(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Waterways along the Ohio River are still contaminated with hazardous materials following a train derailment that spilled multiple toxic chemicals, but officials are confident that those waterways are contained and not affecting water supplies. Officials announced the latest news during a press conference on Tuesday.

Four tributaries over a space of 7.5 miles are contaminated, director of Ohio Department of Natural Resources Mary Mertz told reporters during a news conference on Tuesday.

According to Mertz, the contaminated waterways has led to the deaths of at least 3,500 fish. Mertz also stated that officials have detected 12 different species of dead fish, but none of those species are threatened or endangered. There is also no evidence that non-aquatic species have been impacted.

However, there does not appear to be any increase in the number of fish killed since the initial derailment, Mertz said.

The Norfolk Southern Railroad train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3 while traveling from Illinois to Pennsylvania. It contained several types of hazardous materials, such as vinyl chloride, a highly volatile colorless gas produced for commercial uses, as well as ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate and isobutylene, according to a list of the cars that were involved in the derailment and the products they were carrying released by Norfolk Southern.

No vinyl chloride or pre-product has been detected in the water, Tiffani Kavalec, chief of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s division of surface water, told reporters in Tuesday’s news conference. The contamination mostly consists of fire contaminant combustion materials, Kavalec said.

Health officials are tracking a plume filled with contaminants that is currently floating down the river at about one mile an hour, Kavalec said. Around 3 p.m. on Tuesday, it was near Huntsville, West Virginia.

“There are very very low levels of volatile organic compounds in the Ohio River itself,” she said. “It appears it’s been very diluted.”

The contamination dissipates to non-detectable levels near Little Beaver Creek, Kavalec said, adding it’s not affecting the drinking supply for residents.

“We’re pretty confident that these low levels are not getting passed on to the customers,” she said.

Bruce Vanderhoff, director of the Ohio Department of Health, advised residents who are living on private water systems to get their wells tested, especially if they are pregnant, breastfeeding or preparing baby formula.

Most of the residents in East Palestine are on municipal water, Vanderhoff said.

Surveillance video of the crash appears to show a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat moments before the derailment, the National Transportation Safety Board announced on Tuesday in a press release.

Following the crash, emergency response teams worked to immediately slow the contamination of waterways from the runoff, while firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze, DeWine said.

For days, large plumes of smoke containing vinyl chloride, phosgene, hydrogen chloride and other gases were emitted during a controlled release and burn at the crash site, prompting officials to issue mandatory evacuation orders for homes and businesses within a 1-mile radius.

DeWine decided that the controlled burn was the best course of action after he was advised that a catastrophic explosion was likely, which would result in shrapnel being flung out for up to a mile from the site, he said.

“My objective is to do everything we can to get this cleaned up as quickly as we can,” the governor said.

The hazardous materials that burned in the wreckage of the train derailment in Ohio had the potential to be deadly if evacuations not been ordered, experts told ABC News last week. Residents living in nearby homes were contacted at least three times before the controlled burn began, Dewine said.

The evacuation orders were lifted on Feb. 8 after air and water samples taken the day before were deemed safe, officials said.

There were 20 total hazardous material cars in the train consist,10 of which derailed, according to the NTSB. Five of the 10 cars containing toxins also contained vinyl chloride, officials said.

A total of 38 cars derailed, which caused a fire that damaged an additional 12 cars, according to the NTSB.

The train was not considered a “high hazardous material train,” and therefore the railroad was not required to notify state officials about what the cars were containing, DeWine said.

“If this is true, and I’m told it’s true, this is absurd,” Dewine said. “We need to look at this. Congress needs to look at how these things are handled.”

The tank cars are currently being decontaminated, according to the NTSB. Once the decontamination process has completed, NTSB investigators will return to Ohio to complete a thorough examination of the tank cars.

No detections of vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride were identified for the 291 homes that had been screened, according to the EPA. As of Monday evening, 181 homes remained to be screened. Local schools and the library were screened yesterday, the EPA announced.

The fume inhalation of vinyl chloride could cause dizziness, nausea, headache, visual disturbances, respiratory problems and other health-related issues, Ashok Kumar, a professor in the University of Toledo’s department of civil and environmental engineering, told ABC News last week.

Hydrogen chloride fumes could irritate the throat and cause skin problems, while phosgene fumes may lead to chest constriction and choking, Kumar said.

Vanderhoff emphasized that volatile organic compounds are a part of “everyday life” and are typically inhaled if in the presence of burning wood or natural gas or someone who is smoking.

“Most people can be around these volatile organic compounds at low levels without really feeling health effects,” he said. “At higher levels, especially over a longer period of time, then we can have longer-term health effects.”

Norfolk Southern announced in a statement Tuesday that it has helped 1,000 families as well as a number of businesses in the community. The railway operator has also distributed $1.2 million to families to cover costs related to the evacuation.

Alan Shaw, the CEO Norfolk Southern, pledged that the railway operator would guarantee the cleanup from the accident, Dewine said.

A lawsuit filed by two residents of East Palestine on Feb. 9 called for the rail operator to pay for medical screenings and related care for anyone living within a 30-mile radius of the crash site, as well as undetermined damages, The Associated Press reported.

“Norfolk Southern is responsible for this problem,” DeWine siad. “We fully expect them to live up to what the CEO committed to me. Is that they will pay for everything.”

The NTSB is conducting a safety investigation to determine the probable cause of the derailment, the agency said.

ABC News’ Amanda Maile and Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.

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(EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo.) — A Missouri man accused of holding a woman captive for a month in his basement has been indicted by a grand jury on charges including kidnapping and rape, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Timothy M. Haslett, 40, was arrested in October 2022 after a woman reportedly said she was being held captive in his Excelsior Springs home.

A grand jury has indicted him on nine charges — including rape in the first degree, four counts of sodomy in the first degree, kidnapping in the first degree and two counts of assault in the first degree — Clay County Prosecutor Zachary Thompson told reporters during a press briefing on Tuesday.

If convicted of all charges, he faces up to five life sentences and 36 years in prison, he said.

“We would not be here today if not for the bravery of one woman, and the tireless efforts of the men and women of 16 different agencies,” Thompson said.

Grand jury proceedings in Missouri are confidential, Thompson noted.

Haslett is currently being held on a $3 million bond and is next due in court on Feb. 17, Thompson said. His public defender, Tiffany Leuty, told ABC News they have no comment at this time.

The indictment alleges that the crimes were committed between Sept. 1 and Oct. 7, 2022, and that several were committed with the intent of “terrorizing” the victim.

Haslett was also indicted on endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly leaving firearms unsecured around an 8-year-old, according to the indictment.

Haslett was initially charged with first-degree rape, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree assault of the 22-year-old woman who allegedly escaped from his home last year. He entered a not-guilty plea to those charges in October.

The woman told the neighbors she had been held captive for a month in Haslett’s basement and had been bound, beaten and raped, according to police.

“It was readily apparent that she had been held against her will for a significant period of time,” Excelsior Springs Police Lt. Ryan Dowdy told reporters during a news conference on Oct. 7, according to ABC News Kansas City affiliate KMBC.

Haslett’s basement room was consistent with what the victim described, according to a probable cause affidavit for the arrest.

The victim, who is Black, fled to a neighbor’s home wearing lingerie, a metal collar with a padlock and duct tape around her neck, according to the affidavit.

Missouri community members, including Kansas City community leader Bishop Tony Caldwell, have claimed other Black women have been abducted and murdered without any police follow-up before this incident last fall.

There is no public evidence supporting this claim, police said. The Kansas City Police Department told ABC last fall there were no filed missing person reports to the department, specifically reports from Prospect Avenue in Kansas City, where the woman was allegedly taken.

Prosecutors said Tuesday they were still searching for a potential witness whose whereabouts are unknown. Thompson said the person may have information relevant to the case, though did not elaborate.

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(CLEVELAND, Ohio) — For the second day in a row, the Great Lakes are at a combined ice cover low.

On Feb. 13, the combined ice cover across the Great Lakes was 7.3%, breaking the old record from 2002. The historical average for ice cover season-to-date is 40%.

The region is nearing the average peak of ice season, but instead, ice levels are going down due to abnormally warm, near-record air temperatures.

Ice cover levels on Feb. 12:

Great Lakes Basin averages 39.5% ice cover. Currently it sits at a record low of 6.9%. The precious record is from 2012, with 7.9%.

Lake Superior has 5.5% ice cover, which is nearing the low from 1999.

Lake Michigan has a record low of 7.6% ice cover, beating the old record from just a few years ago in 2020.

Lake Huron has a record low of 12.6% ice cover, beating the old record from 1999.

Lake Erie has a tie for lowest ice cover with 1998, at 0.6%.

Lake Erie is the shallowest Great Lake and the smallest by volume. It is known for gaining and loosing ice quickest. So it is no great surprise, when looking at the drastic air temperature trend for the area, that a little more than a week ago the lake had more than 40% ice cover and is now less than 1% covered.

Lake Ontario currently sits at 1.6% ice cover and is nearing the record from 2012.

As February continues, colder air is expected to reach the Great Lakes. This should allow for ice cover to increase above record low levels, while staying abnormally low overall.

Is climate change involved in these numbers?

On average, ice coverage on the lakes has significantly declined in recent decades as average temperatures are increasing. In the Great Lakes regions, temperatures have warmed by as much as 5 degrees over the last 50 years.

Between 1973 and 2010, ice on the Great Lakes altogether declined 71%. Lake Ontario went down by 88%, Superior by 79%, and Michigan not far behind, recording a 77% ice loss over the 38-year timeframe. Lake Huron declined 62%, and Erie at 50%.

The maximum ice cover reached each year still shows an annual percent decrease, but it is less drastic, at a 22% decline for all lakes combined from 1970 to 2020.

Additionally, the variability of maximum ice cover is increasing over time. This makes sense when considering the weather patterns: big heat waves to big cold snaps leads to less ice and more ice, with the extremes occurring closer together.

In other words, the extreme from one year to the next is getting bigger and more frequent, which is an impact of climate change. That means even though this year is breaking records for low ice extent, next year or the year after could break records for max ice extent.

What low ice coverage affects

Low ice coverage has a wide range of impacts across industries and communities.

Hundreds of millions of tons of cargo are shipped on the lakes each year, a multi-billion dollar industry, and lower ice cover means shipping can operate longer throughout the year, increasing their profits.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard can spend less time and fewer resources breaking ice and rescuing stranded ships since there is less ice cover, potentially saving taxpayer money.

Lower ice extent also means more evaporation, which means lower water levels. Not only does lower water levels negatively affect the commercial shipping industry, it can also affect hydroelectric plants, reducing their energy production — a cost that will trickle down to consumers when other means of energy production become necessary.

Less ice cover means more open-face water during winter, and this can lead to more lake-effect precipitation. For now, that means more lake-effect snowfall, but as temperatures continue to rise, this will lead to more lake-effect rainfall instead.

When there isn’t ice to dampen wave activity, there can be an increase to coastal erosion.

There is also a significant tourism industry that depends on the lakes icing over. Low ice extent can lead to a substantial negative impact on the tourism and recreation industry, such as ice fishing, and the businesses reliant on that.

When it comes to the ecosystem impact, the Upper Great Lakes are the most impacted by warmer waters throughout the year. Cold water fish are forced to compete with the warm water species that migrate farther north. Less ice can also leave the eggs of fish more exposed to the elements and lead to “dead zones,” where fish aren’t able to come to term.

Plus, with more heavy lake-effect precipitation, there can easily be more runoff with various nutrients loading into the lakes at higher levels, leading to more favorable conditions for toxic algal blooms.

Additionally, there are Indigenous communities who need ice cover to perform rituals.

And of course, safety is a bigger issue during low ice cover, because people who have been on the ice in years past may assume they can again without realizing how thin the ice that does exist is.

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(EAST LANSING, Mich.) — Law enforcement officials on Tuesday named Anthony Dwayne McRae, a 43-year-old resident of Lansing, Michigan, as the suspect in the overnight shooting at Michigan State University that took the lives of three students and wounded five others.

McRae led police on an hours-long manhunt before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound as law enforcement approached him, a law enforcement source briefed on the situation said.

The source added that a firearm was recovered at the scene, and a second firearm was found in a backpack along with numerous magazines.

Officials are now combing through McRae’s social media accounts and online writings for any extremist views, including indications of misogyny, satanic musings, possible conspiracy theories and signs of isolation, sources said.

McRae served 18 months in prison between 2019 and 2021 on a weapons charge for having a loaded weapon in his vehicle, according to the state’s Department of Corrections. The offense took place in Ingham County, which covers East Lansing. He is listed on the Department of Corrections website as a 5′ 4″ male.

Police in Ewing, New Jersey, shared a statement on Tuesday noting that McRae “had a note in his pocket that indicated a threat to two Ewing Public Schools” and that an “investigation revealed that McRae had a history of mental health issues.”

McRae “had local ties to Ewing,” police said in the statement.

In nearby Trenton, police sent officers to local schools early Tuesday out of an abundance of caution.

John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and former Homeland Security official, said that based on what has been publicly reported, “this appears to be yet another in a growing list of angry, isolated, socially disconnected individuals who ultimately decided that violence is an appropriate way to express their anger at society and their personal existence.”

“If history is an indicator,” Cohen said, “we will also learn that there were points in time when his online and physical behavior should have raised red flags.”

On Tuesday afternoon, police in Michigan released the names of the victims, all of whom were students at the university.

McRae had no known affiliation with Michigan State University, a school spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.

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