![]() ![]() The risk of exposure for natural and man-made hazard substances is determined by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Jeff Swertfeger, the superintendent of water quality and treatment for Water Works, said last week that samples taken downstream from the derailment contained trace amounts of the compound. The train had multiple cars carrying hazardous chemicals. The Norfolk Southern train derailed on Feb. It’s believed that low levels of butyl acrylate seeped into the Ohio River through the Little Beaver Creek, about 300 miles north of Cincinnati. ![]() But some of the train cars operated by Norfolk Southern leaked industrial chemicals. No one suffered immediate injury because of the derailment, according to the Associated Press. “The remnants of the polluted plume were expected to reach Louisville (Monday) morning, and I’m not even sure they’ll be detectable because the river is at such high levels and dilution factor was so strong,” said Richard Harrison, ORSANCO’s executive director and chief engineer. Roughly 90% of the water supplied by Water Works comes from the river.Īfter extensive sampling and testing Sunday night and Monday morning, Water Works had found no trace of any chemicals, the organization said in a statement. Sunday ahead of the plume’s expected arrival. Water Works decided to close its Ohio River intake at 2 a.m. The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) predicted any water-based chemicals from the derailment would arrive in Cincinnati over the weekend. ORSANCO leaders believe most of the compounds became diluted by the Ohio River being at near-flood levels.A network of water utilities, environmental agencies and ORSANCO have conducted daily testing since the derailment on Feb.Greater Cincinnati Water Works closed its river intake Sunday ahead of the plume's expected arrival, but reopened it Monday after not detecting any chemicals.A low level of hazardous chemicals ended up in the Ohio River because of a train derailment in East Palestine earlier this month.Looking ahead, Johnson said there will likely be numerous uses for the project’s findings during other floods that will hit the Bluegrass State down the road: “We could use the data to calibrate our flood models, verify our flood hazard maps and develop new evacuation routes. “We can use these data to calculate an estimated flood depth, which is one of the most important things for us to know and understand during a flood.” The reason flood depth is so critical, Johnson explained, is that they use it to estimate the amount of damage to specific structures. “During floods, we need information on flooding extent,” Johnson said. “Our partners can use the maps and analysis to determine the most effective and efficient transportation systems to take when responding to a flood, potentially reducing response times across the region and allowing more targeted flood warning messages,” Cook said.įor Johnson, at the Kentucky Division of Water, this new information will be extremely valuable in future flooding events. Credit: NASA DEVELOPĬook says that in addition to flood risk maps, the team provided local and federal officials a detailed look at what infrastructure would likely be impacted in subsequent Ohio Valley floods. Green are locations with a high risk of damage from flooding blue is low risk. During the 2018 flooding in particular, the team discovered that 667 miles (1,073 kilometers) of major roadways in the Ohio Valley were impassable and 16% of all hospitals within the study area were inaccessible.Ī flood risk map for the lower Ohio River Valley looks at the combination of a community’s flood threat and socioeconomic vulnerability. “The team found that smaller suburban areas outside of major cities along the Ohio Valley – such as Paducah and Louisville, Kentucky – were at the highest flood risk and also contained the most inaccessible transportation routes,” said NASA's Kane Cook, the DEVELOP team lead. ![]() –Carey Johnson, Kentucky Division of Water “We can use to calculate an estimated flood depth, which is one of the most important things for us to know and understand during a flood.” The team then compared that environmental data to socioeconomic and population data, as well as road networks and infrastructure information, to create flood risk maps for communities along the river. They tapped into satellite imagery of precipitation, flood-water extent, local elevation and topography from 2015 to the severe flooding of 2018. Partnering with the Kentucky Division of Water, the National Weather Service’s Ohio River Forecast Center, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA), the NASA team looked at three years of Ohio Valley floods. Ohio River flooding in downtown Louisville, February 2018. ![]()
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