Ohio senator admits East Palestine residents ‘right to be skeptical’ about safety — and won’t say if he’d drink water

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown said Sunday that people were “right to be skeptical” about their safety following a train-derailment chemical spill and fire — and didn’t answer when asked if he’d be willing to drink the local water.

During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Brown was asked if residents of East Palestine, Ohio, should “accept the assurances from the government” that their air and water were clean following the incident earlier this month.

“Well, they’re right to be skeptical,” he said. “We think the water is safe, but when you return to your home, you should be tested again for your water and your soil and your air, not to mention those that have their own wells.”

When asked by host Pamela Brown if he’d drink the water — and if other officials should do so to reassure the public — the Ohio Democrat didn’t answer directly.

“Well, I think they are,” he said. “I mean, I talked to the mayor. The mayor said definitively, emphatically, that people can drink the water. The mayor’s — I don’t know. I don’t think the mayor has small kids. He looks a little older to me. I didn’t ask him, but — about bathing his kids.”

On Friday, East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway and other officials each drank a plastic cup of tap water, according to a video posted on Twitter by Ohio Lt. Gov. John Husted.

But the next day, Conaway told Newsmax that although he was “100%” confident in the municipal water supply, he’d “definitely be drinking bottled water” if he had a private well, especially if he lived near a creek.

The Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed on Feb. 3 included 20 cars carrying hazardous materials that spilled or were intentionally burned to keep five cars from exploding.

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Fears of toxic contamination were stoked Friday when independent Kentucky journalist Nick Sortor posted a video clip of an oily sheen rising to the surface of a creek after a woman tossed an object into the water.

The clip has been viewed on Twitter nearly 10 million times.

Follow The Post’s coverage of the Ohio train derailment

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also came under fire Sunday from Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), three days after Sen. Marco Rubio demanded that President Biden fire Buttigieg over his handling of the derailment.

During an appearance on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Schmitt said that Buttigieg has “been a no-show in Ohio and so the American people are right to be upset about this.”

“They demand answers. They demand a presence by this administration to know that they’re going to take care of these issues,” Schmitt said.

Meanwhile, Brown told CNN that the Norfolk Southern Corp. “made promises to me” about covering the huge costs of the derailment.

“The commitments they have told me is essentially making everybody whole. And that is all the cleanup, all the help for residents,” he said. “It’s going to be tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars in that community of 4,500 people and then the township, Unity Township, a little larger.”

Norfolk Southern president and CEO Alan Shaw visited East Palestine on Saturday and told reporters he was there “to support the community” but declined further comment.