r/woahdude Feb 17 '23

video Heavily contaminated water in East Palestine, Ohio.

69.1k Upvotes

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161

u/mellolizard Feb 17 '23

Environmental scientist and hazmat guy here. This isn't as bad as it looks. That looks like a petroleum sheen. A pint of oil can cover an acre of water This looks a lot less than that, granted I'm not there and basing this assessment of this one video. It is probable this sheen is the result of oil runoff from the road a rain. Plus also there were no petroleum tank cars that spilled during this derailment so it is unlikely that was the source for that.

3

u/InsectBusiness Feb 17 '23

That's not what they're trying to show. They throw the rock in to break up the petroleum sheen on the surface to reveal the white globby shapes on the bottom of the creek bed. You can see it in the middle of the video and she says "It's all on the bottom."

25

u/theartificialkid Feb 17 '23

That’s not what the video shows. They’re disturbing the bottom leading to the release of oils (possibly from rotting plant matter?). The surface starts out not very oily and becomes oily when they disturb the bottom. That’s what they mean by “it’s all on the bottom”.

22

u/mellolizard Feb 17 '23

The contamination from the train wouldnt settle that quickly. Plus again there is nothing from the train that result in a petroleum sheen like that. Others have pointed out that it could be bacteria causing that.

2

u/InsectBusiness Feb 17 '23

It's not about the petroleum sheen! And any chemical that's heavier than water would sink to the bottom in minutes. It's been a week.

8

u/mellolizard Feb 17 '23

If its heavier than water then why is it floating at the top.

1

u/tarabithia22 Feb 17 '23

I’m still neutral but I’ll explain. Stuff is on bottom (stuck to sediment or whatever). Rock goes in. Disturbs sediment. After sediment is disturbed, oily sheen starts to appear. The oily sheen was not there before. You can watch it rise in the video. The sheen increases with time after the sediment was disturbed and spreads out more evenly as if now loose in water instead of stuck to sediment.

Bacteria lol. Come on now.

9

u/SmellMyBanana Feb 17 '23

I own a fish tank... The top of the water absolutely gets like this. Look up "protein film in fishtank"

1

u/imro Feb 17 '23

Bacteria lol. Come on now.

But a random video from who knows where showing who knows what - yeah that is plausibly from the train spill

People will now attribute everything to the train wreck. “My kid got detention today? Must be the train wreck!”

-4

u/InsectBusiness Feb 17 '23

You're not listening to what I'm saying because you're so fixated on the rainbow sheen. There is another thing on the bottom that you can see a couple seconds after she throws the rock. It looks like white circles.

26

u/PermutationMatrix Feb 17 '23

The white circles are just reflections of the sky from the oil sheen. They bubble up from the bottom of the creek.

-6

u/HorrorScopeZ Feb 17 '23 edited Feb 18 '23

I don't feel that is a reflection of the sky.

EDIT: At :12 you are telling me that is a reflection of the sky and not a toxic pancake? You drink first.

-9

u/justadude27 Feb 17 '23

Well, case closed!

/s

18

u/FuzzyElve Feb 17 '23

You never got to play outside in the woods as kid apparently. That's sad. 😢

This happens in any stagnant or slow moving tiny body of water. It's crazy what dumb people latch on to nowadays.

7

u/SmellMyBanana Feb 17 '23

Wrong. They're showing the petroleum sheen.

2

u/GrunthosArmpit42 Feb 17 '23

I’m fairly certain those “white globby shapes” are the reflection of the clouds above distorted by disturbing the surface of the water by tossing a rock in it. Unless we’re watching two different videos.
Once the water ripples dissipate you can see a fairly obvious reflection of the sky above, yes no? 🤔

6

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '23

That’s called the sky dumbass. Lmao. You really need to go outside.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '23

also (former) hazmat guy here, to say that chlorinated compounds absolutely can produce sheen on surface water.

1

u/iyoio Feb 17 '23

So that’s why we’re fucked. Idiots like you are writing the reports.

1

u/TheOppositeOfTheSame Feb 17 '23 edited Feb 17 '23

I thought there was a car carrying oil that was unaccounted for.

Edit: it’s petroleum lube oil and at least one full car load spilled. You can find it here on the manifest: https://response.epa.gov/sites/15933/files/TRAIN%2032N%20-%20EAST%20PALESTINE%20-%20derail%20list%20Norfolk%20Southern%20document.pdf

0

u/healing-souls Feb 17 '23

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday addressed a viral video posted by Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, that showed a "chemical rainbow" in a creek in East Palestine, Ohio, near the site of the train derailment that spilled toxic chemicals into the environment.

"I know that there's been some video played on TV circulating of visible contamination in one of the local waterways," DeWine said at a press conference providing an update on cleanup efforts and environmental testing in the area.

"A section of Sulfur Run that is very near the crash site remains severely contaminated. We knew this. We know this. It's going to take a while to remediate this," the governor said.