Air, Water Advice for East Palestine Residents from State Officials

A HEPACO worker places booms in a stream in East Palestine, Ohio, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023 as the cleanup continues after the derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train Friday. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (News Talk 1480 WHBC) – Also from that East Palestine derailment press conference on Tuesday, residents in East Palestine are being urged to drink bottled water.

That’s until further test results on the municipal water system are available.

Well water consumers are also being urged to get their wells tested.

And the smell in the air was dismissed to some degree as a volatile organic compound, many of which are found in the air every day.

Those with coughs and headaches etc. are urged by the director of the Ohio Department of Health to seek treatment from a physician.

The fish kill in a nearly 8-mile stretch from Sulphur Run near the scene to just before the Ohio River was estimated at 3500.

Sulphur Run remains contaminated and is being contained.

The state EPA is also watching the “plume” of chemicals from the initial fire and explosions, moving down the Ohio River at an estimated one mile an hour.

It was near Huntington West Virginia on Tuesday.