The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice announced a $310 million settlement with Norfolk Southern Railway Company on Thursday, holding the company accountable for addressing and paying for the damage caused by the Feb. 3, 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
According to a press release from the EPA, the settlement must first be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. If approved, Norfolk Southern will be required to take measures to improve rail safety, pay for health monitoring and mental health services for the surrounding communities, fund long-term environmental monitoring, pay a $15 million civil penalty and take other actions to protect nearby waterways and drinking water resources.
The press release states that together with other response costs and rail safety enhancements, Norfolk Southern estimates that it will spend more than $1 billion to address the contamination and other harms caused by the East Palestine derailment and improve rail safety and operations.
“No community should have to experience the trauma inflicted upon the residents of East Palestine,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan in the press release. “That’s why President Biden pledged from the beginning that his Administration would stand with the community every step of the way. Today’s enforcement action delivers on this commitment, ensures the cleanup is paid for by the company, and helps prevent another disaster like this from happening again. Because of this settlement, residents and first responders will have greater access to health services, trains will be safer and waterways will be cleaner.”
The settlement comes a little over a month after Norfolk Southern announced it would pay $600 million to settle a class action lawsuit regarding the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine on April 9, 2024. This settlement resolved all class-action claims within a 20-mile radius of the derailment site and personal injury claims within 10 miles of the site.
Thursday’s proposed settlement follows a complaint filed by the United States against Norfolk Southern in March 2023 for unlawful discharges of pollutants and hazardous substances caused by the train derailment. The EPA states in their press release that as of Thursday, more than 177,000 tons of contaminated soil and more than 69 million gallons of wastewater have been removed from the community. The EPA is continuing work to remove contamination from area creeks and soil sampling at the derailment site.
The proposed settlement is subject to a minimum 30-day public comment period and final court approval. The details of Thursday’s settlement are available on the Justice Department’s website.
Under the settlement, Norfolk Southern has agreed to the following:
- Spend an estimated $235 million for all past and future costs.
- Pay a $15 million civil penalty to resolve the alleged violations of the Clean Water Act.
- Pay $25 million for a 20-year community health program that includes medical monitoring for qualified individuals and mental health services for individuals residing in affected counties – including those in Pennsylvania – as well as first responders who worked at the site, and a community facilitation plan to assist community members in using the benefits of the program.
- Spend approximately $15 million to implement long-term monitoring of groundwater and surface water for a period of 10 years.
- Pay $15 million for a private drinking water monitoring fund that will continue the existing private drinking water well monitoring program for 10 years.
- Implement a “waterways remediation plan,” with an estimated budget of $6 million, for projects in Leslie Run and Sulphur Run that will prioritize addressing historical pollution, reducing non-point source pollution through infrastructure upgrades and stormwater management projects, and restoring aquatic and riparian habitat.
- Pay $175,000 for natural resource damages, to be used by the United States to restore, rehabilitate, replace, or acquire the equivalent of the natural resources injured as a result of the derailment.
Additionally, the consent decree requires Norfolk Southern to undertake projects to improve the safety of transporting hazardous materials by rail, which will include installation of additional devices to detect overheated wheel bearings early enough to prevent derailments like the one that happened in East Palestine. All told, Norfolk Southern has estimated its costs dating from the derailment will exceed $200 million in rail safety enhancements.