Vice President JD Vance and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin are pushing for a formal investigation into whether the Biden administration concealed public health risks from East Palestine, Ohio, residents after the 2023 train derailment.
Vance and Zeldin sent a letter this week to EPA Inspector General Nicole Murley requesting independent oversight of how the prior administration handled the disaster, a controlled burn of more than one million pounds of vinyl chloride and other toxins that left a small northeastern Ohio town wondering what, exactly, its own government knew and chose not to share.
The request follows a cascade of troubling revelations. Documents released this week by a government watchdog showed that federal officials were privately concerned about potential casualties during the burn of derailed train cars, concerns that, as the Washington Examiner reported, differ sharply from what was publicly shared with the community at the time.
Vance, who represented Ohio in the Senate when the derailment occurred in 2023, posted to X on Friday:
"The people of East Palestine deserve a government that is transparent and accountable to them. If the Biden administration withheld public health risks from the community, they must be held accountable. Today, I am formally calling for an investigation into who knew what, and when."
The vice president has made East Palestine a personal cause since his days in the Senate. He previously pushed federal health officials to launch a five-year, $10 million research initiative aimed at tracking long-term health outcomes for residents exposed to the toxic fallout. That effort, along with the new inspector general request, reflects a sustained focus on a community that much of Washington moved on from long ago.
The 2023 derailment involved a train hauling 20 cars of hazardous materials, carrying at least five toxic chemicals. Norfolk Southern officials proposed a controlled burn of the cars over fears they could explode. Federal authorities approved the operation, and more than one million pounds of vinyl chloride and other toxins went up in flames.
Evacuation orders were eventually lifted, and residents returned to homes that critics now allege were still tainted by toxic chemicals. The EPA's own testing processes have come under fire: a 2024 CNN analysis found that agency officials often relied on odor alone, not equipment, to detect certain toxic chemicals in residents' homes, despite warnings from experts that smell could be an unreliable indicator.
Vance, who has spoken openly about his roots in working-class Ohio, has framed the East Palestine response as a case study in government failure, the kind of institutional negligence that falls hardest on people without lobbyists or political connections.
Independent testing expert Scott Smith reported that 49% of his dioxin testing samples in East Palestine exceeded EPA cancer screening levels. Smith told NewsNation the results pointed to suppression of critical data.
"It's astounding in that it was suppressed."
The Government Accountability Project, a watchdog organization, raised alarms in May 2025 that the Biden administration had downplayed data showing a "potential for cancer clusters" caused by toxic fumes from the derailment. That finding was based on FEMA documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Separately, the same watchdog reported that EPA contractors broke agency rules by collecting and storing soil toxin samples in plastic bags instead of the required glass containers, a procedural failure that could compromise the integrity of the very testing meant to determine whether residents were safe.
A peer-reviewed study released in June added to the mounting evidence. Researchers found what they described as "evidence that the bodies of those who lived in close proximity to the site were still fighting and repairing from a toxic exposure." Residents have reported menstrual issues, lung scarring, and rashes. Some have been advised to track their health in case they develop cancer.
The vice president, now a father of four, has made clear he views the federal government's obligation to East Palestine families as far from fulfilled.
Newsmax reported that industrial hygienist Stephen Petty found cancer-causing dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in East Palestine soil at levels exceeding EPA cancer screening thresholds at 50 to 70 percent of data points. Those toxic findings were allegedly never disclosed to residents during negotiations for a $600 million class-action settlement with Norfolk Southern.
The same reporting revealed that a government subcontractor, ALS Houston, altered groundwater sampling data collected at the derailment site. Two analysts at the firm were fired by prime contractor Tetra Tech after the falsification came to light.
If accurate, the scope of the problem extends well beyond bureaucratic missteps. Residents negotiated a major legal settlement without access to data that may have shown their exposure was far worse than they were told. That is not a paperwork error. That is a breach of the basic compact between a government and the people it is supposed to protect.
The question now is whether Inspector General Nicole Murley will take up the investigation, and whether the probe will have the teeth to reach the officials who made the decisions that matter. Vance and Zeldin have laid out the case. The IG has not publicly responded.
Vance's sustained engagement with East Palestine stands in contrast to the Biden administration's early posture toward the disaster. President Biden did not visit the town for weeks after the derailment, and federal agencies have faced persistent criticism for treating the crisis as contained long before residents felt safe.
With changes underway in his own office, Vance has nonetheless kept pressure on the EPA and the broader federal apparatus to deliver answers to a community that has waited more than three years for them.
The people of East Palestine did not choose to live next to a hazardous materials disaster. They did not choose to have their homes tested with inadequate methods, their soil samples stored in the wrong containers, or their groundwater data allegedly falsified by a subcontractor. They were told it was safe to come home. Many of them are now tracking their health for cancer.
Vance's letter to the inspector general asks a straightforward question: who knew what, and when did they know it? The watchdog documents, the falsified sampling data, the undisclosed dioxin levels, and the peer-reviewed research all suggest the answer may be deeply uncomfortable for the officials who managed the federal response.
For a community that has endured more than its share of hardship, the least the federal government owes is a straight answer, and if the facts warrant it, accountability for every official who chose reassurance over honesty.
When the government tells a town it is safe to breathe the air and drink the water, that had better be the truth. If it wasn't, no amount of bureaucratic reshuffling will make it right, only a full accounting will.
