Crews removed tons of contaminated soil from the East Palestine derailment. Here's where it went

Jeff Drummond’s house was less than a football field away from the site where a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine in February. The house still sits in the middle of the remediation zone as, for months, crews have worked to clean up in the aftermath.

“All the dirt is behind my house,” Drummond said. “They took out all the woods between my house and the tracks, 30 feet off my back porch is where the dirt’s piled up at.”

Drummond was evacuated from his home following the derailment, when first responders performed a controlled burn of vinyl chloride in five tanker cars.

He moved into the Davis Motel in North Lima, where he remains nearly 11 months later.

But the dirt pile is just about gone now. Trucks and trains have hauled it to designated incinerators and landfills in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Colorado and Texas.