A former environmental scientist who responded to Norfolk Southern’s 2023 train derailment in East Palestine says the contractor she worked for took steps to conceal contamination, according to a 97-page affidavit filed Wednesday.
Peggy Dixon wrote that the firm, the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, pressured her to dismiss test results and report “zeros” that did not match conditions on the ground. “They emphasized that we wanted zeros in our reports,” Dixon wrote. “But zeros didn’t match what we were experiencing on the ground.” She also alleged the contractor concealed animal deaths.
The affidavit was filed by a whistleblower group as part of a request for an investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General.
Dixon was deployed to East Palestine two days after the fiery derailment and remained for nearly three months, testing air in homes and other sites for volatile organic compounds and other contaminants. She returned to the village in 2024 and 2025.
The derailment and the intentional burning of vinyl chloride from tanker cars sent a chemical cloud over the town of about 4,500 residents, making it one of the worst U.S. chemical disasters in recent years.
Last month, Vice President JD Vance and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin asked the EPA’s inspector general to investigate how the Biden administration and private entities handled the disaster response.
