East Palestine, Ohio

Environmental and public health activists cheered the development, saying EPA should have banned vinyl chloride years ago.

The railroad industry said one-person crews “have been used safely for decades,” as well as that Ohio lacks the authority to impose a two-person minimum.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture and Ohio State University created a plant tissue sampling plan to check whether the February train derailment in East Palestine is impacting the region's agriculture.

Half of the 5,000 residents of East Palestine were evacuated as emergency personnel burned off some of the chemicals to avert an uncontrolled explosion.

About half of East Palestine’s nearly 5,000 residents evacuated when, days after the Feb. 3 derailment, officials decided to burn toxic vinyl chloride from five tanker cars to prevent a catastrophic explosion.

An Ohio Senate panel on rail safety questioned Alan Shaw over a wide range of topics related to the derailment and subsequent controlled chemical release that rocked the small village on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, including long-term support systems for the community, two-person crew mandates and tanker car safety standards.

Ohio's attorney general has filed a 58-count complaint against Norfolk Southern seeking recovery of costs, damages and civil penalties for the derailment, which he said was "entirely avoidable."

U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and JD Vance (R-OH) have been writing letters and working on legislation together in the wake of the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine last month.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said at a press conference Thursday that 500,000 gallons (1.8 million liters) of the wastewater had been delivered to Deer Park, Texas.