The Checkered Past of the Contractor Monitoring the Air in East Palestine
A contractor for Norfolk Southern that is conducting air quality monitoring in East Palestine, Ohio, has a controversial history of what critics have described as inaccurate testing tilted toward the corporations that hire it. The company has been the subject of several lawsuits over its conduct, and members of Congress have warned corporations not to hire the firm in the past.
The Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (CTEH) has a name that might sound like a state or federal agency, but in reality it is a private, for-profit corporation that has been present after hundreds of ecological disasters—from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to COVID-19. Norfolk Southern has hired them on at least two other occasions, and they have done work for other rail giants, including one job in 2012 that led to an $18.5 million settlement with two cleanup workers who were burned in a fire.
Three years ago, CTEH hooked up with an “environmental solutions” giant, Montrose Environmental Group, in a private equity–funded merger. Montrose has engaged in numerous acquisitions over the past year, rolling up both the emergency environmental response space and the market for corporate and government consulting on environmental matters.
The use of a controversial contractor comes amid continued reports of sickness in the area around the derailment. The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division, which represents 3,000 Norfolk Southern workers, sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday, explaining that union members sent to do cleanup at the site were coming down with migraines and nausea. Leaders of other unions met with Buttigieg this week to deliver the same message.
https://prospect.org/environment/2023-03-03-cteh-contractor-air-monitoring-east-palestine/#.ZAIc8RTuUi4.twitter
