The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.

Ashley McCollum:

Oh God. What caused it?

East Palestine Resident:

Train derailed.

Ashley McCollum:

A train derailed?

East Palestine Resident:

Yeah.

Ashley McCollum:

The night that I was sitting on my couch, that’s whenever my normal small town life changed in an instant.

Zsuzsa Gyenes:

When the derailment happened, my son and I were very sick the night that it had happened. And we were forced to leave our home very shortly afterwards.

Ashley McCollum:

You can smell it in my house. I mean, you have to wear a mask in my house. You get sick. That’s not clean. So we’re in East Palestine. That’s definitely not clean.

Jami Wallace:

We’re not okay. We went from seeing symptoms in residents to long-term illness.

Cleveland 19 News:

People in East Palestine are still getting sick. They’re still desperate for answers, desperate for testing.

Rising:

Scott Smith has previously revealed dangerous levels of dioxins and furans in the town’s air, water, soil, and homes, which counters the EPA narrative that it is in fact safe to live in East Palestine.

Scott Smith:

The bottom line is you don’t need my testing or anyone else’s to use the very simple logic that none of these health symptoms were reported by these residents prior to the Norfolk Southern derailment. And what made East Palestine different, it was like all prior 75 disasters I’d been to all in one, and here’s why. Because the mixtures of chemicals. Usually I’m going into a contamination event where it’s some oil, it’s some diesel, it’s a few chemicals, no more than a handful. But you had all these mixtures and what’s called products of complete combustion, of which dioxins are part of. And the whole community was inundated with mixtures of chemicals. East Palestine, Ohio, I was reading about it. I’m seeing it just like the regular general public, and I didn’t know the extent of it. I was on the fence about coming to this disaster. Courtney Miller reached out to me on, was Twitter at the time, begging me to come test her water and the creek behind her house.

And that was February 17th, 2023. And I was here on February 22nd. But when I got on the ground here, that’s when things started to get very, very interesting. Within minutes of me putting my PPE, personal protective equipment on and going to Sulfur Run Creek in Courtney’s backyard, which is, I believe, right around 75 yards plus or minus from ground zero. A contractor came out of the woods, drones over my head. And this contractor said, “Who are you? What are you doing?” And this is all documented on video.

You’re standing on private property right now.

Norfolk Southern Contractor:

I’m sorry, but I need to know.

Scott Smith:

I have to check with my public information officer.

Norfolk Southern Contractor:

Okay.

Scott Smith:

You’re on private property.

Norfolk Southern Contractor:

I’m sorry.

Scott Smith:

I asked who she was and we figured it out later and, “Well, I can’t tell you who I am. We can’t tell you about our testing, but I absolutely need to know who you are. ” So that started the whole thing about we must have stumbled onto something that they didn’t want any independent testing. And that was the beginning. And then I got the results back. Then we found dioxins. We found a whole host of other cancer causing chemicals. You hear people talk about PAHs.

Maximillian Alvarez:

What do you see when you see dioxin levels in a place like this that maybe the average person does not?

Scott Smith:

Dioxins are pretty much forever chemicals. They build up in your body. They don’t go away. They increase what’s called the body burden and your exposure. And what made East Palestine different, it was like all prior 75 disasters I’d been to all in one, and here’s why because the mixtures of chemicals. Usually I’m going into a contamination event where it’s some oil, it’s some diesel, it’s a few chemicals, no more than a handful, but you had all these mixtures and what’s called products of complete combustion of which dioxins are part of. And the whole community was inundated with mixtures of chemicals. Now, why are mixtures of chemicals important? Because there are no standards for mixtures of chemicals. And then you have the EPA citing a singular exposure to a singular chemical. Meaning, for example, if you work for a company and they have a benzene spill, there’s only a standard based on an exposure to that chemical, nothing else.

There are no standards for mixtures of chemicals. The EPA was talking to me professionally until on or about March 17th when I got the results and I started talking about dioxins and I referred to dioxins and all the mixtures that can happen with them as the fentanyl of chemicals. I do a national news story on March 17th. On March 20th, it turns out that the EPA was searching for all my private information, where I was, where I lived, what I was doing, and that’s when their surveillance started with me. They weren’t testing the soil, the sediment, they weren’t testing in the places I was testing for dioxins and other chemicals. And my sampling plan is pretty simple. I don’t seek out testing residents because I’ve been doing this for 19 years in over 75 disasters and residents were begging me saying, “Hey, I live in and around ground zero, the EPA, Norfolk Southern, they’re refusing to test my property.

Please help me. ” So I started going to all these locations and testing where the EPA would not. And I think the threat is because I have the expression you can’t find what you don’t look for and I was sampling in sites they didn’t want to go near because if they don’t test it, they don’t have to deal with the problem and they can’t find it. I’m a government accountability project whistleblower. If it weren’t for Leslie Pacey and the government accountability project, I probably wouldn’t have been able to continue this working with other communities because they had surrounded me with a legal team when Norfolk Southern was subpoenaing me in my driveway trying to intimidate me. They reached out and we fought and preserved my constitutional rights. One of the problems we really have, and I have the proof of all this, is what I call the incestuous revolving door.

What I mean by that is ex- government employees selling out to the billion dollar company to help in the coverup. Prime example of that is an ex EPA attorney, Davina Pujara, who actually signed the subpoena in my driveway. She actually sold out and went to work for Norfolk Southern for their law firm and started the campaign. Forget about me. It’s about the community. How does she look herself in the mirror making the money she’s making? Is it really worth it? Is it really worth it to her soul to sell this community out and be part of the coverup? Whistleblowers have been coming out of the woodwork. I want to make it very clear. The government agencies, whether it’s the EPA and the other agencies, over 90% of the people that work there are really good human beings. I hear from them and reach out. They’re scared and they’re intimidated, and that’s why they come to me anonymously.

There’s a lot more coming out. And it’s only a small fraction of the people that rise to the top that sell out the taxpayers, sell their soul to become part of the undue influence from the billion dollar companies. And I want to say for anybody seeing this, if you are a whistleblower, you can remain anonymous and government accountability project will protect you. Absolutely. I’m built differently than a lot of people when a billion dollar company like Norfolk Southern subpoenas me in my driveway that makes my day. When the class action attorneys hire a PR firm to go after me, it makes my day. When the EPA comes up with a smear and the defamation campaign, it just motivates me that much more. I don’t go looking for trouble, but once they come at me, I’ll go at full force and I’ll never stop until the truth comes out.

The surveillance on me, I expected it. The surveillance on the impacted residents, I’m more upset about that. This is the government that’s supposed to protect. Something’s just wrong and we have an opportunity to expose this and bring everybody together once and for all for truth and justice.

Maximillian Alvarez:

You have a very unique perspective, not just because of what’s happened to you personally, your expertise, but as someone who has seen community after community going through toxic events like this, could you say a little more about what makes East Palestine different, but also for folks out there, what do you want them to know about how prevalent this is across the country?

Scott Smith:

Yeah, that’s a great question. So East Palestine is a turning point and I want people to know I’m seeing as divisive as the country’s been. I’m seeing something that has started in East Palestine. And when the history is written, East Palestine’s going to be the turning point. Communities all over the country are coming together, chemically impacted communities, all races, all walks of life, all political leanings. People are coming together because they’ve had enough of the corruption and the coverup in the same playbook of coverup coming from the government, from the EPA, from the agencies and the undue influence. And that’s what I am very hopeful about because it’s all being exposed. And what you see with East Palestine is an unprecedented … It’s like all 75 disasters I’ve been in in one. Why? Because of the bombardment and the mixtures of chemicals. And the cover up in East Palestine and the evidence we’ve uncovered is going to be, it’s great for exposing the truth.

Maximillian Alvarez:

I didn’t realize Courtney was the first one who invited you out here knowing what happened to her. Is there anything you wanted to say…

Scott Smith:

Yeah. I want to add, Courtney Miller was a fighter and there’s no question the chemical exposure and contributed to the issues that she had and took her own life and the attacks and the personal attacks she took in the bullying. No one should have to withstand that and it’s just plain wrong. I wouldn’t know what I know. I wouldn’t be connected with all these whistleblowers. If Courtney Miller doesn’t reach out to me, I wouldn’t be in Conyers, Georgia from the Biolab explosion. I wouldn’t be in Rosalind, Louisiana, wouldn’t be in Piquell, Ohio, wouldn’t be in Moss Landing and all these other events. Courtney really started this and I will never let her be forgotten because she’s a fighter and it’s a very, very unfortunate situation.