The Columbiana County Health District on Tuesday announced the second application period for the new Expanded Potable Water Sampling Program outside of the East Palestine priority zones will begin Thursday.

To be considered for this round of sampling, applications must be submitted to the county health district by Jan. 31. An application can be printed from the health district website at www.columbiana-health.org or picked up at the office at 7360 state Route 45, Lisbon during normal business hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The office is closed Thursday for New Year’s Day.

There will be up to 100 private water wells sampled in this round of testing, with all test results posted on the health district website.

Private drinking water wells sampled under the program must be located in Columbiana County and outside of the current Priority Zones for the East Palestine train derailment response, with the water well functional and capable of drawing water from the ground to a spigot.

According to the press release, “the Expanded Potable Water Sampling Program is designed for residents who were concerned about their water due to the derailment but have been unable to obtain a sample. Since February 2023, the Columbiana County Health District has collected and analyzed more than 1,900 private water well samples in the current priority zones directly in and surrounding East Palestine. No exceedances related to the East Palestine derailment have been identified.”

County Health District Public Information Officer and Environmental Director Laura Fauss said out of 100 applications approved in the first round, the sampling has been completed for 38 locations so far. The rest of them will be completed in 2026, along with the 100 selected for the second round.

She did say more had applied than could be approved and noted one of the biggest issues that came up involved tenants trying to apply for sampling. She said testing tenant-occupied properties isn’t a problem, but the owner of the property must apply.

The program got a late start for this year in October, which is why all the sampling wasn’t finished yet. A $2 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency funded the program, with a goal to sample 100 water wells per year through 2031.

The health district first learned about the $2 million grant last year, but had to wait for parameters from the EPA, then partnered with the county Port Authority to work on the program together, with the Port Authority applying for the funds and handling the administration of the grant. The health district is performing the sampling work.

Results of the testing in the program and in the priority zones can be seen on the district website. Those priority zones include a 1-mile radius near the derailment crash site, the village of East Palestine itself, a strip following Leslie Run to Negley and another strip of Leslie Run that goes to the Ohio River.

“We’ve had a lot of good feedback,” Fauss said.

Out of the private wells tested so far for the program, she said there was only one detection of a chemical, but there was no exceedance of the levels. The property in question was northwest of the derailment area and previously housed a mechanic’s shop. She said it was unlikely that the result came from the train crash.

mgreier@mojonews.com