Brown visits East Palestine clinic
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EAST PALESTINE -- In his most recent visit to East Palestine Friday, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) stressed the need for residents to undergo regular health assessments, repeated his criticism of the Norfolk Southern property-value program and re-pledged his commitment to holding feet to the fire as the village continues to struggle in the wake of February's Norfolk Southern train derailment.
Brown spent most of his time in the village Friday at the East Liverpool Hospital East Palestine Health Clinic. It was the first time the senator visited the permanent facility, which opened its doors in April after the Ohio Department of Health and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine fast tracked its launch to replace the temporary one. Brown said the clinic is no way affiliated with the railroad and said it will stay that way, as he encouraged residents to take advantage of the available health monitoring.
"It's clear they are doing it right," Brown said. "They make it very clear that it is not paid for Norfolk Southern. This part of a county hospital, East Liverpool Hospital. It's part of that hospital. There's no Norfolk Southern dollars. We want Norfolk Southern to pay for a lot of things but we want people to come here and their conscience be clear. Their feelings about Norfolk Southern have nothing to do with this clinic or coming here."
Brown said that residents who live in areas impacted by the derailment and those who are working on the remediation efforts should get screened regularly to track any health effects that may be linked to the rail disaster.
"I understand Dr. (Gretchen) Nickell said people should get screening every so often, at least once a year, to make sure they don't have health problems from long-term exposure," he said. "Part of the problem now is the cleanup work to get the contaminated soil out, and some people are still getting sick, so there are still problems."
The ongoing concern of what additional health problems may lay ahead as a result of the derailment is the main reason Brown heavily criticized Norfolk Southern's interim Value Assurance Program (VAP) -- a program meant to alleviate the diminution in property values in and around the village following the rail disaster. A caveat of eligibility to receive compensation under the interim or long-term plan is the submission of "a release of property claim" that would affect homeowners' right to legal remedies.
"They give away their right to sue," Brown said. "Norfolk Southern writes them a check to make up for diminished value and then they develop some illness that is pretty clearly tied to that exposure and they can't sue the company."
The release isn't the only part of the VAP that Brown took exception with. There is no recourse for renters. If a property fails to sell, the property owner is seemingly out of luck as Norfolk Southern is not offering to purchase any properties.
"I'm glad they did something, but they think that means 'aren't we great corporate citizens.' But it doesn't because it doesn't help renters who are continuing to have to pay their lease," Brown said. "It doesn't help people who don't sell their homes and the people it does help have to sign something because Norfolk Southern has way better lawyers than the average person in East Palestine."
Other eligibility stipulations state that property owners must not be in bankruptcy at the time of sale or at the time the VAP claim is made, must satisfy all outstanding liens against the property at or prior to closing and must follow the procedures detailed in the Interim VAP booklet, including timely submitting all required forms and documentation to the VAP Administrator. Property owners who choose to participate must use an approved real estate agent from a list currently being compiled. VAP compensation is based on a comparison of sale price and market value and not a loan amount or what is owed on an existing mortgage.
Despite Brown calling the VAP an "empty promise" and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) calling it a "complete and total disaster" earlier in the week, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw insisted on Thursday at the groundbreaking for the NorFolk Southern First Responder Training Center that his company and the lawmakers want the same thing.
"We are aligned. We are aligned on the same goals and that's to help the long term vibrancy of this community," Shaw said. "One of the things I heard about from the community was a concern about property evaluations and I said 'we're going to do something about that' and, just this week, we kept that promise. We set up a fund, a kind of assurance for the local community, that property values would be protected and at the same time we are investing in long-term economic vibrancy projects with a $25 million donation to the park and $20 million first responder training facility that's bring more people more back into the community and help the community recover and help the community thrive. We are going to see this through and do what's right."
On Wednesday, Brown penned a letter to Shaw that detailed a list of six actions that "Norfolk Southern must take to repair the damage its negligence has caused to the people of East Palestine, and to uphold all of the many promises the company has made to the East Palestine community." Brown demanded that the railroad continue environmental monitoring and clean-up activities and provide full compensation for all related environmental and public health impacts that exists and may arise, commit to paying for all economic damages to families and businesses, fulfill its responsibilities under the settlement with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration concerning workers at the derailment site, acknowledge the failed safety culture at Norfolk Southern that precipitated the derailment in East Palestine and show real progress in prioritizing safety, cease financial support for the freight rail industry's lobbying against the Railway Safety Act, and cease opposition to the safe operation of trains with two-person crews and call on the freight rail industry to end the lawsuit against the State of Ohio to block the crew-size requirement that Ohio imposed as part of a $13.5 billion state transportation budget that DeWine signed in March.
Brown said he intends to make certain that Norfolk Southern makes it right. He asked for East Palestine's continuing confidence and cooperation.
"My message to East Palestine is to keep working with us. Keep putting pressure on the company. Keep talking to their elective officials," he said. "I will be coming back more or less every month. I am not going away until Norfolk Southern does what it needs to and the governor and the president do what they need to. And we can get people's lives back to normal as much as possible."
selverd@mojonews.com