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Weeks after a train derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border left hazardous chemicals burning from railcars, fears of the potential impacts are being felt in places far from the accident.

Grocery chain Giant Eagle, with hundreds of stores in five states including Ohio and Pennsylvania, pulled bottled water off shelves out of an “abundance of caution” because it was bottled 25 miles from the derailment.

Two high school basketball teams elsewhere in Ohio forfeited games rather than venturing to the region to play.

More than a thousand miles away, Houston-area politicians rushed to assure residents anxious about firefighting wastewater from the derailment site set for disposal in Texas.

The Feb. 3 derailment occurred when 38 Norfolk Southern Corp. railcars fell off the track in East Palestine, Ohio, some of those with hazardous materials catching fire. Three days later, the railroad burned vinyl chloride from five tanker cars to avert a potential explosion. The incident has raised concern from residents about the long-term health risks near and around the village of 4,700 people.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said on Tuesday that the agency will order Norfolk Southern to pay for the necessary cleanup in East Palestine, Ohio, after one of its trains carrying hazardous materials derailed. Photo: Matt Freed/Associated Press

The Environmental Protection Agency has said the region’s air and drinking water are safe and that monitoring will continue. Earlier this week EPA Administrator Michael Regan and other government officials drank water from the East Palestine municipal water authority in a show of confidence in the federal and state environmental testing that has shown that the village water supply is safe. 

Some of the reaction in recent days to more far-reaching chemical impacts has come amid people raising concerns on social media.

On Facebook, a handful of people posted questions about whether Giant Eagle water bottled south of East Palestine was safe to drink and said they had called the company to ask. The grocery chain put out a statement Tuesday that it would pull water products bottled in Salineville, Ohio, about 25 miles from East Palestine, from store shelves.

The company said its water comes from a protected spring not near any affected ground water sources and that third-party lab testing had revealed no abnormalities. Still, it said it would pull the water sourced from the Salineville facility, which makes up its gallon-size or larger bottled water options, until further notice, while health officials continue to review the impacts of the derailment.

Marguerite Parker, a 66-year-old retired nurse in Vermilion, Ohio, 100 miles west of the derailment, said she wasn’t personally concerned about its impacts until she saw a news report about Giant Eagle. She checked six gallons of water she had recently purchased for cooking and drinking on her farm and saw they had been bottled three days after the incident.

Giant Eagle grocery stores pulled bottled water off shelves because it was bottled 25 miles from the derailment.

“Who would think it’s going to reach out this far, the problems?” Ms. Parker said. “I’m not using that water.”

Meanwhile, concerns about breathing in the air around East Palestine led two high school basketball teams to decline to play games there or elsewhere in Columbiana County, according to the Ohio High School Athletic Association. Teams from Beachwood, near Cleveland, and Bristolville, forfeited end-of-season tournament games when the host schools declined to move them.

The Bristol school district attributed the decision to the concerns of families. “The safety of our athletes, families, and the community comes first and foremost,” it wrote on Facebook.

In the Houston area, some residents of Deer Park, Texas, posted online that they were rattled to discover firefighting wastewater from the incident was headed to a hazardous waste disposal facility there.

Lina Hidalgo, an elected executive whose role is akin to that of a mayor, said in a news conference Thursday that she was taken aback to learn that some 30 trucks a day of the water had begun arriving in Harris County last week. She told residents her office is researching the transportation and disposal of the water to make sure it meets regulations.

Texas Molecular, the company handling the firefighting wastewater, has been disposing of similar hazardous water for over 40 years, said Jimmy Bracher, vice president of sales. 

“When you have an emergency, it is prudent to call on an expert,” he wrote in an email. “We are proud that our expertise, developed over many years, can help both the country and the environment recover from this tragic accident.”