02/15/2023

Officials Tell East Palestine Residents to 'Drink Bottled Water'

The town was recently hit by a toxic train crash

Eleven days after a train derailed, spilling toxic chemicals and causing a massive fire here, officials told residents Tuesday to use bottled water until testing could confirm whether the local water supply was safe to drink — heightening concern among some locals who were already wary of returning to their homes.

As questions continued to swirl around the cause of the Feb. 3 accident and the official response to it, the disaster’s still-emerging list of effects became more clear: Water officials are tracking a large plume of contamination flowing down the Ohio River; about 3,500 fish in local waterways have been killed by the chemical release; and cleanup crews are excavating a “grossly contaminated” 1,000-foot area around the train tracks where butyl acrylate puddled and vinyl chloride burned.

"For right now, I think bottled water's the right answer," said Ohio Health Director Bruce Vanderhoff at a news conference Tuesday.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.