In a stunning new development, reports are coming out suggesting the water supply for nearly 10% of the American population could be at risk of contamination following a train derailment several days ago in eastern Ohio.
Toxic chemicals immediately began leaking and burning in the aftermath of the February 3rd train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Media coverage of the event was surprisingly minimal, in part overshadowed by the appearance and shooting down of several unknown airborne objects as well as a sense of general silence.
Even on Sunday, local officials admitted to being quiet about the crash and potential for catastrophic fallout. “The reason for no press conference is right now it’s a slow process. We’re trying to be upfront with people,” East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway said. “I think it’s going to take a very long time to recover from this.”
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene blasted the official story in a tweet viewed millions of times.
East Palestine, Ohio is undergoing an ecological disaster bc authorities blew up the train derailment cars carrying hazardous chemicals and press are being arrested for trying to tell the story.
Oh but UFO’s!
What is going on?
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) February 12, 2023
News also began spreading on Elon Musk’s Twitter, with one news outlet reporting the frightening possibility that drinking water for 5 million people could now be contaminated.
BREAKING: Toxic chemicals from the train derailment & explosion in East Palestine have reportedly “contaminated” the Ohio River as far as West Virginia, a water source for over 5 million. pic.twitter.com/kJNEBIKRtO
— Upward News (@UpwardNewsHQ) February 13, 2023
“BREAKING: Toxic chemicals from the train derailment & explosion in East Palestine have reportedly “contaminated” the Ohio River as far as West Virginia, a water source for over 5 million,” the tweet said. It was followed up by a second tweet, showing a map of the affected area and the number of possible people impacted by the devastating fallout.
‘The Ohio River is one of the nation's great natural resources. Over 30 million people, or about ten percent of the U.S. population, live in the Ohio River Basin. With numerous public drinking water intakes and industries, the river provides drinking water to +5,000,000 people’. https://t.co/9VlNPg4peZ pic.twitter.com/JUUgSl7YL9
— Upward News (@UpwardNewsHQ) February 13, 2023
“The Ohio River is one of the nation’s great natural resources. Over 30 million people, or about ten percent of the U.S. population, live in the Ohio River Basin. With numerous public drinking water intakes and industries, the river provides drinking water to +5,000,000 people,” the tweet suggested.
Fox News described that the initial crash on February 3rd included around 50 cars, 10 of which were carrying “hazardous materials.” Fox wrote:
About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed on Feb. 3 in the Ohio village of East Palestine. No one was injured in the derailment that investigators said was caused by a broken axle.
Three days after the accident, authorities decided to release and burn vinyl chloride inside five tanker cars, sending hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosgene into the air. The move was meant to get rid of highly flammable, toxic chemicals in a controlled environment and created a dark plume of smoke.
Our Quad Cities followed that up with a report on Monday morning. It noted that water utility officials, while not suggesting the prohibition of drinking any of the local water, nonetheless were taking extra precautions by installing a secondary intake on a nearby river in case they needed to find alternative sources for water. They reported:
A West Virginia water utility is enhancing its water treatment process as a precaution following the derailment of a train hauling chemicals that later sent up a toxic plume in Ohio.
West Virginia American Water said Sunday that it’s also going to install a secondary intake on the Guyandotte River in case there’s a need to switch to an alternate water source. The utility noted that there hasn’t been any change in raw water at its Ohio River intake.
An official statement said that there are currently no advisories warning against drinking the local water.
Five days ago, West Virginia’s governor Jim Justice had already leaked into the Ohio River, amplifying the risk that over the course of nearly a week toxic and hazardous materials could make their way along the river’s path.
“There were chemicals that went into the Ohio River, and immediately the people of Weirton acted and acted promptly and everything to basically shut down and transfer over to an alternate supply source for their water,” Justice said at a briefing.
He then commended the response to the derailment “We had a lot of people jumping in, whether it was our DEP or the Emergency Management Division, the DHHR, the National Guard, all began offering support and help. … We feel like everything is fine here.”
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