President Biden pledged to help East Palestine recover from a February 2023 train derailment until the “job is done,” in a belated visit to the Ohio community that is still reeling from the toxic spill.
Mr. Biden announced the awarding of six grants through the National Institutes of Health to examine the long-term health impacts of “what happened here,” and recounted his efforts to get Norfolk Southern to clean up the mess from its derailed train and pay those affected by the disaster.
“We’re not going home no matter what until this job is done, and it’s not done yet, there’s a lot more to do,” Mr. Biden said. “We’re going to stay to the very end until every need is met.”
The White House said Mr. Biden and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan visited East Palestine at the request of Mayor Trent Conaway, who fiercely criticized the administration’s response to the derailment last year, saying the lack of an immediate visit by the president showed that he “doesn’t care about us.”
The leaders displayed public camaraderie after Mr. Biden got a firsthand look at the derailment site and briefing on developments over the past year.
“Thank you for your welcome, and more importantly, for your leadership,” Mr. Biden told the mayor. “You’ve been through hell.”
Mr. Conaway said the disaster will not define his town.
“President Biden, your long-awaited visit to our village today allows us to focus on the things we agree with,” he said.
He said those items include acknowledging the disaster should have never happened, addressing the long-term health impacts of the derailment and making sure a similar tragedy doesn’t happen again.
The Feb. 3, 2023, crash of a Norfolk Southern Corp. train carrying toxic chemicals touched off a political and environmental firestorm that sparked heavy criticism of Mr. Biden for not visiting the region.
The administration says it deployed personnel immediately after the derailment and that Mr. Biden wanted to visit when he thought the time was right.
Yet Republicans criticized his absence, saying it was evidence the president doesn’t care about working-class Americans in an area that then-President Donald Trump won easily in 2020.
Mr. Trump, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, visited East Palestine shortly after the derailment and said at the time that Mr. Biden had “abandoned” the town.
“Biden should have gone there a long time ago — for him to go now is an insult to those who live and work in East Palestine, and the Great State of Ohio, itself. I can’t believe anyone wants him there?” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The Trump campaign released an ad on Friday panning Mr. Biden for vacationing and traveling to other places around the world, but not East Palestine.
Mr. Biden’s motorcade was greeted by signs reading “Go home, sleepy Joe!” and “F—- Biden,” while other signage was pro-Biden or said “We need healthcare” and “We need aid.”
After the crash, East Palestine residents reported headaches, lingering odors and animal deaths. The train was carrying chemicals, including vinyl chloride, a carcinogen, and the crash triggered a fire that sent a plume of smoke over the town.
Officials temporarily evacuated the area and conducted a controlled release of hazardous fumes to prevent an even larger explosion of the train’s cargo.
Norfolk Southern agreed to pay for the cleanup effort and reported a $387 million cost related to derailment in the first quarter of last year, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Biden defended his record after the crash, saying he directed the EPA and other agencies to respond immediately and is ensuring that victims of the toxic spill are not taxed on any compensation they receive from the railway.
Ohio’s two senators, Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Sherrod Brown, urged the Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday to set up a voluntary disease registry so East Palestine residents can report health issues and get follow-up tests and medical care.
The senators said a similar registry was set up to help people at ground zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York.
“These types of voluntary public health surveillance activities are critical to understand the scope of potential health consequences caused by the derailment that many residents and responders may have been exposed to,” the senators wrote to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and other top health officials. “The residents of East Palestine deserve to know how this disaster has impacted their long-term health.”
• Jeff Mordock contributed to this report.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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