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Citing toxins in garlic, group says EPA should have warned about chemicals near Ohio derailment
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East Palestine, Ohio, resident Marilyn Finley, right, talks with Scott Smith, in her garden on Wednesday, June 12, 2024. Finley did not plant a garden last year after the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train near her home. She decided to plant a garden this year after using one of her husband's tractors to remove the top three inches of soil and replace that with fresh dirt. - photo by AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
The Environmental Protection Agency should conduct additional soil studies near the site of a toxic train derailment in Ohio and warn people it might not be safe to garden there after independent testing showed high levels of chemicals in locally grown garlic, a watchdog group said Thursday. In a petition filed with the federal agency, the nonprofit Government Accountability Project argues that the EPA should have already followed up on the tests of gardens and crops in the city where the Norfolk Southern derailment took place. “It is unconscionable that the EPA has not conducted its own testing on garden crops in East Palestine, nor have they sampled for dioxins in the home produce," the nonprofit group's senior environmental officer, Lesley Pacey, told The Associated Press in advance of the petition filing.