Congressman Jim Baird wants a time-out.
The Republican representative of Indiana‘s 4th congressional district wants shipments of waste from the East Palestine, Ohio train wreck site to stop rolling into the Heritage Environmental Services storage facility in Putnam County.
So far, at least three shipments have arrived at the facility.
“We want to pause the delivery until we make sure that EPA and the Department of Transportation do the appropriate testing so we know what materials are coming, like dioxins, and how much, if it’s there,” explained Baird.
Dioxins are compounds known to cause cancer. But they have not shown up on the EPA’s website noting compounds found in soil and sediment testing at the train wreck site. Among the substances found at the scene are trichloromethane, vinyl chloride, and xylenes. All three are listed as hazardous by the federal Occupations Safety & Health Administration.
But the public has not been told exactly what is in the shipments to Putnam County.
Attorney General Todd Rokita says he has received some information about the shipments from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. Rokita would not specify what substances were in the shipments, but shared this, “It’s certainly more friendly relative frankly, to a lot of other materials that that very same landfill has already accepted.”
Gov. Eric Holcomb announced yesterday that Pace Analytics of Minnesota will do third-party testing of materials shipped to the Putnam County site. The governor also promises to share test results with the public.
Holcomb also disclosed that the EPA has agreed to make sure any future shipments have “no harmful levels of dioxins before heading to Indiana.”
