People in East Palestine may be seeing a temporary facility being built to treat water that has come in contact with the Norfolk Southern derailment site.

The Ohio EPA is supervising contractors who are supervising contractors who are excavating, stabilizing, and compacting the soil to make room for six 150,000-gallon tanks that will hold treated water from the plant.

Since the derailment, rainwater, and stormwater that has flowed through contaminated areas have been pumped into tanks and hauled away from the site for disposal.

 The temporary equipment would allow for treatment on-site, according to the EPA.

After installation, the equipment must be approved by the Unified Command which is made up of representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the Columbiana County Emergency Management Agency; the Village of East Palestine; the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency; and the Norfolk Southern Corporation

If approved, treated water would be held until sampling results show that it has met treatment goals, is no longer hazardous, and can be removed from East Palestine for further treatment or disposal.

The treatment process would be supervised by Ohio EPA which emphasizes that the equipment would only treat water collected from the response site.

The state EPA says no other water will be treated with the equipment which would be removed when it is no longer needed.