An Ohio woman has slammed the US government for its neglect of critical infrastructure that she says has led to a series of environmental disasters.
Residents of the small northeast Ohio town of East Palestine have become increasingly angry at being forgotten by US President Joe Biden's administration.
They are also still waiting for a visit by officials from Norfolk Southern Railway which operated the freight train which derailed near the town on February 3, leaving a huge spill and conflagration of the toxic, cancer-causing chemical vinyl chloride.
Ohio resident and medical lab technician Miranda Hemsworth told Sputnik that federal tax dollars spent on aid to other countries — including tens of billions to arm Ukraine for conflict with Russia — would have been better spent on crumbling US railways and industrial facilities.
"We don't understand how billions can go to foreign aid and we're seeing these disasters one after another," Hemsworth said, "because this isn't the only train derailment."
"Within a few weeks, there was another one in Detroit. And then just this week, we had a foundry explode," she pointed out.
Hemsworth wondered why her state was not getting federal funding when "our infrastructure is crumbling." She pointed to the threat of nationwide strikes by railworkers last December, which was only headed off by Congress passing legislation to force a pay deal on hold-out unions.
"If the rail strikers were so essential that they would cripple the US economy, then why are we not seen as important to the US economy?" she asked.
Now the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has left it to Norfolk Southern to run the investigation into the disaster that has left residents suffering from mystery symptoms and the woods and rivers strewn with dead animals and fish.
"I do not trust Norfolk Southern to conduct their own investigation," Hemsworth fumed. "I was so disappointed that the EPA isn't going to be leading the investigation because Norfolk Southern already proved that they do not care about investigating the full extent to the consequences of their actions."
Biden has drawn fire for flying across the Atlantic to Kiev for a photo opportunity with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky while failing to visit East Palestine, which lies on the border with his home state of Pennsylvania.