My apologies, this is long. I had an unsettling experience today and wanted to get some takes from journalists.

My family lives near the East Palestine train derailment in Ohio. I used to work as an environmental scientist, and while I am not a journalist I’m very interested in documenting this event. I have a pretty nice mirrorless camera and wanted to photograph a large fish kill downstream from the derailment site, as well as get some water samples for VOC analysis. By complete coincidence, I happened to pull up to the site at the same time as a vehicle marked as an environmental consulting group that I quickly recognized (it’s a pretty large firm and I actually used to work on projects with them).

I didn’t really pay any mind to their vehicle. Since I recognized them as consultants I assumed they’d get out and start sampling the stream (again, full of dead fish), and since I was in a public space outside the evacuation zone I assumed I had nothing to worry about.

When I stepped out of my car with my camera, someone who I’m assuming was the manager of the group blocked my path and asked if I was media. I told them no, that I simply lived nearby and wanted to photograph the fish kill. They informed me that if I was media there to film them while they sampled I would be arrested by the national guard who were posted up the road closer to town, and they had already been put on standby once they saw the camera. They told me they were an independent third party hired by Norfolk Southern.

The situation felt extremely uneasy, and it took some convincing to get them to believe I was not media. Eventually I found common ground with them by explaining that I understood what they were doing, worked in a similar job before, and had no intent to film them. When they were convinced I was not a journalist they eventually took a more friendly tone and asked me to wait until they left to photograph, which I did.

Before they left, the same manager encouraged me to call Norfolk Southern’s contracted toxicologist for information on water testing and gave me their number. They were pretty adamant on me having it and encouraged me to not get “caught up in fear mongering.” They left and I got my shots.

I was honestly so focused on diffusing the situation (and saying what I needed to get them to quit alluding to arrest) that I didn’t really process the reality of what they told me until a bit after.

So, if you made it this far-

Isn’t detaining media from filming something like this extremely illegal? If I was media, wouldn’t I have had the right to be there? Are there special circumstances where this is permissible? Should I be reporting this somewhere?

I want to believe they were there to independently and thoroughly analyze this obviously polluted water. They expressed empathy for the community and said they understood my concern. However, the whole thing really unsettled me. I had a relative with me during all of this (they mostly kept a quiet and hung back) but no recordings of our exchange.

Thanks in advance.

https://www.reddit.com/user/lergx574

https://reddit-user-analyser.netlify.app/#lergx574

Long-established account that doesn't post in any bullshit or conspiratorial subreddits.

edit: From their comments-

I was shooting from the road (parked on the shoulder, which was very wide).

The consulting group was EnviroScience, Inc.