Ohio U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown stopped in East Palestine to learn about the latest clean-up work following last year's train derailment.

Brown said he's looking to Norfolk Southern to address further the lingering concerns in East Palestine following the train derailment, as clean-up goes on.

Brown said ultimately, Norfolk Southern is responsible for the massive plume created from the vent-and-burn of toxic tank cars. 

"That's really Norfolk Southern making that decision because they pushed without complete information," he said, "They moved too fast and that burn was not necessary, and so much of the vinal chlorine contaminants in the air or because of that burn, could have managed."

As NTSB said scientific evidence shows the controlled burn may have been the wrong move, 21 News asked Brown and U.S. EPA Region 5 leaders what more is being done to address long-term health concerns from the plume.

"I want Norfolk Southern to stay here and continue to do what they have to do, including reimbursing health departments and EPA because this was caused by them," Brown said, "Taxpayers, Ohio taxpayers, Columbia County taxpayers, East Palestine taxpayers shouldn't be paying for this clean up in this testing of this monitoring. We want to make sure that water, that the city water, village water, is tested regularly."

U.S. EPA Region 5 Regional Administrator Debra Shore said, "We are certainly pressing for there to be long-term health monitoring of water, soil, air and public health because we have heard the concerns of residents here and we think that's warranted."

Shore said they are hopeful about the federal grants announced last month to research long-term health monitoring.
As far as clean-up progress in the village, Shore said contaminated soil is removed, but crews are still working on water elements like Leslie and Sulphur Run, as well as continued soil samples.