EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — The East Palestine train derailment clean up reached a major milestone Monday, as the last of the contaminated soil was removed from the toxic derailment zone.
"All the excavation is complete," said Norfolk Southern Environmental Operations Manager Bob Scoble. "What you see here in the background is we're hauling off the last of the contaminated soils from the site."
Norfolk Southern is calling the day "momentous," having been almost nine months since the derailment.
"It's good," Scoble said. "I'm proud of the work we've done. We've done a lot of good things out here."
He explained that 300 to 400 workers a day had worked to remove 175,000 tons of contaminated soil.
Norfolk Southern is confident that they've gotten all the bad soil because test results are now consistently coming back that all remaining soil is clean.
East Palestine resident Marcus Chestnut is glad to see the progress.
"Feels pretty good, a long time coming," he said. "It should be good for the community, put some things to rest, put people's minds at ease."
But there are those that are still skeptical of the cleanup process, and Scoble is aware of that.
"I can't tell you how to assuage somebody's fears," he said. "The science is what it is. You trust the science. The science says that we're getting it and we've gotten it all. So, we've got a very rigorous process we go through to clear each and every grid out here on this site."
Norfolk Southern said they'll be spending the next four to six months re-sampling their work areas to make sure no trace contaminants were missed.
They'll also investigate and clean up the oily sheens and sediments in the Sulphur Run and Leslie Run creeks and surrounding areas in East Palestine, per EPA order.