Vice President JD Vance and the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have asked the EPA’s Office of Inspector General to investigate the Biden administration’s response to the February 2023 Norfolk Southern derailment and hazardous-materials release in East Palestine, Ohio.
The EPA said in a Friday, Aug. 28, release that Vance and Administrator Lee Zeldin had sent a joint letter to the OIG asking for the investigation in light of a report released last week by a watchdog group, the Government Accountability Project. That report says initial Department of Defense modeling projected mass casualties from the vent-and-burn disposal of vinyl chloride — information that was withheld from those at the site. An initial estimate projected that 18,000 people could suffer harmful chemical exposure and that 1,900 people were in a “death possible” zone. Subsequent estimates reduced the at-risk figure to 840 people.
Vance said in a social media post that included the letter, “If the Biden administration withheld public health risks from the community, they must be held accountable.”
A National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the derailment determined the vent-and-burn action was “unnecessary” and increased public and first-responder exposure to hazardous materials.
The EPA’s Sean O’Donnell was one of several inspectors general fired by President Donald Trump in January 2025. Deputy Inspector General Nicole Murley, who joined the agency from the Department of Justice in 2021, is currently the acting inspector general.
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