Commentary
EAST PALESTINE—Rick Tsai is standing knee-deep in the briskly flowing Lesley Run creek, a mile downstream of where the massive derailment happened in this Columbiana County village. He’s wearing thick blue rubber gloves, heavy boots, and a respirator, and he is intent on seeing if the chemicals detected earlier are still visibly present.
Tsai lifts a sizable rock, and a milky purple surface emerges in a burst of percolating bubbles. The substance travels toward a deeper pool of water; the petroleum-based chemicals linger, floating and swirling against the ragged shoreline.
“Did you see that?” he shouts. It was hard not to….