Gov. Josh Shapiro has chastised Norfolk Southern management in a letter on the railroad’s actions following the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment, which resulted in a fire and the later burning of toxic chemicals to avoid an explosion.

In the letter released Tuesday evening to NS President and CEO Alan Shaw, Shapiro claimed Pennsylvania officials were not immediately notified about the derailment, even though it occurred a quarter-mile from the Pennsylvania line.

The Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency only learned of the incident hours later.

Shapiro cited three issues in his letter of complaint:

— Norfolk Southern failed to set up a unified command, creating confusion among emergency management and first responders of the railroad’s planned actions.

— NS “gave inaccurate information and conflicting modeling” about the impact of the controlled release, which made protective action decision making more difficult. It also failed to notify state and local officials about the plan to vent and burn the contents of all five tank cars containing vinyl chloride rather than just a single car.

— Norfolk Southern failed to consider or articulate alternatives to venting and burning the contents of the tank cars.

“Prioritizing an accelerated and arbitrary timeline to reopen the rail line injected unnecessary risk and created confusion,” Shapiro said.

In an accompanying press release, the governor’s office said “Pennsylvania continues to see no concerning air or water quality readings following this incident.”

DEP will continue to work with its partners to monitor the air and water quality closely in the weeks and months ahead.

2023.2.14NorfolkSouthernLetter