I would absolutely not trust 'government experts' or anyone hired by Norfolk Southern to do a thorough job of sampling and testing the surrounding environment. The EPA's gross failures in the Deepwater Horizon blowout with respect to overseeing the use of surfactants like Corexit should be proof enough of that.
Unfortunately a rigorous sampling and testing protocol by an independent registered laboratory (which is what you'd need for the collection of evidence that would hold up under legal scrutiny) is an expensive and involved process.
The technology needed is well-established, just collect a lot of vials of water, soil, stream bed cores etc. on a grid scale focusing on the entire region, paying attention to downwind zones from the accident in particular. Then they need to be run through an established, documented extract-and-analysis procedure (gas-chromatography-mass-spectrometry would be appropriate, maybe high-pressure-liquid-chromatography for some of the less volatile species).
You'd want to look for the species that were on the train, of course, but also the various combustion products (which could be more hazardous than their source materials) - the list I've seen is vinyl chloride, benzene, butyl acetate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate and isobutylene, plus some other petroleum products. What kind of combustion products were generated is a more complex issue (phosgene has been mentioned, hydrogen chloride etc.).
At the very least, people should be collecting and labeling samples in a manner that provides proof-of-origin, maybe video documentation and so on. Here's an example of the kind of sample storage vial needed. Cost is about $3 each, you have to buy them in lots of about 75 or so. Maybe someone should set up a GoFundMe for this?
If you have the collected samples, documented and securely stored, you can potentially get them all analyzed later by a certified lab, providing court-acceptable evidence.
> The technology needed is well-established, just collect a lot of vials of water, soil, stream bed cores etc. on a grid scale focusing on the entire region, paying attention to downwind zones from the accident in particular. Then they need to be run through an established, documented extract-and-analysis procedure.
Yes, and in addition, surface- and groundwater transport should be simulated given any known hydrogeologic data on the region. The federal government in fact develops free and open source software for exactly this. NS should have limited involvement in the testing process, feds and independent parties should collect data independently and compare results in public view.
Unfortunately a rigorous sampling and testing protocol by an independent registered laboratory (which is what you'd need for the collection of evidence that would hold up under legal scrutiny) is an expensive and involved process.
The technology needed is well-established, just collect a lot of vials of water, soil, stream bed cores etc. on a grid scale focusing on the entire region, paying attention to downwind zones from the accident in particular. Then they need to be run through an established, documented extract-and-analysis procedure (gas-chromatography-mass-spectrometry would be appropriate, maybe high-pressure-liquid-chromatography for some of the less volatile species).
You'd want to look for the species that were on the train, of course, but also the various combustion products (which could be more hazardous than their source materials) - the list I've seen is vinyl chloride, benzene, butyl acetate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate and isobutylene, plus some other petroleum products. What kind of combustion products were generated is a more complex issue (phosgene has been mentioned, hydrogen chloride etc.).
At the very least, people should be collecting and labeling samples in a manner that provides proof-of-origin, maybe video documentation and so on. Here's an example of the kind of sample storage vial needed. Cost is about $3 each, you have to buy them in lots of about 75 or so. Maybe someone should set up a GoFundMe for this?
https://www.fishersci.com/shop/products/sample-vial-teflon-l...
If you have the collected samples, documented and securely stored, you can potentially get them all analyzed later by a certified lab, providing court-acceptable evidence.