Residents of Ohio town remain under evacuation after chemical leak, but officials say no issue with air quality

By Artemis Moshtaghian and Melissa Alonso

Cleves, Ohio (CNN) — Residents near a railcar chemical leak in a western Cincinnati suburb remain under evacuation Wednesday, but officials said the car has stopped venting and there are no issues with air quality.

Students in school buildings and residents in hundreds of neighboring homes were told to evacuate after officials discovered styrene, a toxic and flammable chemical used to make plastic and rubber, was leaking from the car’s pressure release valve Tuesday night. The chemical can cause headaches, nausea and respiratory issues, and long-term exposure can lead to more serious health problems including organ damage.

“As it stands right now, the railcar is no longer venting,” John Keffer with the Central Railroad of Indiana said at a news conference Wednesday morning.

Officials said the temperatures in the car “are in a safe range right now” at a noon news conference on Wednesday.

The volatile liquid inside the railcar appears to be solidifying, Mike Miller of Central Railroad of Indiana said. He added 14 other railcars on the train were carrying styrene and those cars were tested for issues before being moved to be monitored.

The impacted car was also removed from other railcars, said Brian Stussie, assistant vice president of operations at Genesee & Wyoming railroads.

The incident was likely caused by an additive stabilizer inside the railcar becoming ineffective, causing the product inside the tanker to vent, Miller said.

Styrene evaporates almost immediately after entering the air, according to Steven Fagan, the director of Hamilton County Public Health.

“The likelihood of any sort of irritation or toxicity is very low, especially anyone outside a half-mile radius, which for an abundance of caution, has been evacuated,” Fagan said.

Little Miami Joint Fire and Rescue District Chief Mike Siefke said Wednesday that his agency has not received any calls about any injuries related to the incident.

“This is going to be a slow process, it’s going to be an all-day event so updates won’t come out as fast,” Siefke said. “We’re really at the mercy of the product and the material and we’re taking it very methodically.”

Aerial video showed firefighters spraying down the car, which was sitting upright on tracks between a highway and an asphalt plant, the Associated Press reported.

Initially, officials were concerned the railcar’s rising temperature could lead to an explosion, but Siefke said that is “not a concern we have right now.”

Hamilton County’s Emergency Management Agency advised anyone within a half-mile of the area near US Route 50 and the Great Miami River, west of Cincinnati, to leave immediately, according to the Associated Press. About 200 homes are in the evacuation area, Siefke said. Residents just outside the evacuation area were told to stay inside and keep their windows closed.

The area has a mix of businesses, homes and large swaths of undeveloped land, the Associated Press reported.

“To our knowledge, all residents that have been displaced have been taken care of,” said Andrew Knapp, director of the Hamilton County 911 Center.

Three school buildings were evacuated and all after-school events were canceled, said Lisa Whiteley, a spokesperson for the Three Rivers Local School District, according to the Associated Press.

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said personnel from the Federal Railroad Administration are headed to the area to assist as needed.

Last year a train derailment on the opposite side of Ohio in East Palestine, about 300 miles northeast of Cincinnati, caused hazardous chemicals to leak and burn for days. The February 2023 derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line led to new safety rules and increased scrutiny of the rail industry and federal regulators.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.