EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (WCMH) — Vice President JD Vance was back in Ohio Monday for the second anniversary of the East Palestine train derailment. 

Two years ago, 50 cars on a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine; ten of those cars were carrying hazardous materials. This led to an evacuation order for people living nearby and soon health, water and air concerns became top of mind for the residents of the village.  

“It’s sort of surreal that the vice president of the United States is coming in,” Mayor of East Palestine Trent Conaway said. “And it’s sad in a way, too. That was a major event, and it changed our lives forever, and we’ll never get our small town back to the way it was, but we have to do our best to build and keep moving on.” 

Conaway said he is hopeful that his village can be rebuilt, with promises from Vance and the Trump administration. 

“I promise the people of East Palestine, we are taking those concerns seriously and we will do so for the remainder of President Trump’s administration,” Vance said. 

Vance spent the first part of his day touring the site of the crash; he said getting to the bottom of both the environmental clean-up and health concerns is a priority. 

“I really do believe that a critical piece of rebuilding is Palestine is giving people confidence that they can raise a family in health and safety here in this community,” Vance said. “Now, I believe that’s true, but the only way that other people are going to believe that’s true is if folks like myself, the EPA and the broader administration take those health and safety concerns seriously.” 

He said while those concerns are important, there also has to be a focus on building the community back up from an economic standpoint. 

“We know that a lot of local businesses and a lot of local people lost a lot when that trade disaster happened,” Vance said.  

Vance was asked what definitive actions the people of East Palestine can depend on from the Trump-Vance administration to ensure that both the economic and the environmental rebuild happens. 

“The first, the most important and concrete promise is that we’re going to be transparent as the cleanup proceeds,” Vance said. 

Vance said that means letting residents know how things are going, even when they are not going well. He said the second thing he wants to assure the community is a long-term investment. 

“[The people here] know that this disaster left a mark on this community,” he said. “They know also that to rebuild, you’re going to have to have a government that is for the long haul, that’s doing the long term well testing, the long-term water, testing the long-term air tests, testing the long-term health testing and that’s something that we’re going to fight to make sure that we do over the next few years of this administration.” 

What about any action from Congress? When Vance was a senator, he sponsored a bi-partisan railway safety bill, which ultimately gained President Donald Trump’s backing. Vance said the goal of the bill, in part, is to hold the railway companies more accountable, but that legislation has yet to get through. 

“It’s something to keep on working on,” Vance said. “Look, this can’t happen again as much as I believe in East Palestine, and I really do believe in this community and its people, what they’re rebuilding through shouldn’t have happened. It’s not their fault and if we can take any learning from this, it’s hopefully not to force another community to go through it again.” 

The stalled legislation leaves some, like Conaway, frustrated. 

“This is ridiculous,” he said. “It’s been two years now. I don’t know if it’s the lobbyists holding it up or what it is. I don’t think it is huge changes for the class one railroad.” 

As far as an emergency declaration goes, Vance said he is not sure if that is what the community needs right now. 

“A disaster declaration may have been very helpful 18 months ago,” he said. “I don’t know that it’s still helpful today and so what I’m going to do is I’m going to ask the governor behind me, I’m going to talk to Lee [Zeldin, EPA Administrator] about this, and I’m going to say, ‘Is a disaster declaration still helpful?’ Because if the answer is ‘yes,’ then I’m going to take that message back to Washington.” 

Vance said even if the answer is no, he plans to work at building the community back up. 

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said that as long as it is a priority for Vance, it is for the EPA. 

“Knowing this tragedy and what it meant to this community, I know how much of a priority that this is for Vice President Vance,” Zeldin said. “And because it is such a high priority for him, I will make sure that for the EPA, it is our highest priority day in, day out, doing everything in our power to make sure that this is completed as quickly as possible.”