EAST PALESTINE — The Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment — an advocacy and oversight group with representatives from all the communities impacted by February’s Norfolk Train Derailment — traveled to New York City over the weekend to continue their crusade of raising awareness for those still living through the crisis and calling for tangible action from government leaders.

The grassroots group took part in the March to End Fossil Fuels held in lower Manhattan. Protestors first gathered in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, and then marched to target sites in the Financial District on Wall Street. An estimated 75,000 people marched on Sunday. Protestors included Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and actors Susan Sarandon, Ethan Hawke, Edward Norton, Kyra Sedgewick and Kevin Bacon. Unity Council members Jessica Conard, Hilary Flint, Daren Gamble and Jami Wallace made the trip to New York. The members were invited by Break Free from Plastic to join its Appalachia Delegation in the march. The group was able to protest beside and have conversations with several environmentalists, including Sharon Lavigne, an advocate for St. James Parrish in Louisiana which has been named “Cancer Alley” due to the impact the petrochemical industry has had on that community’s health.

“My heart broke for the people of Cancer Alley and I worry that my county is next,” said Flint, a renal cell carcinoma survivor and a resident of Enon Valley, Pa. “I am the fourth generation to live in my home, but sadly I will be the last. My home tested positive for ethyl hexyl acrylate, vinyl chloride and a variety of dioxins after the train derailment. As a young adult cancer survivor, I just can’t risk getting sick again.”

The Unity Council handed out cards with a QR code that directs to the group’s petition asking Biden to sign the Major Disaster Declaration. The online petition at only.one/act/east-palestine has garnered nearly 17,000 signatures.

“Only President Biden has the power to approve Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine’s request for a disaster declaration in East Palestine,” the petition reads. “By approving the request, President Biden would enable the federal government to give residents the financial relief and comprehensive environmental testing that they desperately require.”

DeWine officially made the request on July 3 — five months to the day of the derailment and on the day a 120-day extension granted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency was set to expire. To date, Biden has not acted upon DeWine’s request.

When the train derailed, several tankers of noxious chemicals such as butyl acrylate, spilled their contents. Days later, five tankers of vinyl chloride were vented and burned, creating the plume the world came to associate with the disaster. Both butyl acrylate and vinyl chloride are used in plastic production.

“I had no idea how all of these things tie together,” said Gamble, an East Palestine resident. “Now that I’ve seen what this industry can do to a community, to a family, to my family, I understand what is at stake.”

Conard, an East Palestine resident, former community advocate for Erin Brockovich’s East Palestine Justice and the current Appalachia Director for Beyond Plastics ( a project to end plastic pollution), said that the plastic industry played a culpable role in February’s rail disaster.

“Many agree there is a global plastic waste problem,” Conard said. “Over 99 percent of plastic is made from chemicals derived from fossil fuels. Cleaning up the waste is important but it’s not enough. It’s time to turn off the tap for plastic production. This is how we make good of the crisis in East Palestine. We tell the world this can’t happen again.”

Wallace said it shouldn’t have happened in the first place but is also cognizant that it could happen anywhere.

“This is not a red issue or a blue issue. This is an issue of human lives,” she said. “What happened in my community could happen to any community in the United States.”