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... 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.
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. ...
