Critics Say EPA Withholding Information on New Orleans Contamination

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Tue, 20 Sep 2005 14:57:53 GMT

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Critics Say EPA Withholding Information on New Orleans

Contamination

 

 

 

Bush Greenwatch

 

Sep 20, 2005 | Back Issues

 

Critics Say EPA Withholding Information on New Orleans Contamination

 

Journalists, government watchdogs and a top Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA) official have criticized EPA's inability to provide

adequate data on the location and danger of chemicals leaked into New

Orleans communities in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

 

Last week Hugh Kaufman, a senior EPA policy analyst in the Office of

Solid Waste and Emergency Response, said of EPA's water testing

efforts, " There is not enough information to draw any conclusions

other than EPA has become totally incompetent at water testing, or

there is a cover up. " [1]

 

George Sorvalis, outreach associate for OMB Watch, a nonprofit

government accountability group, told BushGreenwatch, " EPA does not

appear to be testing for chemicals related to the petrochemical and

oil industries, including diesel and byproducts of petrochemical

refining. These are chemicals you would expect EPA to test for. "

 

" EPA's sampling to date has been spotty and inconsistent, " says Darryl

Malek-Wiley, a New Orleans-based environmental justice advocate for

Sierra Club, who spoke to BushGreenwatch from Baton Rouge. " The amount

of sampling that has been done doesn't fully characterize what is

happening in New Orleans. "

 

Sorvalis, who has been in close communication with a number of

scientists and researchers working in the New Orleans area, said EPA's

failure to assess the presence and danger of such chemicals presents a

particular concern for rescue workers and others exposed to the

contaminated water. " Many chemical byproducts of the petrochemical

industry are hazardous to human health and can breach certain types of

protective gear, " said Sorvalis. " If EPA is not testing for them, how

can people make the right choices to protect themselves? "

 

Not only has EPA failed to distinguish exactly which petrochemical

industry byproducts lurk in the floodwaters, said Sorvalis, but the

limited amount of information EPA has is poorly organized and

difficult to access. " This information should be available by a click

of the mouse, but it has taken me, a professional, days to find out

the real story. "

 

Sorvalis isn't the only one having trouble getting " the real story "

from EPA. Environmental reporters have complained about delayed

responses from the agency regarding locations of spills, accidents and

fires.

 

According to a report by the Society of Environmental Journalists

(SEJ), which cites interviews with numerous environmental reporters,

" Journalists are having an increasingly difficult time using the

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to drag information out of the

federal government to shed light on Superfund sites, chemical

factories, mining accidents and a host of other topics important to

citizens. " [2]

 

Sean Moulton, senior information policy analyst at OMB Watch, says

journalists' complaints and his organization's difficulty obtaining

certain information are two parts of a common problem brewing within

EPA: " A culture of restricting access. "

 

Sorvalis ties the problem of restricted access to a longer-term issue,

noting that due to government neglect, communities in close proximity

to polluting industries have long borne the disproportional brunt of

pollution.

 

Citizens living in areas of New Orleans that have suffered

pollution-related health problems are just one example, said Sorvalis.

" The people living in what is known as 'cancer alley' have never been

treated in a responsible way by the Louisiana State Department of

Environmental Protection or the federal EPA. Why would one expect that

to change in the midst of this disaster? "

 

###

 

TAKE ACTION

OMB Watch has posted a link for citizens to take action on this issue

by urging the EPA to inform the public of its testing results as soon

as possible. To access the website

 

###

 

SOURCES:

[1] " Senior EPA official calls hurricane testing inadequate, "

Greenwire, Sept. 12, 2005

[2] " A Flawed Tool - Environmental Reporters' Experiences With the

Freedom of Information Act, " Society of Environmental Journalists,

Sept. 12, 2005

 

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