 The people of East Palestine are just being treated like dummies. We're not dummies. We're smart people. Listen to these people, what they have found out about different things and everything else. I'm angry. I'm angry about this. I've lived in East Palestine for 65 years now. That's my home. My grandmother came from Germany. She lived in Palestine. My dad grew up there. My family's grown up there now. And it is disgusting that we're just lost it. I live in a house that's probably the closest of any of these. And it's a shame. And this is probably the next closest one. And our house is, you know, it's been inspected, it's been this, it's been that. I'm afraid to put my dog out just to pee. I mean, he's only on this tall. So, you know, I don't feel safe in this town now. You took it away from me. You took us away from this. You seem like a sincere man. I'm not calling you names. I'm not, you know, your company stinks because they're not watching what's going on. Workers don't pay attention nowadays. Supervisors make workers work. You've got to do something about this. I lost a lot. I lost the value of my home. I'm only one block. I can throw a stone to that burner. And what do we do now? I come back from Chicago for four days. I was in Chicago for four days. I came home. The other day I put the garage door up. We pulled in the garage, got out of the car, put the garage down. As soon as we got out of that car, the smell came back to us. Right away. Instant headache. Now, I'm 65 years old, a diabetic, aphid heart disease, everything. Now, did you shorten my life now? I want to retire and enjoy it. How are we going to enjoy it? You burned me. We were going to sell our house. Our value went poof. Do I move the grass? Can I plant tomatoes next summer? What can I do? I'm afraid to. And it's in the air. Every day I cough. A little cough here, a little cough there. I've never had that. You know, I got rashes on my cheeks and all my arms from the... I don't call it a derailment. I call it a disaster. It's norfolk's disaster, not a train derailment. I'm an honest. I shoot from the hip, just like the governor just told us. I tell you the truth. You see my family and a great guy and all, but you know what? Like I said, your company has to do something. You just got a taste of East Palestine resident Jim Stewart tearing into Norfolk Southern CEO. And here's how he responded. Jim, thank you for those comments. I hear you. I'm terribly sorry that this has happened to this community. What I can do and what I will do is make it right. We're going to get the cleanup right. We're going to reimburse the citizens. We're going to invest in the long-term health of this community. I'm going to see this through. And we're going to be here. And we're going to work with these community leaders to help it thrive. I think you heard the mayor talk about making this community even better. And that's what I'm picking up as I'm talking to community leaders and citizens. We're looking for ideas from the community on where we can help and things that we can do. Would you be willing to buy their health food? Will you buy them out of their houses at the property value so Jim can retire? That's making it right. Step up. We're going to... I'm sorry. I interrupted you. You're good. Jim wants to hear your answer. We're going to do what's right for this community. Well, that's what you're right. You're the railman that it changed me now. It's made me an angry man. I'm a Christian. I love the Lord. But you've made me angry. And I don't want to be like that. You know, I want you to respect me like I respect you right now. And I said, I lost everything now. I worked hard. I'm still working. I'm 44th here at my job. I wanted to get out. Now I'm just stuck. What an absolute nightmare. Now, as you saw, they were holding his feet to the fire and he refused to commit to real accountability. So he said, we're going to make it right. And then that lady asked, will you buy them out of their houses at property value so they can retire? That's making it right. And as you saw there, he didn't have a response. And see, this is why they didn't show up to the town hall last week because they claimed that there was a threat. But turns out, police say that's not actually true. There's no evidence that there was indeed a threat. And that's maybe the only time the police are saying something that I find believable. But that's why he didn't want to be confronted by these residents because they actually want real accountability there. Their only agenda is making this right, getting their lives back on track. And he knows that looking the people who you poisoned in the faces is a very difficult thing. But it's not just about accountability with regard to the economic aspect here. There needs to be accountability because of the criminal negligence here. As Stephen Donzinger put it, the rail company that caused the mass chemical poisoning in Ohio paid billions to shareholders the last two years while refusing to invest 25 million in a train-breaking system that could have prevented the accident. Corporate criminality. And criminality is the key word there. Corporate criminality. It's not just that they should pay fines and be forced to make this right by buying the residents out of their homes at property value. There should be criminal charges because imagine for a second that you spilled chemicals somewhere. Do you think that you can get away with it by just making a lot of promises? No, you would go to jail. So CEOs and these corporations, they need to actually be held accountable but this is the United States and that never happens. At most they get a slap on the wrist. Now, there's another video that I want to play for you where the CEO is just torn into by a resident. She reams him when he gives this vague answer and that was very satisfying to watch. So the first part of my question is if you could walk us through that decision of not digging up the soil and just rebuilding the train tracks over it and second it's been roughly three weeks. What new safety measures do you have in place since then regardless of the investigation that's going on clearly there are some things that need to change and if you haven't come up with them yet when can we expect to hear from them because this isn't the first. This won't be the last. People need to see change in a big way and yeah, those are my questions. Yes ma'am. We believe that we had an environmentally sound remediation plan for the soil under the tracks. However, as I noted as I continue to engage with members of East Palestine and one-on-one meetings and small group meetings. Can I interrupt you? What made you believe that that was an OK resolution? That's what I'm looking for. Like what goes into that decision? Yes. Our independent environmental experts. So as we have, as I have, when you dump 100,000 gallons of chemicals and oil. You're not talking about the oil. 60,000 gallons of oil when you dump that into the ground and you don't take that out of the ground before you put your tracks on and you run your train on it. You need to hire some new oil. That's an OK decision. The oil. The oil is going to cause us the long-term effects. Everybody's talking about the chemicals and while I do think that's important it's the oil that's seeping into our ground that you chose not to dig up and just put your tracks right over top of it. She's asking you specifically what led you to that decision? Ma'am, we've made a lot of progress on environmental remediation. We've dug up 4,600 cubic yards of soil and collected 1.7 million gallons of water. We will continue with an environmental remediation and in early March we will start by tearing up the tracks and digging up the soil underneath the tracks. Six weeks oil is going to be soaking into our soil. So until then we'll just have it keep going down. Keep going in our soils. Janet, did you get all your questions answered? No, I did specifically ask what changes you've already made and I think these residents also are very valid in asking why the delay, why can't we do it tomorrow? Yeah, Janice, thank you for that. I didn't get to respond to that. We're going to test and we're going to calibrate all of the wayside detectors all across our system. That's something that we stood up in the immediate aftermath of this. And is that something that's visible for people to see? Is it publicly available for us to see that that's being done? It's an internal component to Norfolk Southern. Don't you think people would want to see that happening? Wouldn't that show that you're trying to do something different if you're actively showing people this? We can certainly take videos of that. That was so satisfying to see how uncomfortable that CEO was as they grilled him. That was great. Imagine if Americans had the opportunity to grill health insurance CEOs and pharmaceutical giants and any corporation that's taken advantage of us like this. That would be phenomenal. This is a rare instance where corporate media is platforming the people affected by corporate criminality and it's really great to see. What the residents there were referring to is the fact that they didn't replace the soil before just laying tracks over it. They just laid the tracks over it. Over the contaminated soil. Now this could potentially be catastrophic because quote, it's possible vinyl chloride can travel through the ground as rain and precipitation move through the soil. It then has the potential to reach groundwater and eventually hit well fields. And this is according to an expert with a PhD in soil science who spoke with WKBN 27. So we're talking about a company that poisoned their atmosphere and potentially poisoned their water as well. We don't know yet, right? It's negligence on top of negligence on top of negligence. So they're right to be angry there. And whatever heat he was feeling, it's insufficient because what he did, what this company did is poison an entire village of people. That is unforgivable. Now, Mike DeWine is assuring them that, you know, the water is fine, right? Because that's why they were concerned because in the event those chemicals get into the water, that would be deadly. Potentially lifelong illnesses that they'll suffer through because of that. But Governor Mike DeWine has assured them that everything is copacetic and the water is safe. Now take a look at this video where he went into a resident's house and he drank the water. Ask yourself if you lived in East Palestine whether or not you'd find this reassuring. I'll tell you we believe in science so we don't feel like we're being your guinea pig but we don't mind proving to you that we believe in water. Here's to Caroline. Here's to you. Thank you. That's good. That's really cold coming from that. Thank you. Thank you. Very convincing. What the f**k is that? Shug the f**king glass of water if you want citizens to take you seriously. That is not reassuring them. It's like a sick joke. Now, because he says it's okay when they don't know yet, by the way, well, schools have opened up water fountains and children are drinking the water that could be contaminated. And have you all been back into school now since this? What has it been like in school so far? It's been, like, normal. Yeah, but they haven't, like, closed the water fountains or nothing. Kids are just going up there and drinking the water. Yeah, I don't drink the water in the first place. I don't drink the water either. The drinking water fountains in the schools are not blocked off? Yeah, they're not blocked off. They let you drink out of them still. I really, really hope that the governor is right that that water is not contaminated because those children who are drinking the water I mean, they could potentially face lifelong illnesses because of that. And the thought is just horrific to think about. Now, status coup put out a disclaimer in that video and it says this, on East Palestine school still allowing students to drink water from the water fountain, Bob Bocock, a water treatment and testing engineer with 30 years of experience told status coup, quote, the drinking water will not see the contamination for at least a few weeks. I'm trying to calculate when the school should take extra precaution in this mess just because. But they're not taking extra precautions and the governor rushed to declare the water safe. When at this time we still can't confirm that beyond the shadow of a doubt. Now, the reason why I'm bringing Mike DeWine is because he was also grilled by residents at the same town hall and what they were specifically concerned with was the way that every single word that he used seemed very weasley. He was non-committal, very vague and they grilled him for that. Let's listen. Modal words in every statement makes for too much wiggle room and leads to uneasy citizens having no confidence in the information given. Whenever things are said like maybe, potentially might be, this is a really serious issue and words like that should have no part in this. Well, I apologize. Look, I've been trying to tell people exactly what we know. I think I've been pretty strong. I said we're not leaving. We're staying. We have the best experts. We're going to listen to the experts. I think I was pretty clear when I said do... Pardon me. Would you say if you would stay in East Palestine would you come and spend the night there? Until the cleanup is done you'll stay with us within the one mile? Yes. I've been there three times. For a few hours. Will you stay overnight for a period of time? Yeah. Hopefully we'll hold you to that. Look, I'll stay overnight. I've tried to be as honest and as straight as I could. We told you when we tested the water. What about the soil? We post the results of that. What about the soil? There hasn't been soil testing done until the 12th. There's been a massive amount of soil removed. They're not even, to my knowledge, halfway done. They said 8.3 metric tons. That's 208 40 cubic yard trailers. There's no way 208 40 yard trailers have been moved out of there. No way. Numbers are not adding up. Let me ask Anne Vogel who heads up the Ohio EPA about that. She's the one that knows about that. Let's bring it in. Hi, Governor. Hello. Hi, Jake. The 58 cubic yards of soil that is on storage, on site. You're absolutely right. It has not been moved off. The process is to excavate everything that we know is contaminated and then we test it to see how contaminated it is and where it needs to be lawfully disposed. It will go offsite to storage as soon as we know what is in that soil. So it's still on site. That's the process that's underway right now. Yes, it is. So that right there is a perfect example that illustrates why residents don't trust what they're being told because the governor says one thing turns out that's wrong. The governor declares the water safe after he sees the results from a Norfolk Southern funded testing which experts claimed was sloppy and that was announced hours before they got back the EPA's results. It's just it feels like a cover up is taking place and the residents are right to be skeptical. So the town hall, I'm sure that it was very cathartic for the residents to grow the CEO and the governor but being able to confront the people who poisoned you is no substitute for actual justice. There needs to be accountability. There needs to be criminal charges if need be because again an entire town was poisoned. This isn't the first town that's been poisoned by corporate negligence and it's not going to be the last.