If you thought for one iota of one second that Pete Buttigieg, John Kerry or Al (boiling oceans) Gore believed man-made climate change, the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio should banish that thought forever. If they cared at all, they would have flown their private jets to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and set up podiums to talk about the ecological damage. The lives, property, crops and livestock destroyed by the chemicals leaked into the air, land and rivers. But, no, these are mostly poor, white Republicans, so there is no damage.
As much as the faux elites hate me, I hate them even more because I see them and know exactly what they want. They want power over our lives. They want to tell us where and how to live, eat (bugs) and work. Pothole Pete Buttigieg, last night, told us that he was concerned about the situation in East Palestine. Since then, he has moved on to telling locals to call the EPA to get their homes screened:
EPA has screened 291 homes and no detections were identified – and 181 homes remain. To request screening, call 330-849-3919. For more information, visit: https://t.co/uGvVurmT44
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) February 14, 2023
The EPA is responsible for the air and soil measures also, which is good to know because there are reports of dead fish. I rarely agree with green-haired people, but I endorse every word, including the eff word:
Insider update on Ohio
⚠️ Language
If the F word offends you don’t F***ing watch it. ♀️ pic.twitter.com/MreRFw4i9C— J@mie (@JamieRRomero) February 14, 2023
You know that nice chemical sheen on the water is going to flow into the Ohio River which flows into the Mississippi River. I know that the water will eventually dilute the chemicals and clean itself but there will be dead fish on the way:
An estimated 3,500 fish have been killed in various creeks around and near Columbiana County as a result of crews burning toxic chemicals after a Norfolk-Southern train derailed in East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania state line, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
That estimate was as of Feb. 8, and ODNR officials are working with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the environmental company hired by Norfolk-Southern, to fully determine the extent of fish that have been killed, said ODNR spokeswoman Stephanie O’Grady.
So far, wildlife officers with ODNR have found dead fish in various creeks in the area, including Leslie Run, Bull Creek and a portion of the North Fork of Beaver Creek, O’Grady said. The estimated stream length effected by the spill is approximately 7.5 miles.
The Ohio River Basin is vital to 30 million people:
30 million people, or 10% of the United States population, may be in danger after a train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio that led to the release of toxic chemicals.
“We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open,” said Sil Caggiano, a hazardous materials specialist.
As public officials try to calm the public, animals are falling sick and dying.
“Out of nowhere, he just started coughing really hard, just shut down, and he had liquid diarrhea and just went very fast,” said resident Taylor Holzer while he explained the mortally ill condition of his foxes.“Smoke and chemicals from the train, that’s the only thing that can cause it, because it doesn’t just happen out of nowhere,” Holzer said. “The chemicals that we’re being told are safe in the air, that’s definitely not safe for the animals … or people.”
According to a new report, the situation may become much more widespread through the Ohio River Basin.
As noted by Stew Peters, 10% of the United States population may be in trouble.
“10% of the U.S. population, over 30 MILLION PEOPLE, live in the Ohio River Basin!” he tweeted. “The Ohio River itself provides drinking water to over 5 MILLION PEOPLE!”
In East Palestine, the chickens may be the canaries in the coal mine, so to speak:
10 miles east of Palestine Ohio, she finds her chickens all dead.
What caused the train derailment? pic.twitter.com/VjMZ9eVrvX— Bushels Per Acre (@BushelsPerAcre) February 14, 2023
And, maybe just maybe, the government allowed people to go home to soon:
Dr. Michael Koehler, a member of the American Chemical Society’s Committee on Chemical Safety, told The New Republic that he fears the process to get residents back home may have been rushed. “I am concerned that the area has been deemed safe so quickly without extensive data to show the risk has been reduced,” he said. “As long as safety concerns remain, it is hard to understand how they authorized residents to return.”
The Congressman who represents the district was with Sean Hannity last week:
Congressman Bill Johnson didn’t see any dead critters and seemed pleased with the testing and clean up. Let’s see if he’s still around when the cancers start happening.
Featured Image: Ohio National Guard/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons
Kevin says: Let’s go back to the last administration, shall we.
“When Trump took office the EPA focused on a range of topics including air, emergency management, land and cleanup, pesticides, toxic substances, waste, and water. Trump said he would refocus its efforts to solely protect clean air and clean water. This resulted in a 31% proposed budget cut to the EPA.”
I’m glad Toni is now in support of complete funding (and more funding!) to support the INCREASE IN GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT the EPA can provide to prevent something like this from happening again.
It’s too bad you didn’t say something earlier (along with 98% of the GOP, MAGA’s and other anti-environment supporters and climate deniers).
Thank you Ms. Williams.
Cameron says: Democrats held the purse strings for the first two years of the Biden Administration and they could have funded the EPA more. And I remember out in Colorado when the EPA under Obama didn’t do anything about the rivers getting poisoned. After all, it was just Indians getting affected by it.
Turtler says: Ah yes, Discount Ernst Roehm returns.
“Let’s go back to the last administration, shall we.”
To which I simply respond: why?!? Why the previous administration specifically? It has been more than two years, well past the point where the Brandon – err, Biden regime should be able to move on its own two feet and take responsibility for its actions.
Beyond that, it is true that systematic problems with bureaucracies like the EPA usually run deep and did not start yesterday, and thus Trump should by logic share some blame, but so should each administration that was Party to the follies and did not do enough to stem them. Which you don’t want to touch because of what it would say about Obama, Biden, and others.
And yet we are the ones accused of hypocrisy, double standards, and politicization.
““When Trump took office the EPA focused on a range of topics including air, emergency management, land and cleanup, pesticides, toxic substances, waste, and water. Trump said he would refocus its efforts to solely protect clean air and clean water. This resulted in a 31% proposed budget cut to the EPA.”
Firstly: Wikipedia. You’re using goddamn Wikipedia. The source that is not a source and openly admits it should not be used. Which is famously polluted by corrupt and partisan staff and deluged by bots who took ages to correct the Sino-French war from being a “limited Chinese victory in land”. This is sub-grade schooler tier.
Secondly: the only relevant parts of this to the disaster are emergency management, toxic substances, and maybe pesticides. And moreover Trump pointed out that many of the other issues were that the EPA had bloated (unsurprising for a bureaucracy) and was grotesquely redundant with many others. Namely Transportation. So it was time to prune.
Thirdly: the definitive failures of the EPA in this case stem from failure to produce an accurate list of the train contents and from failure to avoid “cleanup” leading to a major explosion and freaking Phosgene release. The vast majority of the stuff you listed that Trump proposed cutting had nothing to do with reforms that would prevent those.
“I’m glad Toni is now in support of complete funding (and more funding!) to support the INCREASE IN GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT the EPA can provide to prevent something like this from happening again.
It’s too bad you didn’t say something earlier (along with 98% of the GOP, MAGA’s and other anti-environment supporters and climate deniers).
Thank you Ms. Williams.”
Wait, let me try and wrap my head around this fucking stupidity.
Your argument is that this is Trump’s fault, more than two years after leaving office, because he gave a since heavily overturned funding cut to a bloated, famously inefficient, and often lethally counterproductive EPA?
And that this 31% pay cut prevented the EPA from..:..: prioritizing the creation of accurate toxic chemical transport lists (largely using the cargo manifests created at the expense of the private sector), and from training disaster response teams not not create dealing Phosgene?!?
And that were it not for the evuuul Trump MAGA cut to the pay of the EPA these basic problems would have been solved, because of the “government oversight” body these failed to prioritize funding and essential functions in the first place would totally have used the extra money to train its staff to actually compile lists made by other people?!?
Of course, when you spell out the unspoken assumptions it becomes very evident how utterly delusional this is. And the fact that you think this says ANYTHiNG good about the EPA or government oversight that would call for more funding in general underlines your cognitive dissonance.
Thank god fascists such as you are foolish, and when called out in an open forum you collapse.
Cameron says: I’m old enough to remember Biden shutting down the Keystone Pipeline because transporting chemicals by train was safe, effective and good for the environment. Fun times.
Scott says: Not to defend the current regime, and damn sure not Booty-judge and his “handling” of the incident, nor the timeframes to return people to the area, or the decision to burn off the product in the tanks (don’t have near enough info to make that call), but having a fairly strong background (no, not an expert by any means, but I have had to go through many classes on the subject), I can say that some chemicals are so volatile that once their containers have been compromised, and the contents contaminated, burning them off is the best / safest option. Please don’t confuse that with it being a good or safe option, it’s just the best / safest option given the situation. kinda like running across a busy 2 lane highway on a clear day is a better option than running across a six lane highway in heavy fog.. Neither one is good, but if you had to choose…
And yeah Cameron, at least this stuff is travelling by a safer method than a pipeline.. /sarc
Susan D Harms says: if burning the chlorinated hydrocarbons created dioxins, they are large and heavy, they mix with the soil and reside on the bottom of a river bed. they are hard to extract, hard to clean up.
this “screening” the EPA is doing of homes, does it include soil, and wipe samples? to find dioxins it takes mass spectrometry, not detectable by sniffing the air or taking air samples. This whole thing is an un-scientific CF. these people are being LIED to.
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