Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan announced the agency would take control of the cleanup in mid-February. The agency invoked the so-called Superfund law to order the Norfolk Southern railroad to pay for the cleanup.
On Sunday, EPA regional administrator Debra Shore announced that waste would be shipped beginning this week to sites in East Liverpool and Vickery, Ohio.
Earlier shipments had been conducted by Norfolk Southern without federal oversight, but as of Monday all waste disposal the railroad conducts will be subject to EPA approval amid confusion among states receiving waste.
Shore expressed hope Norfolk Southern could begin removing tracks over the next week but did not offer a concrete schedule.
Outside of the state, however, several shipments of waste were bound for disposal facilities in Michigan and Texas before the EPA halted them, much to the chagrin of some officials and environmentalists who say they were not properly notified.
Read more about the cleanup process at TheHill.com.
