COLUMBUS – Approximately 38,222 minnows and 5,500 other species – including crayfish, amphibians and macroinvertebrates – were potentially killed as a result of the East Palestine derailment, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
The updated estimates distributed Thursday afternoon are the result of a calculation ODNR performed, based on a dead species sample count by contractor EnviroScience on Feb. 6-7 in four collection sites designated by ODNR in waterways in the impacted area.
State wildlife officials monitored the collection. Collectors entered the water and used a net to gather dead fish in the four designated survey spots.
The sample found 2,938 dead fish and other aquatic species. Of this collected sample, nearly 2,200 were small minnows, according to an ODNR statement.
Based on the sample count, ODNR officials used a calculation endorsed by the American Fisheries Society to extrapolate the total number of minnows killed in the five-mile span of waterway from the derailment site to the point where Bull Creek flows into the north fork of Little Beaver Creek.
The minnows ranged in size between 1 and 3 inches, ODNR said.
Dead aquatic species still remain in impacted waterways, although some have been cleaned up, said ODNR Director Mary Mertz in the statement.
ODNR believes the entirety of the impact to aquatic life occurred in the first 24 hours after the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern derailment in northeastern Ohio, near the border with Pennsylvania., in which hazardous chemicals spewed into the air and waterways and later were burned.
There is no immediate threat to minnows, fish or other aquatic species, Mertz said.
“Because the chemicals were contained, ODNR has not seen any additional signs of aquatic life suffering in the streams,” Mertz said. “In fact, we have seen live fish return to Leslie Run.”
ODNR continues to believe none of the species killed were threatened or endangered, it said. The agency is awaiting test results on several non-aquatic animals – including three birds and an opossum.
“We do not believe any of these animals were made sick by the train derailment, but we have submitted those specimens to the Ohio Department of Agriculture and will wait for those test results before making that judgement,” Mertz said.
“We are continuing to monitor and assess the environmental impact during cleanup,” she said.
