Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told Newsmax on Wednesday that East Palestine residents are most concerned about potential future health conditions caused by last month's hazardous materials train derailment.
"Based on the conversations that I've had with residents, many of them are just concerned, not so much about now, but they're concerned about the future," DeWine said during an appearance on Newsmax's "The Record with Greta Van Susteren." "Are they going to come down with something five years from now? 10 years, 15 years from now?"
"That's why I think it's so important, as quickly as possible, to get a fund actually set up," he continued. "I talked to the railroad about that [and] I think they're very, very open to do that and want to do that. I know our attorney general was in conversation with their lawyers several days ago in regard to that as well. I think having that fund set up will at least give people good confidence that if something arises 5-10 years from now in their health or their family's health, that there'll be money there to help them."
DeWine said that the cleanup continues after the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern freight train derailment released over a million gallons of hazardous materials and pollutants into the environment around the small eastern Ohio town.
"The tracks were taken up about a week ago and still taking dirt out of there from that," he said. "Continuing to test the air, continuing to test the water — those are things that are going on on the ground."
Addressing concerns that residents might not trust what the government or Norfolk Southern is telling them about the safety of the environment, DeWine said that "no one's saying they're going to be fine."
"What we can simply do is tell them what we're coming up with," he said. "One of the concerns that was expressed to me is, 'Can my kids go out in the yard and play?' That's kind of a basic thing, but they're concerned about that. So we have now started the testing of the soil and we'll be able to come back to people and say, 'Look, this is what the laboratory came up with.' And I think that the thing that we're trying to get across to people is these are independent labs in many cases [that don't] have a dog in this fight. They're going to call it like it is."
"What we have to do is be honest with people," he continued. "Tell them what we're finding. Tell them we're going to continue to test, year after year after year, and we're not going away."
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