Each day, since the rail wreck in Ohio, we are TV witnesses to the pitiful EPA attempt to clean up spilled chemicals and the related contamination spread to the local natural resources.

The government seems to be driven by the false premise that dilution is the solution to the pollution. We witness residual methyl chloride, remaining in the wreckage, exploded and burned and rising into a black plume spreading over hundreds, if not thousands, of square miles. We witness pumps bringing in sources of water to dilute the concentration of contaminants in nearby waterways adjacent to the wreck. These methods do not solve the problem. They spread contamination over larger areas or mix it into larger volumes, where it is harder to detect. None of it is removed.

A chemical contamination spread, of the East Palestine magnitude, should be driven and guided by physical contamination removal processes (not dilution) then followed by suitable monitoring processes for soils, waterways, the atmosphere, vegetation and life of all types, to confirm it is gone.

Unlike dilution, physical removal and monitoring processes are time consuming, expensive and must be borne by the organization responsible for the spill.

Robert DiNapoli

Old Lyme