The Associated Press turned to a University of Cincinnati environmental engineer to explain the risks to drinking water from pollution caused by a train derailment in eastern Ohio.
On Feb. 3, 38 cars derailed on a Norfolk Southern train carrying vinyl chloride and other cancer-causing chemicals. The resulting fire cast a huge black smoke plume high above East Palestine, Ohio, a village of nearly 5,000 people. Evacuations were ordered in both Ohio and Pennsylvania. Officials intentionally released some of the chemicals to mitigate the risk of explosion.
The chemicals killed 3,500 fish in creeks in East Palestine that lead to the Ohio River, Ohio's Department of Natural Resources said.
Now state and federal health officials are closely monitoring one of the detected chemicals, butyl acrylate, as it travels downstream toward Huntington, West Virginia. Butyl acrylate is used in resins and paints.
