NE Ohio train derailment: Experts explain why the Miami Valley’s water is safe

EAST PALESTINE — The train derailment in East Palestine last week is creating a lot of concern for people in the Miami Valley— mainly questions about the safety of the water.

The Miami Conservancy District also told News Center 7 they have been getting questions non stop since last week.

“We’re getting posts on our social media channels. We’re getting phone calls, people are very concerned,” said Sarah Hippensteel Hall, Manager of Watershed Partnerships for the Miami Conservancy District.

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Hall says the Miami Valley’s watershed and the underlying aquifer are not connected to East Palestine or their river and streams.

Not only did Hall confirm that the river and water supplies are safe from anything that happened in East Palestine, but so did the City of Dayton.

“We are not impacted by the spill that is happening over in East Palestine,” said Keshia Kinney, Dayton Water Supply and Treatment Manager.

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They said it’s geographically impossible for anything involved with the derailment to impact the Miami Valley’s river.

The same goes for drinking water, which comes from underground.

“We have basically a giant bowl underneath us. That bowl was left by the glaciers,” said Hall.

Those large bowls don’t even connect to any outside water source.

“There’s a thin layer of soil on top and that’s where we put our roads and our houses. And so our aquifer is literally under our feet,” said Hall.

“We’re groundwater system and then you have surface water systems which we are not,” Kinney said.

Hall says no one should fear chemicals coming from East Palestine in any of the Miami Valley’s water.

“That site is not impacting us at all,” Hall said.

Hall went on to say continuing to be concerned about water is a good thing and that we should all keep caring about our river and water supply by cutting down on polluting and not dumping waste.

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