The EPA Inspector General is investigating why the agency only put its specialized plane loaded with advanced sensors in the air over East Palestine four days after the disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment last year.
The Associated Press reported about a whistleblower’s concerns this spring about delays and discrepancies in the way the Environmental Protection Agency deployed its ASPECT plane, which could have provided crucial information about chemicals in the air and shown that tank cars filled with vinyl chloride they were not prone to exploding as authorities feared.
O to perceive the Inspector General’s discreet post Tuesday about the investigation said the watchdog will seek “to determine whether EPA and its contractors followed procedures for deploying ASPECT flight equipment during the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.” , in hopes of improving response to future emergencies.
The man who wrote the software and helped interpret data from the plane’s advanced radiological and infrared sensors said this mission was unlike any of the 180 other times this plane has been used since the program began after the terrorist attacks in September 11th. Robert Kroutil said he isn’t sure why the ASPECT plane wasn’t deployed sooner and why it only gathered limited information in two brief flights.
The EPA has defended the way it used the plane and said authorities did not even ask for it to be deployed to its base in Texas until two days after the derailment, despite the fact that the agency boasted that the ASPECT plane could be deployed within an hour of any type of chemical disaster.
EPA spokesman Nick Conger said Wednesday that the agency will cooperate fully with the Inspector General’s office.
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