Petrochemical leaks have harmed communities in Ohio over the past few years — and they’re likely to continue happening as the oil and gas industry grows.
University of Cincinnati Environmental Science Professor Amy Townsend-Small says it is common for trains traveling through towns to be transporting chemicals made from oil and gas.
The train car that leaked in Whitewater Township last week was carrying an oil-derived chemical called styrene. Similarly, the vinyl chloride spilled from a tanker in East Palestine was made from oil.
Production of the oil and gas used to make these chemicals is on the rise. Last year, the U.S. produced more crude oil than any country, ever, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“That's been helpful in making the United States less reliant on foreign oil and gas, helped bring down gasoline prices, energy prices for home heating, things like that,” Townsend-Small said. “It's also spurred more production of plastics, which are made from oil and natural gas.”
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In eastern Ohio, several plastics manufacturing plants are being built near natural gas fracking operations, according to reporting from Inside Climate News.
“Nobody really wants natural gas pipelines being built, so that's how they're accommodating all this excess natural gas, by making plastics,” Townsend-Small said.
There are also plastics manufacturers near Cincinnati, like the INEOS facility where the styrene-leaking tanker was headed to.
So, as more oil and gas is produced and transported to plastics manufacturers via truck, train and barge, the likelihood of leaks increase. That’s why Townsend-Small says petrochemical spills, like the styrene leak, will probably happen again.
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How can these spills be prevented?
Nearly 100 community members showed up to a joint meeting of the Whitewater and Miami Township boards of trustees Tuesday night, almost a week after many had evacuated their homes because of the styrene leak.
Several people asked the same question as one Whitewater Township resident: “What can we do to prevent the toxic tank to be parked that close to the school, water and community?”
Brian Stussie, a representative of the Central Railroad of Indiana, said the company had to move all goods and products for everybody, including hazardous material. He cited freight railroads’ “common carrier obligation.”
Increased regulation of the rail industry could improve safety measures. Following the train derailment in East Palestine, U.S. senators introduced the bipartisan Railway Safety Act of 2023.