Pa. residents seek aid from Darlington Twp. a year after Norfolk Southern train disaster

DARLINGTON TWP. — When Shirley Lambright asked Norfolk Southern to cover the cost of installing a pricey water filtration system in her Little Beaver Road home, the company directed her to Darlington Township.

Darlington Township told her to talk to Norfolk Southern.

A year after Norfolk Southern’s hours-long vent and burn of hazardous chemicals near Lambright’s homestead on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, she remains reluctant to use her tap water.

Chemicals found on her property after the East Palestine train derailment and subsequent chemical burn were not at levels federal regulators consider to be dangerous, but the potential risks of long-term exposure to combined toxins – alongside persistent physical symptoms – left her cautious.

“We don’t want to use bottled water forever,” she told the Darlington Township Board of Supervisors at a Jan. 8 meeting. “This was our next step.”

Lambright is among a handful of Beaver Countians imploring Darlington officials to establish a mini-grant program for those still reeling from the Feb. 3, 2023, train disaster.

The township last year received $660,000 in community relief funds from Norfolk Southern due to its close proximity to the derailment site. Nearby Lawrence County received $340,000 in similar settlement funds, establishing a mini-grant program for afflicted residents and business owners.

Darlington Township leaders instead chose to put the money in a high-yield account to stretch the funds and support first responders. Supervisors expect the account to accrue $30,000 to $35,000 a year.

“That ($660,000) is not much once you break it down,” Darlington Township Supervisor Mike Carreon said in January. “If we keep the money in this high-yielding account … and we divide that between the departments, it helps them and keeps us from having to put a fire tax on residents. That seems to be, we agreed, the best use to help everyone in the community. We have to have a fire department, we have to have a police department. If we were to put $8,000 in (Lambright’s) water filtration system and then someone else comes … pretty soon we’re out of money.”

Hilary Flint, an environmental activist and cancer survivor who lived in Enon Valley with her grandmother during the train disaster, asked supervisors to consider a proposal for a mini-grant program echoing Lawrence County’s. This, she said, would allow residents to apply for reimbursements on clean water and soil projects related to the derailment.

“We’re Darlington Township taxpayers and we need help,” she said. “Norfolk Southern isn’t helping us.”

After a Wayne State University research team found traces of chemicals associated with the derailment in her home last year, Flint has feared the exposure could take her out of remission. She’s experienced rashes and nose bleeds within just a few days of returning to Enon Valley, she said.

More: Pa. farmers, rescue owners reflect one year after East Palestine train disaster

“I almost came out of remission because they found spots in my left lung from environmental toxins,” she said. “People like me who are sick, who have compromised immune systems, we’re not going to stay in our homes.”

Beaver Countians looking for assistance with relocation or reimbursement related to the derailment are struggling to find it from local, state and railroad officials, Flint said, even as Norfolk Southern offered some East Palestine residents “inconvenience fee” checks in the aftermath.

Carreon said Darlington should be offered an inconvenience fee similar to the one in East Palestine, but noted the majority of township residents the board has interacted with “are fine with the way things are.”

“I’m not discounting … but we are accountable to 1,800 people and, again, $660,000 is not a lot of money to 1,800 people,” he said in January. “We’re not hearing an overwhelming response from people wanting to relocate, or that their water is not fine.”

Darlington Township resident Lori O’Connell said those who need help should be able to access it – even if they’re in the minority.

“I think some have been affected more than others,” she said. “People say everything’s fine, everything’s great, and I believe that for a lot of people. But there are others who have been drastically affected by this and I think they are getting lost in this. They’re to the point where they're just going to give up.”

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Pa. residents seek aid from Darlington Twp. a year after Norfolk Southern train disaster