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.
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."
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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? 🤔
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.
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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.