Widespread impacts to precipitation of the East Palestine Ohio train accident

The Widespread impacts to precipitation of the East Palestine Ohio train accident paper was published in the Environmental Research Letters Journal. The paper was co-authored by David Gay, Katie Blaydes, Jamie Schauer, and Martin Shafer. Precipitation chemistry measurements routinely collected by the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) to estimate the spatial extent and chemical compounds deposited as a result of the Norfolk Southern train derailment that occurred in East Palestine, Ohio on 3 February 2023. NADP measurements revealed a large areal impact from the Midwest through the Northeast and likely Canada, and perhaps as far south as North Carolina (portions of 16 states, 1.4 million km2). Observations showed the expected high chloride concentrations, but also unexpectedly high pH (basic) and exceptionally elevated levels of base cations exceeding 99th percentiles versus the historic record. These results were consistent with the meteorological conditions and atmospheric trajectories, and were not due to highly-concentrated low volume precipitation samples or wildfires. The robust measurements of the NADP network clearly show that the impacts of the fire were larger in scale and scope than the initial predictions, and likely due to the uplift from the fire itself entraining pollutants into the atmosphere.