LISBON — Columbiana County residents with private wells outside of the priority zones near East Palestine can start applying today to participate in the new Expanded Potable Water Sampling Program.

“They’re finally going to know what’s going on with their wells,” Columbiana County Health District Public Information Officer and Environmental Director Laura Fauss said Tuesday.

Up until now, properties outside of those priority zones related to the train derailment were unable to get free testing of water samples from their wells. Many had requested testing but had to be turned down.

Now they can fill out an application for the first round of sampling in this program funded with a $2 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

To be considered for this round, applications must be submitted to the county health district by Oct. 31. Applications can be printed from the health district’s website at www.columbiana-health.org or picked up during normal business hours at the district headquarters, 7360 state Route 45, Lisbon.

Up to 100 water wells will be sampled in the first round, likely starting in November. Subsequent rounds will sample 100 water wells per year, with the program scheduled to run through 2031.

To qualify for the program, the water well must be located in Columbiana County and outside of the current priority zones for the East Palestine train derailment response. The water well must be functional and capable of drawing water from the ground to a spigot.

“I’m excited. I hope the county is as well. We’re really lucky to have these funds, we wouldn’t be able to do this without the grant,” Fauss said.

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 will perform the sampling work.

Since February 2023, the 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, but no exceedances for levels of chemicals of concern related to the derailment have been identified. Results of the testing 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 itself, a strip following Leslie Run to Negley and another strip of Leslie Run that goes to the Ohio River.

Fauss said that the first round of testing in the priority zones included 250 locations, but those numbers have decreased to 100 locations in the 17th round. She said for the expanded program, “we’re not really sure what kind of response we’re going to get.”

Hopefully people are still interested, she said, adding that it helps that it’s free. This will give residents who have not been able to get their wells tested some peace of mind.

Even though the launch of the expanded program had been delayed, she said “hopefully the residents will still see value in it.”

Alliance Technical Group, LLC will conduct the laboratory testing of the samples collected by the health district personnel throughout the project’s life cycle.

In a frequently asked questions flyer, some of the details about the program were explained. Both sides of the application must be completed and returned to the health district by dropping off, mailing, emailing or faxing before the Oct. 31 deadline. After the deadline, all submitted applications will be reviewed and screened for approval, which should take about 30 days, with the applicants notified of the results by mail.

The owner or their representative must be present during the sampling, which will take an hour. The sample location will be determined by the sampler onsite, but must be taken prior to any treatment systems, such as water softeners or other devices that can be bypassed if necessary.

The test will be the same as the tests being done in the priority zones for the chemicals of concern, including vinyl chloride, benzene, ethylbenzene, butyl acrylate and others. The results will be sent via mail and take about three weeks.

The results will also be posted on the health district website.