A train derailment which occurred in Ohio in early 2023 has left ground soil toxic, a reality only coming up after the soil was used to garden and grow garlic that has now come up toxic itself. People are upset and calling for the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct more soil studies to identify the source of the toxicity in the soil and see if there is a way to regain the ability to harvest there or if they must no longer user that area of land for farming. At the very least, locals are calling on the EPA to issue a formal warning against gardening in the area for the time being.
While waiting for the EPA, independent testing has been done and revealed high chemical levels.
A nonprofit known as the Government Accountability Project wrote a petition to the EPA arguing that the agency already failed the local communities as they should have conducted these further tests in the first place after the train derailment accident. The petition states that additional follow up studies should have been done on the gardens themselves as well as at least one round of growth to test the crops as well. According to the group’s senior environmental officer, Lesley Pacey, no crop testing has been conducted by the EPA at all. They have also not sampled any home grown produce for dioxins. The one thing the EPA has done according to Pacey is advise residents that they can continue to garden and eat their harvests as normal.
The EPA told residents in the area that they could resume gardening as soon as three months after the accident.
The Environmental Protection Agency gave the go ahead on gardening from sampling just a few grains that were growing at the time. Since those appeared fine, they said the soil was safe to use. Independent testers felt they should look at the long term status of the plants, which led them to test again. The EPA as a whole has had a longstanding doubt when it comes to independent test results. According to the agency, quality control is rarely taken into account, which leads to issues in the way the results stand. Thus far, it is unclear whether the EPA will actually conduct additional testing or not. For the time being, they have stated they need to review all of the reports from the independent testers and then will issue a decision based on their findings.