Just when you think you could not possibly loathe the 45th President any more than you already do, along come’s a report that Trump’s Pruitt run EPA comes along to pick a scab off a healing wound. His cruelty and lack of empathy for his fellow human beings that is the true story. This administration is vicious.
Incredible journalism from The LA Times. They report that NASA had a DC-8 stationed in California that “is used to collect and analyze atmospheric samples from around the world.”
Apparently, NASA wanted to fly over the flood-ravaged Houston, which had endured over 60 inches of rain that flooded huge swaths of Texas. But Scott Pruitt gave it a thumbs down, instead, deferring to a toxicologist who had stated that pollution was “beneficial to human health”.
The plane, had it been deployed, “would have provided the most comprehensive and detailed analysis of air quality in the region, allowing for a more thorough understanding of the situation.”
Because as you know, that part of Texas is home to some of the most polluting industries in the world, and the flood waters in combination with the wind storm were able to reach many of them. Harvey had spilled toxins into bayous, rivers and neighborhoods.
The area is one of the most heavily concentrated industrialized hubs in the nation, home to thousands of petroleum refineries and chemical manufacturing plants and more than a dozen Superfund sites. Over the next eight days, the storm dumped more than 60 inches of rain on some areas of the region, pummeling it with wind gusts in excess of 150 mph, according to the U.S. Geological Survey and EPA.
After the storm finally moved away from Texas, the situation was found to be blood-curdling - with “clouds of benzene” above Texas.
Smokestacks, pipelines and generators had been damaged or destroyed. Storage tanks filled with toxic chemicals were battered and leaking. Superfund sites were flooded, spilling hazardous waste into nearby rivers, streams and neighborhoods.
The EPA blamed Texas state officials.
According to emails obtained by The Times via a public records request and interviews with dozens of scientists and officials familiar with the situation, EPA and state officials argued that NASA’s data would cause “confusion” and might “overlap” with their own analysis — which was showing only a few, isolated spots of concern.
“At this time, we don’t think your data would be useful,” Michael Honeycutt, Texas’ director of toxicology, wrote to NASA officials, adding that low-flying helicopters equipped with infra-red cameras, contracted by his agency, would be sufficient.
EPA deferred to Honeycutt, a controversial toxicologist who has suggested air pollution may be beneficial to human health.
The response stunned NASA scientists, many of whom had flown similar missions in the past, including over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Though not surprising, considering the EPA under Scott Pruitt, it still stuns knowing that the Trump regime rejected the science and that millions of people were left in the dark about what they had been exposed to. Health departments, obviously, would not be able to help residents without the specific knowledge of contamination pockets and implement mandatory evacuations away from poisoned waters.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has rejected and suppressed established science, partnered with fringe researchers and embraced industry-backed views — including appointing a former coal lobbyist as its new EPA administrator.
At the time of the hurricane, the agency was run by Scott Pruitt, who during his tenure targeted dozens of environmental regulations for rollback, including several focused on air pollution.
“This is a very clear illustration of the politics of knowledge,” said Scott Frickel, an environmental sociologist at Brown University, referring to the rejection of the NASA jet. “The EPA Region 6 and Texas authorities don’t want to know, so they are passing on something really important about urban-scale disasters.”
I hope congress will investigate this and soon. I wonder if there was a similar situation in North Carolina after Florence.