. 86% of Pennsylvanians reported at least one new or worsening physical or mental health symptom after the derailment.  

"The reason why we did an investigation here is that we really wanted to learn how the release of chemicals has affected the people," said Jill Shugart with the CDC.

This comes as there's still a lot of uncertainty with the EPA's testing, a lot of residents tell me they don't necessarily trust the lengths the EPA is going to perform efficient, in-depth testing.

"We have hundreds of thousands of data points to show that there are no emissions coming off that site," Durano said. "We also recognize that a lot of residents are unsure about the air quality in our homes. But we try to assure them that the samples we are collecting show that primary contaminants of concern are volatile organic, they don't hang around long."

This comes as most soil underneath the tracks has been removed, and over 50,000 tons of waste and over 20 million gallons of contaminated water have been removed and disposed of.

This week, crews are excavating near North Pleasant Drive, sheet piling is being installed around the track, and vapor suppressants are now being used to control odors, according the EPA's weekly train derailment response newsletter. 

"So, it's been a tremendous effort," Durano said. "It's been a huge site by our standards, so we're seeing progress."

Durano said in a few weeks, train tracks will be rebuilt on the north side of the derailment site. Then focus will go towards soil testing north and south of the tracks where the tank cars were staged.