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EAST PALESTINE -- Through a press release on Wednesday, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reported that it has issued four citations to Norfolk Southern regarding worker safety in the wake of February's train derailment and chemical spill.
OSHA has proposed the railroad pay $49,111 in penalties for not developing an emergency response plan that included clear lines of authority, communication and training, site security, adequate site control and decontamination areas; failing to require workers to wear chemical resistant footwear when walking on contaminated soil; allowing employees without respiratory protection to pour cement on potentially contaminated soil; and not training workers about hazardous chemicals. OSHA stated that "the violations primarily related to work conducted on Feb. 4, 2023, as crews constructed track panels and laid them out on the south tracks, west of the spill location" and that "Norfolk Southern abated the hazards immediately."
Norfolk Southern agreed to pay the penalties as part of a settlement agreement with OSHA and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division-International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Terms of the settlement also include Norfolk Southern agreeing to implement a medical surveillance program for all affected employees who worked at the derailment site, provide union employees with 40 hours of Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response training for future derailments and create a training program on lessons learned from the Ohio derailment.
"This agreement will improve the safety and health controls in place for Norfolk Southern employees who responded and help educate the rail operator's employees on the lessons learned so they are prepared should another emergency occur," said OSHA Area Office Director Howard Eberts. "We are pleased by the collaborative safety and health efforts of Norfolk Southern Corp, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division and contractors from the clean-up site who have been working together on this site remediation."
The U.S. Department of Labor opened several investigations on workplace safety and health related to the derailment -- including enforcement inspections of Norfolk Southern contractors CTEH, Specialized Professional Services (SPS) and Hepaco -- to investigate complaints about workers exposed to chemicals as they performed clean-up work on Sulphur and Leslie Runs.
OSHA cited Specialized Professional Services, a company based in Washington, Pa., for "inadequate control of the site and decontamination areas which they immediately corrected" but did not issue citations to the other two companies.
OSHA also opened an investigation into reports that members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) team, who were conducting door-to-door operations in the village as part of the Assessment of Chemical Exposure (ACE) survey, experienced health symptoms after visiting homes on March 6. OSHA did not cite the CDC.
In letters to both Norfolk Southern and SPS, OSHA notified the companies of citations for violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 -- an act that gave the federal government authority to enforce and ensure safe and healthful working conditions for workers by setting and enforcing standards. SPS was cited for not having an emergency-response plan implemented prior to the derailment which led to a failure to prevent unauthorized individuals from entering areas where chemicals were actively leaking and moving through the soil and water and a failure to provide designated decontamination areas for staff or equipment to wash off soil potentially contaminated with chemicals from the spill.
OSHA joined the U.S. and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Ohio EPA as part of the unified command overseeing cleanup efforts in East Palestine. When it comes to safety of EPA workers, who have been on the ground at the derailment site since the train derailed, Ohio EPA spokesman Anthony Chenault said on Wednesday that the U.S. EPA has a site safety plan and a safety officer on scene and Ohio EPA employees follow that plan.
selverd@mojonews.com