Bonnie English had been praying for weeks for the people who live in and around East Palestine after the train derailment that put this region on edge. Then she and her husband Eddie found out that the toxic soil from that wreck had come here to be disposed of. She was stunned.

“I have been praying for them,” she said. “I guess I need to start praying for myself and my family.”

The English family, originally from East Liverpool, lives in nearby Beaver County, Pennsylvania, along the Ohio River. Their home overlooks the river and is just upriver from the Heritage Industry plant where the toxic waste was shipped on Tuesday.

Exactly one month after the Feb. 3 train derailment caused a disastrous chemical spill, toxic waste from the crash site was moved here to Heritage Thermal Services facilities. The move was approved by the federal EPA. Norfolk Southern transported the contaminated soil as part of the remediation process.