EAST PALESTINE — At an informational session presented by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Columbiana County Health District on Thursday at The Way Station, East Palestine residents were told that private wells in the village have tested clean, but upon questioning by those in attendance, the agencies clarified that the wells have tested at acceptable levels of chemicals — for now.

The agencies reported that sampling and testing of private wells in the village have yielded no cause for concern but acknowledged that if the derailment is a threat to private wells, that information wouldn’t be known yet.

“We wouldn’t expect to see groundwater impacts this soon, but it’s really important to have a baseline,” EPA response coordinator Mark Durno said. “We don’t have any data that suggests that there are dangers in this community other than the creeks.”

According to the United States Geological Survey, groundwater moves slowly, typically at rates of 3 to 25 inches per day in an aquifer — a rock layer that contains water and releases it in appreciable amounts. Residents, who have voiced growing mistrust, cited external sources and outside agencies that claim it could take years for any contamination from derailment to reach private wells.

Laura Fauss, the county health district public information officer, said the county is doing what it can to address those concerns of future contamination and said that monitoring of the private wells is something the health district plans to continue indefinitely.

“It is our intent to continue to sample those private wells,” Fauss said “The way the work plan is set up right now, we are going to be sampling every 30 days until the product has been removed from the site. And it is our intent to continue sampling into the future. We don’t know the cadence of that sampling yet, but we will continue to sample and test private wells.”

Fauss reported that the health district in partnership with Norfolk Southern and their contractor SANTEC began private well testing on Feb. 12. The second round of sampling began on March 13. The initial plan only included sampling and testing wells within a quarter mile of the derailment site. That area expanded as more information about surface and groundwater became available and data collected was analyzed by the EPA. The well testing has now increased to three zones. As of now, there are no plans to further expand the sampling areas, despite frustration expressed by residents who do not qualify for private well testing under the current marked zones. Those residents were advised to contact private-sampling companies.

“Our environmental unit looks at all the science and what makes the most sense and through their analysis they determined that more geography was necessary,” Durno explained. “If the data changes then so would the zones.

We know where the primary dropout of contaminants fell after the vent and burn. We know where the plume went and that dictated where we saw the need for water sampling.”

Fauss reported that 398 private wells have been tested with 361 final results reported. Of those 361, four tests showed exceedances of certain compounds but all four were retested and declared “non-detect.”

The first exceedance was traced back to a disinfectant byproduct a resident used to clean their well. Fauss said after the well was flushed out, a second test concluded the compound was not detected. The other three exceedances were two of 2.6 dinitrotoluene (DNT) and an exceedance of bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP). Subsequent testing yielded no detection or extremely low levels of those chemicals in the samples. Fauss noted those exceedances were detected in earlier samples and current testing no longer screens for either compound. At first, well samples were tested for 180 compounds. To date, the list has been reduced to 29.

“The 29 compounds that we are looking for now are related to the train derailment and site. That’s the focus moving forward,” Durno said.

According to the EPA’s own website, DEHP is used in “the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and vinyl chloride resins, where it is added to plastics to make them flexible.” The website says DNT is identified as a compound “not naturally found in the environment,” and “is used in the production of ammunition, polyurethane polymers, dyes, plasticizers and automobile airbags, dyes and urethane foams.” Still, the EPA insists there is no correlation between the exceedance in the samples and the derailment.

“I am not familiar where that potential contaminant might have come from,” Durno said when addressing DEHP. “However, it is not a contaminant that we have seen from waste sampling and all the other sampling of the contaminants on site. That’s why it’s not on the list. It could be from some other industrial facility over time.”

Residents also took advantage of the session to question the agencies over increasing health concerns and medical test results from independent labs that residents say prove ongoing exposure to vinyl chloride. Several cited urinalysis readings that show levels of thiodiglycolic acid (TDGA) or vinyl chloride metabolite. TDGA is the body’s major breakdown product of vinyl chloride and a biomarker for exposure, as vinyl chloride breaks down in the body rapidly.

The EPA doubled down on its insistence that any presence of TDGA in residents’ urine is not connected to the derailment or the control vent and burn that followed it.

“You have to understand that it requires an acute exposure,” Durno said. “The impressive monitoring-sampling network we have on site now, not only does it not show an acute exposure, it doesn’t even show an intermediate level of exposure. The levels that are coming back, when we do get a vinyl chloride detection, are down below a part per billion. We just don’t see an acute exposure.”

Next week, a fourth information session will be held from 6 to 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Way Station to discuss the impacts the derailment has had on surface water and groundwater.