This story was first published exclusively by NewsNation on the morning of September 23rd. The EPA has now responded to NewsNation’s request for comment. Their response is included now in the story below.
(NewsNation) — More than three years after the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, a member of the field response team is coming forward with allegations of contamination data being buried.
Testers were told they’d better come back with good results, and residents were falsely assured the air was safe, according to a sworn affidavit obtained by NewsNation.
Peggy Dixon is a former environmental tester turned whistleblower with the Government Accountability Project. She worked on the cleanup of the 2023 East Palestine, Ohio, train wreck. Twenty of the affected train cars contained materials the Environmental Protection Agency deemed hazardous, including vinyl chloride, ethylene glycol, ethylhexyl acrylate, butyl acrylate and isobutylene.
East Palestine whistleblower: ‘I can no longer carry this burden in silence’
Now, in the affidavit, Dixon says the company that hired her was Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (now known as Onterris). Norfolk Southern contracted the company, and Dixon writes they both worked to hide how bad the contamination really was.
“That was a turning point for me. I realized this wasn’t about public safety — it was about liability,” Dixon said. She was part of the response teams in the weeks after the derailment, in the excavation work in 2024 and last year’s work to close the site.
According to the affidavit, Dixon said project managers emphasized to field staff they needed “zeroes” — results indicating things were safe — or they would be presumed incompetent and sent home.
The former tester also said EPA and Ohio agencies went along with it.
“These actions, which I personally observed, were part of a coordinated effort by government and corporate entities to conceal the true environmental and public health impacts of the derailment and open burn of five vinyl chloride train cars,” Dixon said.
Dixon worked with Onterris for five years as a rapid responder and environmental scientist with degrees in biology and chemistry plus certifications in rail safety and hazardous waste response, and she passed a federal background check, according to the affidavit.
Norfolk Southern, the EPA and Onterris have not responded to requests for comment as of publishing.
East Palestine whistleblower: ‘This is not right’
Stephen Petty, president of Engineering & Expert Services and an expert in environmental exposure and care, has done extensive testing in East Palestine and called Dixon’s account illuminating.
“My main takeaway is really for the first time we have an insider’s view on how companies who have big environmental problems hire another company to make that problem go away,” Petty told NewsNation.
Affidavit-of-Peggy-Dixon-Sept-2026.pdfDownload
Petty said he’s testified multiple times about corporations’ responsibility to the truth and added even in a world where the truth often lies in a gray area, this case stands out.
“This clearly steps into the black zone,” Petty said. “I mean, this is not right.”
East Palestine air monitors: Subpar equipment used
Dixon said officials utilized weak air monitors and buried high readings. She also alleged the company told the public the air was safe when it wasn’t.
“I stood in front of residents and told them that I was standing there, that my machine wasn’t alarming, and so they were safe,” Dixon said. “But I now know the machines we were given were incapable of detecting the full scope of contaminants. We were unknowingly misrepresenting the situation.”
Dixon said she was haunted by the actions the corporation took to hide “health harm,” adding the people of East Palestine did not deserve that treatment.
“I can no longer carry this burden in silence every day,” Dixon said.
Recently, NewsNation obtained a report prepared by an exposure-warnings expert and industrial hygienist showing dioxins and PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), some of the most carcinogenic compounds on the planet, at elevated levels in East Palestine.
The EPA responds
On September 28th, the EPA responded to NewsNation’s request for comment:
CTEH is Norfolk Southern’s contractor. Their work was conducted under federal, state, and local oversight and subject to quality assurance checks. EPA conducted its own air monitoring and collected separate air samples throughout the response on the worksites and in the community. Many times EPA’s samples were co-located with NSR’s as part of EPA’s oversight. EPA’s air sampling data are available on our website.
On August 28. 2026, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin sent a joint letter to the EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG), requesting a comprehensive, independent investigation into the Biden-Harris Administration’s response to the February 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Additional information available in EPA’s press release.
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