July 26, 2024

An important publication in a recent issue of Environmental Research Letters studied the environmental impacts of the February 3, 2023 derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train in the town of East Palestine, OH. The authors used extensive precipitation volume and chemistry data collected by the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) National Trends Network to estimate what compounds were spread and the total area affected.

The study compared NADP network data from the week prior to the accident with data collected over the two weeks afterwards. They found the expected high concentrations of chloride, but also found very high levels of pH and extremely high levels of base cations (calcium, sodium and potassium). Observations found these compounds across a much larger region than expected, stretching from the Midwest through the Northeast and potentially as far south as North Carolina. This area was consistent with meteorological conditions and forward air mass trajectories calculated using the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory HYSPLIT model. This paper illustrates the importance and benefits of robust, continuous, long-term environmental monitoring and its ability to document the effects of both natural and man-made hazards and accidents to human health and sensitive ecosystems. 

 

The Air Resources Laboratory contributed directly to this study through its development and promulgation of the HYSPLIT model and decades-long support of NADP. The Air Resources Laboratory operates or funds six sites in the National Trends Network. Data from four sites in Tennessee, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York were used in this analysis.