Site Progress
Norfolk Southern team members remain on scene, assisted by multiple derailment and environmental contractors. Every step of the way, we are coordinating with federal, state and local agencies.
We will see this through
Our work isn’t finished.
72.7M gallons of water recovered and transported offsite
183,896 tons of waste soil removed
Flushed 5,200 feet of impacted waterways
1,606 drinking water wells sampled
7 DAY LOOKAHEAD
Site Remediation
— After completion of the EPA/OEPA regulatory approval process, the final ditch segment along the tracks was approved for water to flow naturally to Sulphur Run. This is a significant restoration milestone and part of the overall efforts to restore the affected areas to pre-derailment conditions. Stormwater will continue to be collected and disposed off-site from the remaining water management areas where decommissioning is currently underway pending regulatory clearance.
— Site decommissioning continues:
—— Frac Tank Farms. Equipment continues to be cleaned and staged for offsite transportation, and the liners under the equipment and soils immediately under any liners are transported off-site. Following soil removal, confirmation sampling will occur, and these areas will be graded and restored.
—— Smaller Storage Tanks. The storage tanks along the eastern end of Martin Street have been disassembled and the liners under the tanks have been removed off-site. Gravel under the liners will now be removed, and confirmation sampling will occur before regrading and restoration.
—— Big Blue Tanks. Due to the significant reduction of the amount of stormwater requiring collection for off-site management and the ongoing site decommissioning activities, preparations for the disassembly of the large storage tanks along N. Pleasant Drive (aka, “the Big Blue Tanks”) will begin. In the next few weeks, these tanks will be disassembled one at a time as appropriate to maintain necessary capacity to continue to manage site water. As with the other storage tank areas, as the tank containment materials are removed, confirmation sampling will occur in the areas beneath the former tanks followed by regrading and restoration.
— Final confirmation soil sampling is over 70% complete. If exceedances of final cleanup standards are identified, those areas will undergo additional delineation to ensure all derailment related chemicals are fully identified and determination of further courses of action. The ongoing decommissioning activities will open additional areas for sampling.
— Air monitoring continues in and around the work sites.
— Ongoing monitoring of surface water, groundwater, and drinking water wells continues.
Site Restoration
— Crews continue grading and backfilling excavated areas, reconstructing ditches, and installing stormwater infrastructure as part of efforts to return the site to pre-derailment conditions.
— Ditch and stormwater infrastructure restoration activities will be continued on the south side of the tracks, east and west of N. Pleasant Drive. Concrete culvert installation will begin in the ditch to the north of the tracks and west of N. Pleasant Drive with continued less intensive grading activities to the north of the tracks.
Stream Work
— Crews have completed the post-mitigation sampling in each creek. Data will be received and analyzed over the next few weeks to evaluate stream conditions following cleanup activities.
Track Maintenance
— Unrelated to the environmental response, routine track maintenance continues in areas near the Village.
Regulatory Oversight
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Columbiana County General Health District
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
- Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
- National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
- Ohio Department of Health (ODH)
- Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR)
- Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA)
- Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP)
- United States Department of the Interior (DOI)
- United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA)
- United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)