EPA’s Inspector General is investigating why the agency used sensor plane after fiery Ohio derailment
The Associated Press reported on a whistleblower’s concerns this spring about the delays and discrepancies in the way the Environmental Protection Agency deployed its ASPECT plane that could have provided crucial information about the chemicals in the air and showed that tank cars filled with vinyl chloride weren’t likely to explode as officials feared.
Main Reason: The EPA’s Inspector General is investigating why the agency didn’t get its specialized plane loaded with advanced sensors into the air over East Palestine until four days after the disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment last year.
The controversial decision to blow open those vinyl chloride cars and burn the toxic plastic ingredient generated a huge plume of black smoke over the Ohio town and fueled lingering fears about potential long-term health impacts from the exposure to a mixture of burning chemicals.
The notice the Inspector General quietly posted Tuesday about the investigation said the watchdog will look “to determine whether the EPA and its contractors followed ASPECT flight equipment deployment procedures during the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment” in the hope of improving the response to future emergencies.
The man who wrote the software and helped interpret the data from the advanced radiological and infrared sensors on the plane said this mission differed from any of the 180 other times this plane was used since the program began after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Robert Kroutil said he is not sure why the ASPECT plane wasn’t deployed sooner and why it only gathered limited information in two brief flights.
