Ohio Gov. DeWine to Newsmax: Congress Must Take On Rail Safety

Congress must examine rail safety after the horrific train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and the subsequent release of vinyl chloride into the air, Gov. Mike DeWine said on Newsmax Friday.

"The fact that they could bring a train like this into the state of Ohio and not have to notify any official in the state of Ohio, there's something wrong with the law," the governor, a Republican, told Newsmax's "National Report."

The small Eastern Ohio town was the site of a Norfolk Southern train derailment on Feb. 3, when 50 cars jumped the track. Another 48 hours later, fears of a potential major explosion led to a decision to conduct a controlled release of vinyl chloride, causing a towering plume of hazardous chemicals to appear.

Meanwhile, the U.S. EPA has determined the drinking water is safe to drink, and DeWine told Newsmax he'd drink it himself.

"We've tested this water of five wells that go into the village system," the governor said. "Absolutely, the water is safe."

Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, earlier this week visited a nearby creek where fish have been dying, and DeWine agreed that there are chemicals in that water and it is polluted, but it has been contained.

"When we're talking about drinking water, we've always felt the experts have always told us that the wells of the village would be good, but we want to make sure so we went in and we actually tested the five separate wells. That water all comes back good."

But there are also many residents in the small town and around the area who have well water, and DeWine said those wells are being tested, and "so far, the results have been that every well that we have tested there has been good."

There are also air monitors all around the Eastern Ohio village, said DeWine, and they have also "continued to show that air is good."

There are also concerns about the air quality and presence of pollutants in people's homes, and so far, "we've gotten into hundreds of homes at people's requests and tested it and in every single case, the air has been good," said DeWine.

But even with such reports, the people of East Palestine have been traumatized by the "horrific train wreck" that caused highly dangerous chemicals to be released at the edge of their village, said DeWine.

He said the state's health director has been in the village for several days to address concerns, and that the federal department of Health and Human Services will establish a free clinic in the village so that anyone can be examined by a doctor who is "hooked into the national experts" on chemical exposure.

The state has requested federal aid through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but "we don't qualify yet," said DeWine.

"From the word go, we had the federal EPA working hand in hand with our Ohio EPA," said DeWine. "Next, we reached out to the Defense Department when our Ohio National Guard was trying to model what the controlled release would actually do."

But with FEMA, he added, the applications are being made "just in case in the future the railroad stops covering these expenses."

Still, the railroad in question, Norfolk Southern, is being held accountable, as "they're the ones who caused this problem," said DeWine. "They're the ones who are not only paying for the cleanup but if people have individual problems, they need to be paying for that. We're going to make sure that they do, but we're going to have the application into FEMA as a backstop."

Norfolk Southern has offered to pay $1.2 million toward the issue, and DeWine said the state understands that people are afraid, as "they've been through hell."

"Our job is to continue to monitor the water, monitor the air," the governor said. "We're going to continue to do that and give people these results every single day … we're trying to give every kind of support that we can, and we're going to continue to do that, and we're still we're also going to continue to hold the railroad responsible."

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