EPA Official Admits Mistakes in East Palestine Chemical Disaster Response

EPA Emergency Response Official Mark Durno admitted that East Palestine, OH residents were exposed to dangerous chemicals and wished the agency would have set up the temporary relocation program sooner. The audio comes from a conversation Durno had with an East Palestine resident and was given to Jordan Chariton and Status Coup.

Durno responded to the resident by saying the EPA never said the residents weren’t exposed to chemicals. “One of the things we look back on the way we described risk out here was that… I wish that we would have done a better job, especially the people immediately local, understand what they were dealing with. They came back into town, and they smelled chemicals, right? Well, if you smell chemicals, then you’re exposed to chemicals, right? Even though they’re well below our action levels, they’re still there, and you’re still exposed, right? If I could go back and change one thing – when we set up the temporary relocation program, which we did a month after the derailment, I wish we would have done that earlier on.”

The Norfolk Southern train derailment occurred in East Palestine, OH on February 3, 2023. Five days later, the evacuation order was lifted. In the released audio, Durno alluded to some messaging errors in the days and weeks that followed the train derailment, which exposed the town’s residents to over 200 toxic chemicals.

“When I saw on TV the CEO for Norfolk Southern come out and say the air is safe, I remember thinking to myself, that’s not going to go over very well,” Durno said with a laugh. “You never say that. People who don’t understand our business don’t realize that words matter. I’d have to go back and listen to how our administrator characterized it or how our people on the ground characterized it in those early days. But, what I’ve got to believe that we said and again, I have to go back and look, would’ve been we’re not seeing any levels above our action levels. Right? Which is true.”

On-scene EPA coordinator James Justice said on February 8, 2023, that teams used testing instruments in “strategic locations” to get air testing samples. When The HighWire first spoke with independent evaluator Scott Smith in June, Smith said testing locations were cherry-picked so they could conclude it was safe.

When the evacuation order was lifted on February 8, Justice said “All that data combined together is accumulated and we review it – provide it to the health agencies, and it’s literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of data points that we’ve collected over time to show that the air quality in the town is safe.”

Durno admits that administrators and Norfolk Southern should not have said the area was safe but should have specified that levels were “below actionable levels.” In the conversation on Status Coup with Chariton, Smith, and toxicologist George Thompson, they point out that actionable levels only refer to one specific chemical.

“They’ve totally ignored the unprecedented nature of this complex stew of chemicals that was simultaneously released by the fire,” Thompson said. “200 chemicals being released at the same time – any of those chemicals produce the same effect. There are perhaps 15 different chemicals that produce lung cancer. The synergistic level of those is going to be above an action level.” Thompson added that when a chemical impacts mitochondria, the introduction of a second chemical can increase the toxic effects by 10 times.

Durno acknowledged the problem with single chemical actionable levels and said he wishes for the response from local government, state government, and Norfolk Southern, which included the statement, “If you’re not comfortable coming home yet, don’t come home.” He added that the acolyte compounds “stink to high heaven,” even when they are not above actionable levels. He said some people are more sensitive to the lower levels of chemicals and the strong odor.

Durno added, “When you talk about the research that Doctor Gillam is doing about multiple exposures to low-level contaminants. Early research shows that is a real phenomenon, but the research hasn’t advanced enough to know whether or not to give us the regulatory power to take action. There’s just too many scientific uncertainties.”

The resident asked Durno why the EPA let residents stay in the town just days after the derailment and controlled burn. Durno said, “You had an exposure, right? But you really don’t know what that exposure was. Nobody knows what happened on your property at the time that you were there, right? And the other thing we don’t know is what caused your ailments, right? Was it derailment related?”

The resident pointed out the fact that they were not sick before the toxic chemical exposure occurred. Durno responded, “Well, that’s what you said, right? But again, you need to be able to – there needs to be a validated link, right? And we just don’t have it.”

On Status Coup, Smith said, “This just goes to show the incompetence and arrogance across many government agencies. This same playbook is playing out in Conyers, GA, right now where I’m involved in. Mark Durno, his day is going to be coming in court. He is going to be held fully accountable and I promise the world i’m going to livestream his depositions. Mark Durno can sit there in a room on camera on YouTube live and he can defame me to my face. I look forward to that day.”

Smith continued, “The reason I’m passionate about this is the devastation that Mark Durno has done in the community after community, and I know a lot more about him that’s going to be coming out, and I’ve identified some other whistleblowers in the EPA that have a lot to say about Mr. Durno. They’re going to be talking to Lesley Pacey.”

Lesley Pacey is the Senior Environmental Officer for the Government Accountability Project and spoke with The HighWire for an October report about EPA retaliation against toxicologists for pointing out safety hazards of chemicals during the review process. Pacey was also on hand with Status Coup to discuss Durno’s audio recording.

“When Mark Durno speaks about these levels being actionable levels, they’re not even really collecting the data they should be collecting,” Pacey said. “The actionable levels is really just word gymnastics. There’s a lot of word games they’re playing.”

21 months after the chemical disaster occurred, the EPA is still cleaning contaminated areas, which is causing a “resurgence of symptoms” for local residents. “There are new contamination events happening right now,” Pacey said. “They’ve never cleaned up the wetlands. There’s a lot of people getting sick right now. This is something we’ve started learning about in the last week or so. Where are the warnings for the residents?”