EAST PALESTINE — Federal, state and local officials held the third of what will be daily briefings Monday to keep the public updated on the aftermath of the Norfolk Southern train derailment.

Monday’s briefing was held at the East Palestine City Park Community Center and focused on community engagement, cleanup efforts and the announcement of a new welcome center to be staffed by EPA officials.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan will make a return visit to East Palestine today to help open the center at 25 N. Market St.

“We’re setting this (center) up as a location where members of the greater East Palestine community can drop in to meet with staff from the EPA and other agencies,” Debra Shore, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 Administrator, said. “It’s a location to learn about services available to support the community.”

Shore reported that the EPA has conducted 578 home re-entry screenings and continues to monitor air quality at 15 stations within East Palestine. She said that indoor and outdoor air quality remains normal, and reminded residents that air screening is being offered continuously by the EPA to those in the evacuation zone who want the service. Those who are interested in the service are encouraged to call the EPA help hotline at 1-866-361-0526.

Shore also reported that two EPA-certified sites in Ohio — the Heritage Thermal Solutions incinerator in East Liverpool and Vickery Environmental in Clyde — began receiving derailment waste Monday morning. Other sites set to receive solid and liquid waste from the cleanup efforts are Ross Incinerator in Grafton and the Heritage Hazardous Waste Landfill in Roachdale, Indiana.

“The addition to these two disposal locations gets us closer to having enough capacity to finish the cleanup and get all the waste out of East Palestine as quickly as possible,” Shore said.

Moving waste out of East Palestine and into East Liverpool drew criticism via a news release from the environmental activism group Save Our County and its President Alonzo Spencer after it was announced that the local incinerator had already begun accepting derailment waste.

During the briefing, Shore addressed concerns of Heritage’s history of environmental violations.

“We did a compliance screen of each of these sites and they are currently in compliance,” Shore said. “We can have inspectors in collaboration with the state out there at any time.”

Aside from identifying disposal sites, FEMA also was on the ground in East Palestine today, answering questions and handing out informational pamphlets. FEMA Region 5 Regional Administrator Thomas Sivak said the on-the-ground efforts will continue.

“As of this afternoon we had 66 FEMA teams on the ground, engaging in the community,” he said. “The interagency teams were able to engage over 190 residents bringing the total to 543 in the last couple of days. We will continue to emphasize getting information into the residents’ hands. Over the next couple of days, we are going to focus on engaging, communicating and listening to community’s needs.”

Jill Shugart, team lead of the local efforts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced that the CDC was expanding its outreach efforts to surrounding areas and first responders.

“We’re able get on the ground in Pennsylvania yesterday to talk to residents about our ACE (assessment of chemical exposure) survey. We spent most of the day there,” Shugart said. “This week, we are going to be focusing out first-responder survey to target those first responders who not only responded in the first couple of hours of the incident but also the ones who are on the ground today helping with cleanup.”

Shugart and Ohio Department of Health Chief of Staff Miranda Williams also encouraged residents who are experiencing symptoms, but are unable to see a primary care provider, to schedule an appointment at the health assessment clinic or contact the Poison Control Center for advice.

“At the health assessment clinic, there are nurses on hand to take vitals and residents can fill out the ACE surveys so we can have some data based on what has been experienced and track that,” Williams said. “Every visitor to the clinic will also be seen by a physician who will provide an individualized assessment and medical evaluation and if necessary connect them with doctor who can follow up with them long term.”

Shugart said data collected through the ACE surveys and individual assessments as well as any public health recommendations will be made available to the public while the interagency teams will do their best to address concerns and questions.

According to East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway, answers are what the residents of East Palestine need the most right now.

“I know there is definitely questions about the rashes and the illnesses so we’re working with the federal agency, the EPA, the Department of Health to get those answers for our community,” he said. “I know it is still ongoing but I think there’s a lot of answered questions. I know our residents are frustrated but we’re working on getting them the answers as fast as we can.”