OAN’s James Meyers
1:50 PM – Thursday, May 23, 2024
The Justice Department (DOJ) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a settlement that is estimated to be worth $310 million that was mutually agreed upon with railway company Norfolk Southern.
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This follows last year’s incident in February when one of its trains had spilled toxic chemicals into the town of East Palestine, Ohio.
The settlement includes an estimated $235 million for cleanup efforts, and a $15 million penalty for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act. The violations were highlighted as being “alleged,” with Norfolk Southern not admitting to any wrongdoing under the settlement.
In addition to the civil penalty, Norfolk Southern agreed to reimburse the EPA an additional $57 million in response costs and set up a $25 million health care fund in order to pay for 20 years of medical exams in the area.
Furthermore, the railroad will also pay between $25 million to $30 million for long-term monitoring of drinking water and groundwater.
“This settlement is historic in many ways and will begin to make up for some of the damage caused to the residents of East Palestine. And it would absolutely push the industry in the direction that we would like for the industry to go,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said. “Again, if some of these provisions that we’ve secured and locked in had been in place, we may not even be where we are today. ”
Regan said that the fine is the largest ever under the Clean Water Act, and the railroad agreed to continue paying all of the cleanup costs.
The railroad will not face criminal charges, and this latest settlement will not add anything to Norfolk Southern’s estimated $1.7 billion in total costs related to the derailment since the Atlanta-based company was already anticipating those costs.
However, residents have been critical of the settlement, claiming that it is not nearly enough to make things right.
“Honestly, no amount can ever make this right, but it should be at least enough to hurt them a little bit. I’m sure that’s not going to hurt their bottom line at all,” Jami Wallace said.
Meanwhile, Norfolk Southern reported a $527 million profit in the fourth quarter of last year. The railroad’s CEO received $13.4 million in compensation last year.
During the time of the incident, many locals argued that the Biden administration’s response time was not fast enough and said President Joe Biden should have traveled to the area immediately.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has defended its response to the situation while the EPA says that it immediately began to monitor the environmental impacts of the incident and has done so by “collecting thousands of water, air and soil samples.”
The agency has also claimed that no chemicals “of concern” have been found in the air since an evacuation order was lifted just days after the incident.
In the meantime, the railroad is still working to resolve a lawsuit the state of Ohio filed against it after the derailment.
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