The Norfolk Southern train derailment that sent toxins into the soil, water and air of East Palestine, Ohio, was an “act of greed,” President Joe Biden said Friday as he visited the town for the first time.
Describing the crash as “an act of cruelty that was 100% preventable,” Biden said the administration had been pushing railroad companies to take more precautions prior to the February 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern derailment.
“Multibillion dollar railroad companies transporting toxic chemical have a responsibility to do it safely,” Biden said Friday.
Norfolk Southern, he said, “failed.”
“While there are acts of God,” Biden said, “this was an act of greed.”
While nobody was killed in the Norfolk Southern crash, the train’s derailment and the later decision to vent and burn five tankers containing cancer-causing vinyl chloride created a plume of toxic smoke that could be seen from space and caused a panic over the quality of the town’s drinking water. More than 1 million pounds of toxins were put into the town’s water, air and soil as a result of the derailment and its aftermath.
Hundreds of residents were ordered to evacuate. Some moved away permanently. Others said they had developed rashes, sore throats, nausea and headaches after eventually returning to their homes, and worried the symptoms were related to chemicals released after the derailment.
Biden had been under pressure to visit East Palestine since the derailment. The White House said shortly after the train’s derailment that the president would find a time to visit, but that did not happen last year.
Former President Donald Trump visited East Palestine about three weeks after the derailment on February 22, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited the next day.
Trump during his visit criticized Biden’s absence and what resulted was a political uproar, all while residents said they simply wanted to know whether their water was safe to drink.
In the town on Friday, both Biden and Environmental Protection Administration Administrator Michael Regan sought to reassure residents that the administration’s focus was on helping clean the town up and hold Norfolk Southern accountable from the crash since the outset - including Biden’s signing of an executive order in September ordering federal agencies to hold the company responsible for cleaning up the mess and reporting progress.
The company reported last summer that costs associated with the cleanup were around $1 billion.
While visiting with East Palestine residents, Biden drank local tap water and sipped on coffee that was brewed with the tap water and local beans, according to the traveling press pool. He also announced his administration was awarding six National Institutes of Health grants to research the short- and long-term effects of the derailment.
Biden’s visit comes at the invitation of East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway and other community leaders, according to the White House. Conaway has been critical of Biden’s failure to visit East Palestine sooner, telling Fox News last month: “My personal opinion is the best time for him to come would be February of 2025, when he is on his book tour.”
Speaking after Biden and Regan, Conaway on Friday said the president’s visit was “long awaited.” East Palestine, Conaway said, will “not be defined by this single event – rather our response to it and our perseverance.”
“President Biden, your long-awaited visit to our village today allows us to focus on the things we agree with, acknowledge this disaster should never happen, address the long-term health concerns and the economic growth of the village and ensure this never happens again to another community,” Conaway said.
The White House said the president would visit East Palestine to “meet with residents impacted by the Norfolk Southern train derailment and assess the progress that his Administration has helped deliver in coordination with state and local leaders to protect the community and hold Norfolk Southern accountable.”
“He also has heard loud and clear from the folks in?East Palestine that they don’t want to be defined by an event,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier this week.?“And so, he’ll speak to the administration’s work to deliver on the needs for family businesses that are affected.”
Biden echoed that message on Friday, promising his administration would stick with its efforts to help the town recover.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat or Republican or independent. What matters is we’re all Americans, everyone, everyone, we look out for one another. We leave no one behind and we come back stronger than before. That’s what you’re doing here. That’s what’s happening right here in this community,” Biden said. “A vast majority has been done. But we’re gonna stay to the very end until every deed is met.”
Buttigieg said last month efforts to address rail safety have been stymied by Republicans in Congress.
“Almost one year after the Norfolk Southern derailment, Congress has still not passed the bipartisan Railway Safety Act,” he said. “It should not be the case that one year after that derailment, we are still waiting for Congress to act, and yet we have seen many who had a lot to say about this in Congress a year ago still not make clear on the record whether they are for or against this bill, and we’ve seen some House Republicans who have now voted twice to pass legislation that would cut railroad safety fund funding and track inspections.”
But Buttigieg previously acknowledged some mistakes in his own response, saying he should have visited East Palestine sooner and that he failed to anticipate the political fallout from the derailment.
The Environmental Protection Agency has overseen the removal of more than 174,000 tons of contaminated soil from the site, but questions about whether toxins still lurk remain. Regan told reporters last month that his agency was confident “the residents of?East?Palestine?are not at risk from impacted surface?water, soil or air from the derailment.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Sam Fossum contributed to this report.