Democratic senators urge EPA, USDA to provide more testing for East Palestine farmers

Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) are lobbying federal agencies to provide East Palestine, Ohio-area farmers resources to test and monitor their soil and livestock.

The lawmakers said in a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday that they were requesting resources from the departments to assist the local agricultural industry in the region, where a train derailment last month sparked an environmental and public health disaster.

“As the emergency removal phase is ending and efforts are turning to long-term remediation, we are hearing from farmers and agricultural producers who are concerned about the impacts of the derailment and associated release of hazardous materials on their livelihoods,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter to the heads of the two departments.

The senators cited the approaching start of the 2023 planting season, saying that farmers were questioning whether the derailment in February will have an impact on the safety and viability of their crops.

The request comes as federal officials have said that its monitoring of air and soil quality as of the end of February showed a “low probability” for the release of dioxins for the incident. 

But the EPA has also ordered Norfolk Southern, which owned the train that derailed in East Palestine, to test directly for dioxins in the area. The agency said in a release last week that if dioxin levels were found to be elevated, it would require Norfolk Southern to clean up the area.

The lawmakers said that regardless of the results of the soil and air testing in the area, there will be consumers that are hesitant to purchase produce and materials from local farms, urging the federal government to review what “disaster assistance” it can offer.

“Regardless of the results of any testing and guidance on the safety of crops and products there are those consumers that will still be apprehensive or refuse to purchase agricultural products from the region due to fear of contamination from the incident,” the letter said. “As such we ask that you begin reviewing what authorities in terms of disaster assistance that could be deployed to address the situation.”

The Hill has reached out to the EPA and USDA for comment.