EPA inspector general probes East Palestine derailment response

By Elena Vasquez

The EPA’s Office of the Inspector General is opening a formal investigation with two core objectives into the agency’s handling of the 2023 East Palestine train derailment, its vent-and-burn process and potential health effects.

The investigation follows several complaints to the OIG hotline and a letter from Vice President J.D. Vance and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin requesting an objective examination. For residents, the two-part federal review arrives after almost four years of pressure for accountability.

What will OIG examine?

Investigators will address two questions:

• What responsibilities did EPA have to address health and environmental concerns after the 2023 derailment, and what actions did the agency take to carry them out?
• Did EPA’s response comply with federal and state requirements, agency practices and procedures, and did the agency have data supporting its public communications about ambient indoor air quality and associated health risks?

The second objective goes to the heart of specific hotline allegations about EPA’s actions before and after the controlled burn. The OIG says those findings could inform additional work, extending the inquiry beyond any single operational decision.

What records are in scope?

During the investigation, EPA must provide the complete incident-response record for the derailment. OIG also seeks risk assessments, oversight findings and other internal reviews relevant to the objectives, including any after-action reports.

Investigators will analyze three operational areas:

• Hazardous waste disposal.
• Air and water monitoring.
• Soil sampling.

The scope reaches beyond the burn itself to the chain of monitoring and disposal decisions behind it. It also puts the evidentiary basis for EPA’s air-quality messages inside the review, rather than treating those messages as separate from the response.

For waste, water and air regulators, this creates a documentary test as well as an operational one. The agency must connect its disposal, monitoring and sampling decisions to the standards that governed the response and to the risk assessments behind its public communications.

OIG’s inquiry will test whether that chain of documentation supports the agency’s account of indoor air quality and health risk.

The inquiry does not erase the operational questions already raised at the site. It shifts them into a federal review of responsibility and compliance. For the village, hazardous waste handling, water and air monitoring and soil sampling form the records through which OIG will test EPA’s response.

What are residents seeking?

Village Manager Antonio Diaz-Guy said: “We support any investigation into this incident and are happy to collaborate with the EPA as needed.” The village manager added that village officials had not yet been contacted by OIG or EPA officials.

Jami Wallace of the Chemically Impacted Communities Coalition called the investigation long overdue. She said residents had pushed for it for almost four years and had worked with government accountability projects to uncover information through FOIA requests.

Misti Allison, chair of the Community Advisory Board for the East Palestine Train Derailment Health Research Program, said: “I hope this review moves quickly and produces real action here at home.”

Allison wants a full accounting of how decisions such as the vinyl chloride burn were made, honest answers about what residents were exposed to and resources delivered now. She said residents had waited long enough.

What happens next?

The OIG asks anyone with knowledge of potential fraud, waste, abuse, misconduct or mismanagement to contact its hotline at [email protected] or 888-546-8740.

The decisive milestone is OIG’s finding on both objectives, including whether EPA’s response met federal and state requirements. Until the inspector general resolves those questions, the village’s request for a full accounting of the burn, monitoring and possible exposure remains open.