Congress launches probe on why Texas and EPA stopped NASA from tracking Harvey pollution
Source: Los Angeles Times
Congress launches probe on why Texas and EPA stopped NASA from tracking Harvey pollution
By SUSANNE RUST and LOUIS SAHAGUN
MAR 06, 2019 | 5:45 PM
Congressional Democrats are launching an investigation into the fate of NASA’s offer to fly a pollution-analyzing jet over the Houston region in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
The investigation was spurred by a Los Angeles Times report Tuesday revealing that officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality declined the NASA offer, arguing data collected by the space agency could cause “confusion” and might “overlap” with their own analysis — which was showing only a few, isolated spots of concern.
On Wednesday, members of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, sent letters to the EPA, NASA and Texas environmental officials asking for all documents relating to the agencies’ decision not to fly.
“Instead of gathering the most accurate air quality data possible, State and Federal officials apparently decided they would rather not know about potential toxic chemical releases…” wrote Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas) and Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) in a letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Michael Honeycutt, the Texas environmental agency’s director of toxicology.
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Read more: https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-nasa-congress-houston-epa-hurricane-harvey-20190306-story.html