Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday defended the federal response to the fiery derailment of a train in Ohio that was carrying hazardous materials, saying officials are working "to keep residents safe."
In a post on Twitter, Buttigieg hailed the cleanup and monitoring effort, saying, "From day one, our USDOT personnel have been assisting in the response to the Norfolk Southern derailment in Ohio."
"As NTSB conducts its investigation and EPA works to keep residents safe, our Federal Rail and Pipeline and Hazardous Material teams will continue to offer support," he wrote.
The EPA announced in a tweet that "our air monitoring has not detected any levels of health concern that can be attributed to the incident."
The assurances came as residents in East Palestine, Ohio, returned to their homes after evacuation amid fears about explosions from the derailed train that was carrying hazardous materials, The Hill reported.
The contents of the rail cars were burned to prevent an explosion, while officials conducted a "controlled release" of toxic chemicals. Noxious odors have also largely dispersed from town, though still remain near some streams, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Wall Street Journal reported that about 50 cars of a 150-car Norfolk Southern train derailed Feb. 3, causing a chemical fire, with officials later draining vinyl chloride — a colorless gas that can burn easily and is used to make hard plastic resin — from five tanker cars to prevent an explosion.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation by the DOT.
Air testing inside 291 homes detected no vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride, the EPA said on Monday, the Journal reported, but 181 more homes still need to be screened.
The railroad has already restarted service along the train route, which serves a major rail yard in Conway, Pennsylvania, about 25 miles southeast of East Palestine.
"Our hazmat team was in East Palestine within an hour of the incident, and the response continues today in close coordination" with local, state and federal officials, Norfolk said Monday in a statement, the Journal reported.
About 4.5 million tons of toxic chemicals are transported through U.S. communities every year by rail, and 12,000 trains carrying hazardous materials cross through towns and cities each day, The Guardian reported.
"The Palestine wreck is the tip of the iceberg and a red flag," Ron Kaminkow, a former Norfolk Southern freight engineer and secretary for the Railroad Workers United, told The Guardian. "If something is not done, then it's going to get worse, and the next derailment could be cataclysmic."