For NS, DOL-OSHA, BMWED, ‘Collaborative Safety and Health Efforts’
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief
“In cooperation with federal, state and local authorities, Norfolk Southern is advancing environmental recovery efforts in East Palestine. Norfolk Southern has reconstructed both main lines after successfully excavating the impacted soil under the removed tracks and transporting it offsite. Since early March, Norfolk Southern has bypassed more than 14 million gallons of clean water at the site. This means we put operations in place to avoid generating over 14 million additional gallons of hazardous wastewater, eliminating the need for more than 600 storage tanks and eliminating more than 4,000 truckloads around the community.” – from the railroad’s “Getting it Right in East Palestine” website
Norfolk Southern has entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (DOL-OSHA) and Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division-International Brotherhood of Teamsters (BMWED) for employees involved in environmental cleanup efforts following the Feb. 2, 2023 East Palestine derailment.
NS agreed to implement a medical surveillance program for all affected employees who worked at the derailment site; provide BMWED-represented employees with 40 hours of Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response training; create a training program on lessons learned from the derailment; and pay penalties assessed by OSHA for four safety and health violations.
“The health and safety of our employees is paramount, and we have worked closely with OSHA and BMWED throughout the investigation,” NS said in a statement to Railway Age. “Partnering with our craft colleagues is extremely important to us. We’ve reached a resolution that provides more training for our people, exceeding OSHA requirements, and makes our responses even safer. We’ve been clear in our goal to become the gold standard for safety in our industry, and this outcome furthers that mission.”
“This agreement will improve the safety and health controls in place for Norfolk Southern employees who responded and help educate the rail operator’s employees on the lessons learned so they are prepared should another emergency occur,” said OSHA Cleveland Area Office Director Howard Eberts. “We are pleased by the collaborative safety and health efforts of Norfolk Southern, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division and contractors from the cleanup site who have been working together on this site remediation.”
OSHA, whose post-derailment investigations and enforcement inspections involved personal and area air samplings for workers involved in site and water cleanup, including NS employees installing new railroad track, said it “will continue to work closely with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and other federal, state and local officials to protect workers’ safety and health as clean-up operations continue.” OSHA said its actions, which began on March 2, came “in response to a referral from the U.S. Department of Transportation to assess the union’s concerns for the health of workers rebuilding tracks and conducting clean-up operations near the derailment site.”
After completing its inspections, OSHA issued Norfolk Southern citations on Aug. 2, 2023, for four violations and proposed $49,111 in penalties. The violations occurred on just one day, Feb. 4, and primarily related to work conducted as crews constructed track panels and laid them out on the south tracks, west of the spill location:
- “Not developing an emergency response plan that included clear lines of authority, communication and training, site security, adequate site control and decontamination areas.
- “Failing to require workers to wear chemical resistant footwear when walking on [potentially] contaminated soil.
- “Allowing one employee without respiratory protection to pour cement on potentially contaminated soil. (From the report: “… Employer did not ensure that an employee who applied Portland Cement to potentially contaminated soil for a brief period of time [of] approximately 30 minutes in a fully enclosed cab on the east side of Pleasant Drive was wearing a positive pressure self-contained breathing apparatus …”)
- “Not training workers about hazardous chemicals.”
“Norfolk Southern abated the hazards immediately,” OSHA noted.
Download the OSHA report:
The agency also opened enforcement inspections of CTEH, an environmental consulting firm, and two other companies on site for the cleanup—Specialized Professional Services of Washington, Pa., and Hepaco Inc. of Charlotte, N.C.— “to investigate complaints about workers exposed to chemicals as they cleaned up nearby creeks where spills killed fish. OSHA issued a citation to Specialized Professional Services for inadequate control of the site and decontamination areas, which they immediately corrected.” OSHA did not cite CTEH or Hepaco. The agency also opened an inspection in response to reports employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention became ill after visiting area homes on March 6, 2023, but issued no citations.
OSHA noted that, in addition to its enforcement role, the agency “joined the U.S. EPA and Ohio EPA in a unified command structure to oversee site cleanup since the derailment. OSHA has also worked with the Department of Transportation and Federal Railroad Administration in a non-enforcement role since Feb. 20, 2023.”
