Federal water testing in Ohio did not comply with EPA standards
The EPA said the water in East Palestine, Ohio is safe to drink. But the water tested was sampled by the same the company that caused the derailment, Northfolk Southern Corp, $NSC. The test also did not initially comply with federal standards, per Huff Post.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said this week that the municipal drinking water “showed no evidence of contamination."
“With these tests results, Ohio EPA is confident that the municipal water is safe to drink,” DeWine’s office wrote.
The lab report on the railroad-funded sampling indicates the samples were not handled in accordance with federal Environmental Protection Agency standards, however, per Huffington Post.
AECOM, the Dallas-based consulting firm contracted by Norfolk Southern, sampled untreated water from the five municipal wells, each about a mile from the derailment site, as well as treated municipal water on Feb. 10.
“Though the initial data was valid, we wanted to ensure compliance with EPA standards, and proactively asked the lab to rerun the samples with the remaining preserved vial from each sample,” Connor Spielmaker, a spokesperson at Norfolk Southern Corp., said in an email. “Reanalysis of the samples ensured method compliance and again produced a result indicating safe water. The lab did not update the comments to note the re-testing and erroneously included the comments from the initial test.”
James Lee, a spokesman for Ohio EPA, acknowledged AECOM’s samples were not properly preserved or acidified but said they were “acceptable due to the next-day processing at the laboratory.”
“Our decision to announce the all clear was based on the samples we received earlier in the day, but it was great to have additional confirmation from Columbiana County Health Department,” Lee said.
The federal EPA has not done its own sampling of municipal water in East Palestine, per Huffington Post.
See their full article; https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ohio-train-disaster-water-sampling_n_63ef034be4b022eb3e35e585