Norfolk Southern Regional Manager of Environmental Operations Chris Hunsicker and EPA Deputy Project Manager Eric Pohl updated a packed house on derailment remediation and clean-up efforts during Monday’s East Palestine Council meeting. (File photo by Stephanie Elverd)

EAST PALESTINE — Two years after the Norfolk Southern train derailment, the railroad estimates two months of cleanup at the site where the cars derailed, chemicals were spilled and a vent-and-burn was performed – a herculean remediation effort that removed 222,448 tons of contaminated soil and 74 million gallons of water off site for disposal.

“We are letting the result of what we see guide us. I don’t want to make a presumption and say it’s going to be done by a certain date,” Norfolk Southern Regional Manager of Environmental Operations Chris Hunsicker told East Palestine Village Council on Monday. “But right now, what we are looking at with the restoration and evaluation, we are probably looking at a couple months here. There will be monitoring that will go for a long period of time, based on what we are doing and based on the agreement with the Department of Justice. We are looking at a 10-year period after we get done with our actions.”

The agreement is part of the DOJ’s $135 million settlement with Norfolk Southern to pay for the clean-up and continue to monitor the environmental impacts.

Husicker said that as of Monday two more digs remained at the east end of the site — one on a culvert beneath the tracks with that work already underway and another small area that he described as being roughly the size of council chambers at village hall.

The evacuation is to remove soil that sampling showed detections of 2-butoxyethanol — a colorless liquid with a fruity odor used as a solvent in paint products, household cleaners and herbicides that when exposed to can cause irritation of the nose and eyes, headache, a metallic taste and vomiting. Approximately 25,000 gallons of the chemical also known as ethylene glycol monobutyl ether was spilled during the derailment.

“Down there at the east end, we detected some 2-butoxyethanol. It’s part of the derailment in one of the cars,” Hunsicker said. “In that eastern end, we saw some areas that had elevated concentrations, not particularly too high but elevated. We saw a higher spot there so we are getting that hot spot out.”

Hunsicker said what is not being detected is vinyl chloride. Over a million pounds of that chemical was released and burned off over the village during the vent-and-burn. Appendix E in the work plans called for a village-wide reassessment of soil through re-sampling with extra scrutiny at the site itself. Appendix E is now complete with no recent detections of vinyl chloride found. The last detection of the chemical at the site was in November of 2024.

“We are not talking about vinyl chloride pockets at all. We have done a very thorough assessment of the situation on the site,” Hunsicker said. “We’ve done our doublecheck. That is all completed. We are working through those reports and working with the agencies to get those finalized. We are not worried about a vinyl chloride situation here at the site all at.”

Most of the work left to do is restoration — rehabilitating land back to pre-derailment conditions.

“Getting the site restored is really what we are working on, getting these properties back to what they looked like beforehand,” Hunsicker said.

Hunsicker explained that the recent restoration of the land where the blue tanks stood on North Pleasant involved breaking up a parking lot that was installed during the response. Hunsicker clarified that the asphalt that was hauled off had nothing to do with remediation but rather restoration as the owners of the property wanted the paved area removed.

“Sometimes, we put a feature in there that they want to keep like a parking lot. Maybe that makes sense for their business or access, but sometimes it doesn’t and we take it out,” he said.

Hunsicker also addressed the when or if the signs at the creeks that ask residents to stay out of the water will be removed. He said the signs are not Norfolk Southern’s — Mayor Trent Conaway later confirmed the village put up the signs — and that is up to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine when waterway restrictions will be lifted.

As far as the current condition of creeks, Hunsicker said that another assessment of Sulphur and Leslie Runs will be completed in the near future as the weather continues to warm.

Hunsicker added that sheet piling on railroad property will remain in place for track stability and not remediation reasons.

U.S. EPA’s Eric Pohl joined Hunsicker at the meeting. Pohl made two announcements — reporting that the agency’s East Palestine project manager Ralph Dollhopf is retiring and that the EPA will give a complete update on the clean-up at the next council meeting.

Dollhopf has overseen the remediation efforts and was responsible for signing off on all sampling results and giving the green light to back fill excavated areas.

“[Dollhopf] is retiring and moving out and off this project. I have been here in a support capacity and as Mr.Dollhopf’s deputy project manager for the last year and half or so and I am stepping into that more senior role,” Pohl said. “I look forward to continuing to work with the community and work in the community to hopefully wrap this up.”

Pohl said, with council’s permission, the EPA will give a “comprehensive view and update on the status” of the clean-up efforts at the March 24 council meeting.

“We are hoping to bring in our project team to give a fuller, not just an operational briefing, but a fuller concept of what our objectives were from the beginning and how we met those and how we might still have places to go,” Pohl said.

That meeting is set for 7 p.m.