Train derailment one of many environmental disasters in Pennsylvania

The train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio was just the latest of a number of environmental disasters to hit Pennsylvania.

Disasters, leaks, and pollution have damaged the natural landscape across the commonwealth, and Pennsylvania residents pay for the consequences through their health and tax dollars.

The price tag of the Feb. 3 train derailment isn’t yet known. Norfolk Southern has committed to sending $7 million to Pennsylvania to replace fire department equipment and reimburse some state agencies, and senators from Pennsylvania and Ohio are pressing the rail company for an ongoing commitment to the area.

Testing of area water, air, and soil will also incur costs. Rebuilding consumer confidence in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania’s agricultural products, too, could require a greater investment, as The Center Square previously reported.

Pennsylvania’s Beaver and Lawrence counties, across from East Palestine, aren’t the only places dealing with the consequences of pollution or chemical spills.

“Whether we’re talking about air, water, soil, we still see the impacts of environmental degradation both in our landscape and in our health,” PennFuture President and CEO Patrick McDonnell said.

McDonnell previously served as secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection under former Gov. Tom Wolf.

“Frankly, one of the challenges we have – very different than other states – is just the sheer volume of some of this activity,” McDonnell said. “The industrial legacy of abandoned coal mines as an example, and the waste coal piles, the acid mine drainage that comes off of those sites, is really not something most other states have to deal with at the scale we do.”

Abandoned oil and gas wells across the commonwealth present an environmental and human hazard, as well as PFAS chemicals in waterways and air quality issues around Pittsburgh add to the problem. Western Pennsylvania also has a coal ash site that one environmental group ranked as one of the most contaminated sites in the nation.

PFAS, an acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are widely used, long lasting chemicals, components of which break down very slowly over time. Studies vary on their harmful effects; more is known about their impact on animals than on humans. PFAS, the Environmental Protection Agency says, “are found in water, air, fish, and soil at locations across the nation” and throughout the world.

McDonnell emphasized the importance of accountability and oversight in making the status quo better.

“One of the important elements of this is that we should be seeing corporations held responsible for these economic costs,” McDonnell said. “Whether it’s soil contamination in East Palestine or the health impacts that people in Pittsburgh, people across the commonwealth experience from air quality – those are costs that we’re passing on to people within the state that are invisible and don’t show up on the balance sheet, but they’re there nonetheless.”

The economic costs can be steep.

The commonwealth estimated it would take nearly $2 billion to plug fewer than 30,000 abandoned gas wells, as The Center Square previously reported. The true number of abandoned wells may be much more, with estimates anywhere from 360,000 to 800,000 across Pennsylvania. As federal money flows to states to help plug them, critics have said DEP’s use of the money lacks transparency and public oversight. Private efforts to plug wells, too, have been promising and sometimes target higher-priority wells.

More regulations and stricter pollution standards aren’t always the main problem, either. Sometimes, a lack of staffing means the enforcement of current rules falls short.

“When you have facilities, for example, violating air quality limits consistently and paying fines for that, that doesn’t mitigate the impact it’s having on people’s health,” McDonnell said.

Without enough Department of Environmental Protection staff visiting sites to ensure the rules are followed, the economic or health costs can fall on residents.

The story of Pennsylvania’s natural assets isn’t one of only degradation. Lake Erie’s fish populations have risen, as has its water quality, as The Center Square previously reported. Progress has also been made in reclaiming coal waste sites. Air quality has also improved. Much of that activity, however, has required state or federal funds, provided from the pockets of taxpayers across the commonwealth.