风萧萧_Frank
以文会友
正文
“人们确实会避开我”：一列有毒列车脱轨事故如何将一个村庄一分为二
'People do avoid me': How a toxic train derailment split a village in two
https://www.npr.org/2024/02/05/1228772709/east-palestine-train-derailment-norfolk-southern-lawsuit-epa
2024 年 2 月 5 日，美国东部时间上午 5:01
作者：Scott Detrow、Erika Ryan、Tinbete Ermyas
俄亥俄州东巴勒斯坦 38 辆货车脱轨一年后，事故现场仍在积极建设中。
压实机隆隆驶过，将土壤压平。银色和绿色的油罐车排成一排，吸走并运走废水。无人机在头顶嗡嗡作响，勘察工作。这是大规模环境清理的最后阶段，诺福克南方铁路公司已经为此花费了 8 亿多美元。
2023年2月3 日，脱轨的车厢引发了一场大火，有毒烟雾喷向东巴勒斯坦上空。其中 20 节车厢装有危险材料，包括氯乙烯，后来在控制燃烧中点燃，以防止发生更大规模的爆炸。
虽然一年后现场的清理工作取得了实质性进展，但东巴勒斯坦社区却四分五裂、精疲力竭，许多居民准备继续前进，尽管其他人继续对空气和水表示担忧。
余波仍在继续
自事故发生以来，诺福克南方铁路公司一直在努力清理——而且是在巨大的政治压力和监管审查下这样做的。
“我们到达这里时，车子都着火了。这仍然是当时的紧急反应，是为了控制局势，”诺福克南方铁路公司环境运营区域经理克里斯托弗·亨西克 (Christopher Hunsicker) 说道。
诺福克南方铁路公司环境运营区域经理克里斯托弗·亨西克 (Christopher Hunsicker) 带领 NPR 参观了清理现场。
伊丽莎白·吉利斯 (Elizabeth Gillis)/NPR
火车脱轨后，诺福克南方铁路公司开始评估环境损害。然后，他们清除了所有含有毒素的土壤和石灰石，并将其运往有执照的垃圾填埋场。
现在，该公司正在进行最后一步：用干净的土壤替换挖出的土壤。
一年后，事故现场仍在施工。
伊丽莎白·吉利斯 (Elizabeth Gillis)/NPR
亨西克告诉 NPR，清理工作可能会持续整个夏天，但确切的结束日期将由数据和环境监管机构决定。
美国环保署表示，东巴勒斯坦的空气和水是安全的。这是根据对该镇供水和私人水井以及空气的定期检测得出的结论。
但一些外部专家质疑这些测试是否足够敏感，镇上的许多人表示，脱轨事故发生后，他们感到恶心、皮疹和其他不适。
一年后，事故的影响仍然存在。
清理工作仍在进行中。
伊丽莎白·吉利斯/NPR
事故现场附近唯一一家仍处于关闭状态的商店是一家名为 Leake 的加油站。泵和加油站的小便利店都被围起来了。
克里斯蒂娜·迪尔沃思在那里工作，直到脱轨事故导致加油站关闭，但这并不是她生活的唯一改变。
迪尔沃思过去一年大部分时间都住在附近的一家 Best Western 酒店。她说她去年春天开始感到不舒服——恶心、头痛、皮疹——住在离事故现场这么近的地方让她感到不舒服。
诺福克南方铁路公司支付了迪尔沃思和其他人的搬迁费用，迪尔沃思于 5 月首次入住 Best Western 酒店。该公司于 12 月宣布，将在一年左右停止支付搬迁费用。诺福克南方铁路公司表示，目前仍有大约 30 户家庭使用该铁路，高峰期约有 200 户。
克里斯蒂娜·迪尔沃思仍然担心脱轨事故可能对健康造成的影响。
Elizabeth Gillis/NPR
加油站的泵和便利店仍然用栅栏围起来。
Elizabeth Gillis/NPR
现在，迪尔沃思回到了东巴勒斯坦。
她告诉 NPR，她知道她在酒店的长期逗留——以及她对社区空气是否安全的直言不讳的担忧——已经使她被镇上许多人排斥，这些人要么准备从脱轨事故中走出来，要么更关注诺福克南方铁路公司向东巴勒斯坦投入的数亿美元。
市场街墙上的壁画，市场街是东巴勒斯坦的商业和社区中心。
Elizabeth Gillis/NPR
“我尽量不和太多人说话，”她说。“我在酒店时确实受到批评。现在我回来了，我确实觉得有些人确实在躲着我。”
迪尔沃思承认她最终可能会搬家。她加入了一场集体诉讼，重点是要求诺福克南方铁路赔偿损失，并希望最终达成的和解能帮助她重新开始。
“如果 10 年后每个人都健康，没有人生病，没有人得癌症，那就太好了，”她说，
提出了许多东巴勒斯坦人提出的假设性担忧。“但我们不知道，我也没有十年的时间坐等。”
她首先承认，许多东巴勒斯坦人并不这么认为。许多人已经向前看，或者认为像她这样的人要么夸大其词，要么试图从诺福克南方铁路公司获得更多资金。
如何前进
上周，一列货运列车隆隆地驶过东巴勒斯坦。
伊丽莎白·吉利斯/NPR
一年后，诺福克南方铁路公司的火车每天多次穿过东巴勒斯坦。
家庭和企业门前挂着各种各样的标语：“EP Strong”和“我们是东巴勒斯坦：为美国历史上最伟大的复兴做好准备。”
许多东巴勒斯坦人厌倦了谈论脱轨事件，尤其是与记者交谈。
在整个东巴勒斯坦，标语和贴纸是骄傲和坚韧的象征。
Elizabeth Gillis/NPR
“我要告诉你：我感谢所有从新闻中来到这里的人，但我不喜欢那些公开抱怨事情的人，”东巴勒斯坦居民乔伊斯·戴维斯一天早上在村庄主干道旁的甜甜圈店 Sprinklz 喝咖啡时说道。
“这里没什么可抱怨的。如果没有人在这里帮助我们，也没有人帮助我们清理这个地方，我可以看到他们抱怨。但事实并非如此。”
戴维斯目睹了脱轨事故，甚至有当晚的手机视频。她住在最初的疏散区内，不得不离开家五天。
乔伊斯·戴维斯分享了她拍摄的脱轨事故后的视频。
Elizabeth Gillis/NPR
她带着她的狗，但每天都会说服她回去喂养她的其他宠物，其中包括猫、蛇和狼蛛等宠物。
从那时起，戴维斯说她就不再担心了。她的井水经过检测，没有问题：“你不能一辈子都担心 10 年后会发生什么。我养了很多很多户外小猫，没有一只因此生病。”
一年后，东巴勒斯坦正在找到前进的道路。
Elizabeth Gillis/NPR
解决分歧一直是东巴勒斯坦市长特伦特·康纳威的工作。
“百分之八十的人只??是希望我们……继续前进。完成任务。努力回到我们曾经的状态，”他说。 “然后 10% 的人不知道该怎么想。而其余的人 [认为] 这是东巴勒斯坦可能发生的最糟糕的事情，它将永远带来毁灭性的影响，我们永远无法摆脱它。”
对于康纳威来说，这是充满挑战的一年。担任市长甚至不是他的全职工作——他在附近的石灰石矿工作——但他刚刚赢得了又一个任期，并表示这很可能是他的最后一任。“我感觉自己一年来一直生活在迷雾中，我不会撒谎，”他说。
为了弥合这种分歧，康纳威说关键是透明度和信息，但他理解社区中一些成员的恐惧。
许多居民希望脱轨可以成为过去。
Elizabeth Gillis/NPR
但经过一年的复苏，康纳威说情况比他 12 个月前的想象要好得多。
“说实话，去年 2 月 6 日至 7 日，我甚至不知道今年我们是否还会有一座城镇，”他说。“天色很暗，尤其是当我们选择通风和燃烧时。”
鉴于此，康纳威对未来几年更加乐观。
“我认为我们会恢复正常，”他说。“我的意思是，这只是文化问题。我认为三四年后，没有人会记得东巴勒斯坦，”他说。“所以，你知道，我们拭目以待吧。”
'People do avoid me': How a toxic train derailment split a village in two
A freight train passes through East Palestine, Ohio, a year after the derailment.
Elizabeth Gillis/NPR
A full year after 38 freight cars derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, the crash site is still under active construction.
Compactors rumble by, smoothing the soil. Silver and green tanker trucks line up to suck up and carry off water discharge. Drones buzz overhead, surveying the work.
It's the final stage of a massive environmental cleanup that has already cost Norfolk Southern more than $800 million.
On Feb. 3, 2023 the derailed cars triggered a massive fire, belching toxic smoke into the air far above East Palestine. Twenty of the cars contained hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride, which was later set on fire in a controlled burn to prevent a larger explosion.
Portions of the Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed the previous night in East Palestine remain on fire at mid-day, Feb. 4, 2023.
And while the cleanup effort at the site itself has made substantial progress one year later, the East Palestine community is divided and exhausted, with many residents ready to move forward, even as others continue to raise concerns about the air and water.
The fallout continues
Ever since the crash, Norfolk Southern has been trying to clean up – and has been doing so under intense political pressure and regulatory scrutiny.
"When we got here, there were cars on fire. This was still the immediate response, it was getting that situation under control," said Christopher Hunsicker, Norfolk Southern's regional manager of environmental operations.
Christopher Hunsicker, Norfolk Southern's regional manager of environmental operations, gives NPR a tour of the cleanup site.
Once the train was taken off the tracks, Norfolk Southern began assessing the environmental damage. It then removed all of the toxin-laced soil and limestone, and shipped it off to licensed landfills.
Now, the company is working on the last step: replacing what it dug up with clean soil.
Construction is still happening at the site of the crash one year later.
Hunsicker told NPR the cleanup will likely continue through the summer, though the exact end date will be determined by data and environmental regulators.
The EPA says the air and water are safe in East Palestine. That's according to regular testing of both the town's water supply and private wells, as well as the air.
But some outside experts question whether those tests were sensitive enough, and many of the people in the town said they felt sick with nausea, rashes and other ailments in the wake of the derailment
One year later, the effects of the crash still linger.
The cleanup is ongoing.
The one business near the crash site that's still closed is a gas station called Leake. The pumps and the station's small convenience store are fenced off.
Christina Dilworth worked there until the derailment closed it down, but that's not the only way it changed her life.
Dilworth spent most of the past year living in a nearby Best Western hotel. She said she started to feel sick last spring – nausea, headaches, rashes – and just didn't feel comfortable living so close to the crash site.
Norfolk Southern paid for Dilworth and others to relocate, and when Dilworth first got to the Best Western in May. The company announced in December it would stop paying for relocation around the one year mark. Norfolk Southern says about 30 households are still using it, and that at its peak, around 200 were.
Christina Dilworth remains worried about possible health impacts of the derailment.
Elizabeth Gillis/NPR
The pumps and convenience store at the gas station remain fenced off.
Now, Dilworth is back in East Palestine.
She told NPR she knows that her extended stay at the hotel – and her outspoken concern about whether the community's air is safe – has ostracized her from many people in town who are ready to move on from the derailment, or are more focused on the hundreds of millions of dollars Norfolk Southern has poured into East Palestine.
A mural on the wall on Market Street, a central place for business and community in East Palestine.
"I try not to talk to too many people," she said. "I did get criticized when I was at the hotel. Now I'm back, and I do feel like some people do avoid me."
Dilworth accepts that eventually she will likely relocate. She joined a class action lawsuit focused on extracting damages from Norfolk Southern, and hopes any eventual settlement would help her start over.
"It'd be wonderful 10 years from now [if] everybody's healthy, nobody got sick, nobody got cancer," she said, raising the hypothetical concern that many people in East Palestine bring up. "But we don't know that and I don't have 10 years to sit around and wait."
She's the first to acknowledge that a lot of people in East Palestine don't feel this way. Many people have moved on, or think people like her are either exaggerating or trying to get more money from Norfolk Southern.
How to move forward
A freight train rumbles through East Palestine last week.
A year later, Norfolk Southern trains clang through East Palestine several times a day.
There are all sorts of signs in front of homes and businesses: "EP Strong" and "We Are East Palestine: Get Ready For The Greatest Comeback In American History."
Many people in East Palestine are sick of talking about the derailment, and particularly talking to reporters.
Across East Palestine, signs and stickers are a sign of pride and resilience.
Elizabeth Gillis/NPR
"I'll tell you what: I appreciate all the people coming here from the news, but I don't like the ones who get on there and publicly ... gripe about things," East Palestine resident Joyce Davis said one morning as she drank coffee at Sprinklz, a donut shop along the village's main drag.
"There's nothing to gripe about here. If nobody was here helping us, and we had nobody to help clean this place up, I could see them griping about it. But that is not the case."
Davis witnessed the derailment and even has cell phone video from that night. She lives inside the initial evacuation zone, and had to leave her house for five days.
Joyce Davis shares video she took of the derailment aftermath.
Elizabeth Gillis/NPR
She took her dogs with her, but talked her way through road blocks every day to go back and feed the rest of her brood of animals, which includes cats, snakes and tarantulas, among other pets.
Since then, Davis said she hasn't been worried. Her well water gets tested, and it's fine: "You can't spend your whole life worrying about what might happen 10 years down the road. And I have many, many outside kitty cats and not one of them got sick over that."
A year on, East Palestine is finding its way forward.
Navigating the divide has been the job of Trent Conaway, the mayor of East Palestine.
"Eighty percent of the people just want us to ... move on. Be done. To try to come back to where we once were," he said. "And then 10% just don't know what to think. And the rest [think] this was the worst thing that could ever happen to East Palestine, and it's going to be devastating forever, and we'll never get back from it."
It's been a challenging year for Conaway. Being mayor isn't even his full-time job – he works in a nearby limestone mine – but he just won another term in office and says this will likely be his last. "It's like I've been living in a fog for a year, I'm not going to lie," he said.
To heal that divide, Conaway said the key is transparency and information, but he understands the fear felt by some members of the community.
Many residents hope the derailment can be left in the past.
Elizabeth Gillis/NPR
But a year into the recovery, Conaway says things are significantly better than he thought they would be 12 months ago.
"Tell you what, February 6th-7th of last year, I did not know if we'd even have a town this year," he said. "It was pretty dark, especially when we chose to do the vent and burn."
Given that, Conaway is more optimistic about the next few years.
"I think we'll get back to normal," he said. "I mean, it's just the culture. I think in three or four years, nobody will even remember East Palestine," he said. "So, you know, we'll see."
评论
目前还没有任何评论
登录后才可评论.
