Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown refused to say whether he would drink tap water in East Palestine after a freight train derailment caused a catastrophic chemical spill and fire in the town.
Mr Brown was asked by CNN State of the Union host Pamela Brown on Sunday whether residents should accept assurances from EPA officials and state and local lawmakers that the water and air was safe.
The Democrat deflected from saying if he would personally drink the water, saying that worried East Palestine residents were “right to be skeptical”.
“We think the water is safe, but when you return to your home, you should be tested again for your water and your soil and your air, not to mention those that have their own wells,” he said.
He added that local officials including the town mayor Trent Conaway had tested the water.
“The mayor said definitively, emphatically, that people can drink the water. The mayor’s – I don’t know. I don’t think the mayor has small kids. He looks a little older to me. I didn’t ask him, ... about bathing his kids.”
In a video posted to Twitter on Friday by Lt Governor Jon Husted, East Palestine officials including Fire Chief Chief Keith Drabick, Police Chief James Brown, and Mayor Trent Conaway drank tap water in an attempt to ease community concerns.
Governor Mike DeWine and the EPA administrator Michael Regan have also declared the water is safe.
On 3 February, a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals and suffered a catastrophic derailment on the outskirts of East Palestine.
State officials opted to burn the chemicals off, causing a huge explosion and sending plumes of toxic black smoke hundreds of feet into the air.
Thousands of residents were evacuated, before being given the all clear to return several days later.
At a public meeting held last week, residents said they didn’t trust the assurances that the water and air was safe.
Mr Brown, who visited the crash site on Thursday, told CNN that Norfolk Southern had promised to cover the cost of the clean up operation, which he estimated could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
He blasted the publicly listed company for spending money on stock buybacks while neglecting investment in safety and hiring staff.
“There’s no question they caused it with this derailment, because, again, they underinvested in their employees... (it’s) my understanding, there are only three full-time people on that 50-car train that went through town, because they have laid off so many people,” he said.
Donald Trump and environmental lawyer Erin Brokovich are expected to visit the town this week.
