With spring having sprung, so has the anticipation of green thumbs to get to work. But in East Palestine, the train disaster has tempered that anticipation.

"We didn't see indications that there would be problems downwind," says EPA Response Coordinator Mark Durno, describing the data showing no impact from February's controlled burn.

"Continue with normal activities in your yard - gardening, farming, etcetera," he said. "Even the Ohio Department of Agriculture has put out a fact sheet that says the same thing."

"I'm still very skeptical," said Linda Murphy, who owns farmland near Negley and Leslie Run Creek.
She says business as usual is her only choice.

"We're all just lab rats, it's a wait and see," she lamented Thursday. "I don't have anywhere else to take my horses to graze, I'm not going to put them on a dry lot where they stand on dirt all day."

Murphy joined about 30 others for an update on soil testing from EPA officials Thursday.
It included results from property owners' land and public land.
While Durno says the numbers are very encouraging, "we do have a couple of areas where we want to focus more," he said. "None of these areas are where children play, or where crops would be sown."

Including the city park - he says that's safe too.
Cautious optimism as a growing season unlike any other begins. The data presented Thursday evening is preliminary. The EPA says final data will be available by the end of May. They look to start long-term monitoring procedures by the end of the Summer.