EAST PALESTINE, Ohio – Many village residents remain concerned about the toxic chemicals released from the February 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment.

Now it appears they were not alone in those concerns.

Documents from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which the Government Accountability Project obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, show FEMA and other government officials were concerned too.

Jess Conard, an East Palestine mother and environmental advocate, said the documents don’t really change anything. She likened them to a bad version of the hit TV show “Friends.”

“Now they know that we know that they knew,” Conard said.

The Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower organization, reported the documents point out that significant toxic exposure would lead to health risks requiring at least 20 years of medical monitoring and possible cancer clusters.

The Feb. 3, 2023, derailment resulted in a fire that produced a toxic plume for 48 hours. Then a vent and burn conducted Feb. 5 led to additional release of chemicals. Jennifer Homendy, National Transportation Safety Board chair, testified at a hearing before the release of the final report on the accident that the vent and burn was unnecessary.

In emails obtained by the Government Accountability Project, James McPherson, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden to access the community’s unmet needs, called the derailment “a critical event for [East Palestine]” and said long-term health monitoring and treatment for citizens and first responders was the community’s “number one priority.”

Conard said she spoke early on after the derailment to McPherson, who told her he wasn’t allowed to collect anecdotal evidence. That was also confirmed in the emails obtained by the Government Accountability Project. 

Conard said health, water, road infrastructure and the village’s economy were among six things she talked to McPherson about, and he felt they were main concerns for the community. She had expected McPherson to release his report in October 2023, but she has never seen it. 

She said McPherson was with Biden when he came to East Palestine for the first anniversary of the derailment, but he was still talking about the same concerns without taking any action.

“As a small village, we don’t have experts, subject experts on hand,” Mayor Trent Conaway said. “We have to rely on the government, and it seems like the government failed us.”

As a father and husband, Conaway said he wouldn’t endanger his own family’s lives. However, experts and people involved in the field were directly telling him everything was fine.

“Then you hear this coming out that they knew all along, and FEMA was useless in the process to begin with. All they did was come in and screw everything up, muck up the system and take up valuable space. … And then to know, secretly behind our backs, they are telling everybody there could be a cancer cluster.”

More than two years after the derailment, Conard said cleanup activity continues and there are still reports of chemical sheen in the village’s creeks. And a recent report from a Youngstown researcher says the ecology of the water downstream from the derailment is different than upstream.

Conard said she’d like to see the finalization of a consent decree between the federal government and Norfolk Southern. The proposed decree would provide $25 million for continued health monitoring and $6 million for waterway remediation, among other guarantees.

The National Institutes of Health awarded grant money in February 2024 for six long-term studies about the health impact of the derailment. Studies are being conducted by Case Western Reserve University, Texas A&M University, the University of California San Diego and the University of Kentucky. The University of Pittsburgh is conducting two studies.

A civil lawsuit filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court by more than 600 residents of East Palestine and surrounding communities in late January 2024 contends Norfolk Southern and other defendants failed to protect them. The lawsuit claims the derailment response was inadequate and officials continued to tell residents the soil, air and water were safe. Filed by Bressman Law, Just Well Law PLLC and The Keenan Law Firm, the lawsuit also claims medical providers conspired to deny residents proper medical care and undermined their efforts to have their health concerns addressed.

The lawsuit also includes the village among the list of defendants. 

Conard said she’d like to see residents’ symptoms tracked so they can be tied to cleanup activities that were happening at the time.

“Gaslighting is real, and sometimes that, as humans, we have to second guess ourselves,” Conard said of the belief among residents that their symptoms were being ignored. “But I think, ultimately, this is something we can all be really confident in now.” 

Conaway said he intends to reach out to Vice President JD Vance and the Trump administration, because he believes Congress or someone else needs to investigate how the government responded to the derailment and hold someone accountable.

“We’re a town of 4,700 people and roughly 10,000 around us who were affected by all this, and we need the truth and the real answers,” Conaway said.