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East Palestine weighs pros and cons of accepting derailment wastewater for treatment
There was a flurry of questions Monday night over whether or not East Palestine's wastewater treatment plant should accept and treat wastewater from Norfolk Southern's derailment site.
Monday, December 11th 2023, 11:40 PM EST
Updated:
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There was a flurry of questions Monday night over whether or not East Palestine's wastewater treatment plant should accept and treat wastewater from Norfolk Southern's derailment site.
Some people are concerned about the tests for contaminants and their accuracy. Plus there are concerns about the water flowing downstream.
The head of the wastewater treatment plant in East Palestine says some profits could help keep bills down, and benefits to accepting and treating the wastewater from the derailment site in a process he says is safe.
"I would only accept water that is probably non-detectable. If it comes up [non-detectable] on the lab results, that is probably when where I would say we can process this water safely," East Palestine Village Wastewater Superintendent Scott Wolfe said.
Others want that guarantee in writing.
"This is by no means drinking water. It is only held to that type of standard when they do their analytical testing. It goes to the wastewater plant, not the drinking water plant," Scott Wolfe emphasized.
But because the treated water will be pumped into Leslie Run which winds its way to the Ohio River there are worries about what will end up in millions of other people's drinking water.
"The sediment is contaminated with a variety of pollution. When you muck it up so that heavy discharge coming through that is going to pull those pollutants out from the bottom and send them downstream and as Three Rivers Waterkeeper we're concerned about that, because we monitor, patrol, and protect the Ohio River which is a drinking water source for five million people, and is a recreational course for 50 million people," the Executive Director for Three Rivers Water Keepers, Heather Hulton Vantassel said.
"There is a financial benefit to accepting the wastewater, but there's a long-term stewardship issue that comes with accepting wastewater that is going to be a financial burden on this community. Equipment wears and tears, so the more you use it, the more it costs, so what is the long-term financial commitment that's needed to accept waste and not go into the negative line on your accounting books?," Vantassel asked.
"When something comes out of the treatment facility's affluent discharge space into Leslie Run, as they are mentioning they are opening themselves to Clean Water Act Violations. That facility does have a National Pollutant Eliminations Systems Permit, NPEDS, and that requires them to operate in limitations and if they don't they can be sued using the Clean Water Act," Vantassel added.
Other people here questioned whether the equipment will be able to test accurately to one or two parts per billion and others want a list of chemicals they will test for.
And yet others say you can't test for safe levels of vinyl chloride since there are no safe levels.
"The wastewater plant typically treats three-quarters of a million gallons of water a day, 750,000 gallons a day with the agreements we're talking about we would start with a small amount a day and work our way up 5,000 and work our way up to maybe 50,000 gallons.
A person in the crowd asked how much money the city stands to make and so did 21 News but that question was not answered.
Residents want to know what guarantees are in place that wastewater treatment bills will go down or won't go up if this agreement happens.
Another resident explained many folks are still going through trauma from the Norfolk Southern toxic train derailment just 11 months ago.
They are upset East Palestine will not say how much profit it will make and ask city leaders to put residents over profits, and expressed that people are tired of that here.
"I want them to put people over profits, and this they said multiple times in this meeting it's about profit. It's all about monetary profit," Chad Conard said.
Why won't they tell us that now? They know how much. It's already been a part of their conversation. The fact that they don't again that's more trauma for people. The more you keep stuff from people the harder it is to trust you, and this community should be about rebuilding trust, as well as building foundations," Conard emphasized.
East Palestine Village officials said they will consider what residents said and will decide at a later date.