Lawsuit: Fish and animals dying as far as 20 miles away from East Palestine

• The Sandusky-based Murray & Murray law firm on Thursday filed a class-action complaint.
• On Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals caught fire and derailed, forcing evacuations in a one-mile by two-mile area surrounding East Palestine.
• While the release of chemicals is believed to have killed about 3,500 fish across 7.5 miles of streams, officials have yet to confirm any nonaquatic wildlife deaths connected to the derailment.

A new federal lawsuit claims fish and wild animals are dying as far as 20 miles away from the site of a train derailment and controlled burn of chemicals in East Palestine.

The Sandusky-based Murray & Murray law firm on Thursday filed a class-action complaint on behalf of three East Palestine residents, their relatives and other residents within a two-mile radius of the crash site and property owners within a 100-mile radius. It's one of at least seven lawsuits filed against Norfolk Southern since the Feb. 3 derailment.

While the release of chemicals is believed to have killed about 3,500 fish across 7.5 miles of streams, officials have yet to confirm any nonaquatic wildlife deaths connected to the derailment.

The Columbiana County Humane Society told the Herald-Star in Steubenville that it is compiling reports of sick animals as far as seven miles outside the evacuation zone. And the Ohio Department of Agriculture is testing tissue from a six-week-old beef calf that died Feb. 11 about two miles outside East Palestine, according to the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.

Previous cases:Norfolk Southern faces several lawsuits over East Palestine derailment, chemical release

Vinyl chloride, which was burned in several train cars to avoid a possible explosion, is a gas used to make hard plastic resin in plastic products and is associated with an increased risk of liver cancer and other cancers, according to the federal government's National Cancer Institute.

Officials warned the controlled burn of cars containing the gas would send toxic gas phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air.

The latest lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court's Northern District of Ohio, claims that Norfolk Southern was negligent in its transportation of hazardous material and its response to the derailment. It also holds the company liable for the resulting harm and losses.

"Mass kills of wild animals and fish have been reported as far as 20 miles away from the Derailment Site," it says. "Although mandatory evacuation orders have been lifted and residents have been told that it is safe to return to their homes, plaintiffs and members of their class believe, with good reason, that the prospective dangers from the hazardous exposure are being grossly downplayed and that their health has been and is subjected to injurious toxins."

Norfolk Southern's media relations team said via email that they are "unable to comment on litigation."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identified four toxic chemicals known to have been released into the air, surface soils and surface waters: vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate and ethylene glycol monobutyl ether.

Isobutylene also was in the rail cars and tankers that were "derailed, breached, and/or on fire," according to a general notice of potential liability letter the EPA sent Feb. 10 to Norfolk Southern. A document from Norfolk Southern detailing the train cars and damage states that the isobutylene tanker was not breached.

The EPA found contaminants from the derailment site in samples from Sulphur Run, Leslie Run, Bull Creek, North Fork Little Beaver Creek, Little Beaver Creek and the Ohio River.

The plaintiffs had not returned to their homes by Thursday and "are faced with the prospect that the real and personal property they own may be damaged beyond their lifetimes and is now worth far less and might be or become unsaleable," according to the lawsuit.

They are seeking monetary damages for "economic and non-economic damages" among other various fees and court costs.

Reach Kelly at 330-580-8323 or kelly.byer@cantonrep.comOn Twitter: @kbyerREP