A truck leaving the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment site crashed and spilled 20,000 pounds of contaminated soil from the cleanup effort onto a state highway on April 10, according to a news release from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s office.
The Ohio EPA says the soil has been contained and is not a threat to nearby waterways.
The tractor trailer was carrying 40,000 pounds of the material and heading northbound on Ohio state Route 165 when it veered off the roadway and overturned onto its right side.
Following the accident, the Ohio Department of Transportation closed portions of roadways in the area. The local fire department and the Ohio EPA were also on the scene. The driver of the truck sustained minor injuries, according to the news release.
DeWine’s office included the accident report in its update on the cleanup activities.
According to the update, cleanup crews have removed about 19,900 tons of soil from the East Palestine site, with 17,300 of excavated soil waiting for removal. Workers have also hauled 11.4 million gallons of liquid wastewater from the site.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture and Ohio State University are conducting plant tissue sampling to address concerns from the local agricultural community. State agriculture plant-health inspectors will collect samples of growing crops, specifically winter wheat, pasture grasses, malting barley, and forage covers. They will send the samples to an OSU lab and analyze them for semi-volatile organic compounds.
As of April 10, eight of 21 new water samples from wells in the area showed had trace detections at levels far below safe drinking-water standards, the governor’s office reported. There is no evidence that any of those trace detections are linked to the train derailment.
In total, test results from 242 samples have been verified, and none have shown any harmful contaminant levels associated with the derailment, according to the news release.