Governor Kevin Stitt tweeted that he stopped a shipment of contaminated soil from East Palestine, Ohio, to a waste disposal facility in northwestern Oklahoma.
According to an email obtained by The Frontier, the Environmental Protection Agency notified the governor’s office on Saturday that it planned to send 3,640 tons of waste to the Clean Harbors Lone Mountain facility near Waynoka.
Debra Shore, the EPA regional administrator for Ohio, said East Palestine’s contaminated soil and water need to be transferred to a hazardous waste disposal facility.
"We know it’s far better to have it safely stored in a properly constructed and monitored disposal facility than to have it remain here any longer than necessary when there are licensed, regulated disposal facilities available that routinely dispose of similar wastes," Shore said.
But Stitt said there are too many questions about the safety of shipping and storing the toxic materials. According to EPA data, this shipment contained more than twice as much waste as the Lone Mountain facility normally deals with in a year.
Stitt says he worked with Oklahoma’s federal delegation to stop the shipment.
