CLEVELAND — Norfolk Southern has agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the union representing maintenance-of-way employees to improve safety at the site of the Feb. 3 East Palestine, Ohio, derailment, according to a Wednesday OSHA announcement.
The settlement stems from OSHA enforcement inspections that began in March to address concerns by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division regarding the health of workers rebuilding tracks and conducting cleanup operations near the site of the derailment and toxic-chemical release.
Terms of the settlement include:
— A medical surveillance program for employees who worked at the derailment site;
— 40 hours of hazardous waste operations and emergency response training for union employees to deal with future derailments;
— A training problem on lessons learned from the Ohio derailment;
— Payment of $49,111 in penalties for four safety and health violations. Those violations involved not developing an emergency response plan with clear lines of authority, training, site security, adequate site control, and decontamination areas; failure to require workers to wear chemical resistant footwear; allowing employees to pour cement on potentially contaminated soil without wearing respiratory protection; and not training workers about hazardous chemicals.
“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,” OSHA Area Office Director Howard Eberts said in a press release. “We are pleased by the collaborative safety and health efforts of Norfolk Southern Corp, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division, and contractors from the clean-up site who have been working together on this site remediation.”
OSHA also cited one contractor at the site, Specialized Professional Services of Washington, Pa., for inadequate control of the site and decontamination areas; the company immediately corrected the issues.
An NS spokesman told the Washington Post, “We’ve reached a resolution that provides more training for our people, exceeding OSHA requirements, and makes our responses even safer.”
