The federal government filed a lawsuit against Norfolk Southern Corp. over last month’s train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, pointing out that the company’s operating costs on safety-related measures have dropped over the past four years.
The Justice Department filed the complaint Thursday on behalf of the EPA in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. It states that hazardous materials were emitted into the air and spilled onto the ground, contaminating local waterways and flowing miles downstream.
The government seeks to hold the company accountable for “unlawfully polluting the nation’s waterways” and to make sure it “pays the full cost of the environmental cleanup,” according to the complaint, which also names Norfolk Southern Railway Company as a defendant.
