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When asked if he would drink the water in East Palestine, Ohio, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) issued a cryptic response.
When asked whether he would drink the water polluted by toxins from the Norfolk Southern train crash on February 3 during his appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Brown referred to local authorities. Brown continued by blaming the train corporation for the catastrophe, alleging that it fired important employees and bought back shares rather than making safety investments.
Would you drink the water in East Palestine’s water? Pamela Brown enquired. “And do you think the officials there who are saying it’s safe, they should drink the water too to show the residents that they would drink it?”
The Senator responded:
“Well, I think they are,” the Senator responded. “I mean, I talked to the mayor. The mayor said definitively, emphatically, that people can drink the water. I don’t know. I don’t think the mayor has small kids. He looks a little older to me. I didn’t ask him about bathing his kids. But he has said he would drink this water.”
Watch:
Brown went on to say that Norfolk Southern’s business greed was to blame for the catastrophe.
“Pamela, this is really the same old story. Corporations do stock buybacks, they do big dividend checks, they lay off workers. Thousands of workers have been laid off from Norfolk Southern. Then they don’t invest in safety rules and safety regulations, and this kind of thing happens. That’s why people in East Palestine are so upset.”
He also claimed that “These things are happening because the railroads are simply not investing the way they showed in car safety and in the rail lines themselves,”
On the subject of water safety, J.D. Vance (R-OH) has not spoken with authorities. Vance urged the EPA to back up its claims after it stated on Wednesday that there were no quality issues with the water in the municipal well.
Vance also shared a video of himself scraping a creek bed on his own Twitter account, revealing an oily sheen caused by chemicals in the water. He declared, “The fact that these chemicals are still seeping in the ground is an insult to the people who live in East Palestine. Do not forget these people.”
Since a train carrying deadly vinyl chloride and other chemicals derailed on February 3, locals in East Palestine, Ohio have vehemently condemned the tardy state and federal response.
The Biden administration dispatched federal emergency personnel to the scene of the hazardous train derailment in Ohio on Saturday, two weeks after the accident spewed a poisonous haze that poisoned nearby waterways and prompted a mass exodus of terrified locals.
The 150-car Norfolk Southern freight train’s “controlled release” and burn of hazardous items, which was done, according to officials, to prevent a massive explosion, killed thousands of fish, harmed pets and animals, and raised concerns for the town’s 5,000 people’ health.
Former President Donald Trump will visit East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying dangerous goods derailed last month, in the coming days.
Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign issued a statement saying he planned to visit the small hamlet near the Pennsylvania border on Wednesday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) role in disaster relief was criticized in the statement for seeming to be inconsistent throughout President Joe Biden’s administration (FEMA).
