CLEVELAND — National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy told Sen. JD Vance Wednesday that Norfolk Southern contractors lacked the "scientific background" to recommend the controlled release following the Norfolk Southern train derailment.

What You Need To Know

  • The NTSB announced the controlled burn could have been avoided

  • Many East Palestine community members are frustrated 

  • Community members want better health care

The decision for a controlled burn of the five derailed tank cars that released toxic chemicals last year in East Palestine was based off incomplete information, Homendy's testimony indicated.

“What we heard yesterday from chair Homendy from the NTSB really isn’t a revelation," said Misti Allison, who lives in East Palestine. "It’s a really just a confirmation of what we already knew."

Allison has lived in East Palestine the last five years and has been a vocal activist following the derailment. She said this is the same information that was shared when the NTSB was in town holding their special meeting in June.

“I will say it’s absolutely infuriating to hear that and I’m just really grateful that chair Homendy is taking a stance and ensuring that everybody knows that what happened appears to be very intentional and unnecessary,” Allison said.

Allison said after listening to Chair Homendy, it was uncovered that Oxy Vinyls who was the shipper of the vinyl chloride, was on site when the controlled burn was decided. She said they were available to provide expert guidance, but were deliberately left out of the decision making process.

“So the incident command including our fire chief and our governor of the state of Ohio did not have all the information available to make an informed decision and that is absolutely unacceptable and very egregious,” Allison said.

Allison said there is still a lot that needs to be done to make things right for the residents of East Palestine.

“We need to ensure that there’s some common sense safety regulation that is in place to make sure that this doesn’t happen in any other communities. Before last year, nobody knew where East Palestine was and so I think East Palestine serves as a cautionary tale that this could happen anywhere else and we need to make sure that this doesn’t happen again because no community should have to go through what ours has went through,” Allison said.

Other members of the community are feeling frustrated following the announcement, including Jess Conard, who has lived in East Palestine her whole life.

“When Jennifer Homendy announced that the controlled burn was not necessary it was very disturbing,” Conard said.

“I think it’s really important to understand that if you live near a railroad, that this could happen to you. This was not an incident, this was not an accident, this was a crime,” Conard said.