david gray e p a
<div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9/10</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.75rem 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; font-size: 1.125rem; width: 720px; color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: FreightText, Georgia, serif; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency said Sunday it has recovered 517 containers filled with unidentified, potentially hazardous material found floating in or washed up along Texas waterways after the devastating floods from Hurricane Harvey receded.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.75rem 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; font-size: 1.125rem; width: 720px; color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: FreightText, Georgia, serif; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">The agency’s statement sought to clarify an earlier media release saying the containers were recovered from highly contaminated toxic waste sites. EPA said that statement issued Friday night by the Federal Emergency Management Agency created confusion by conflating two separate issues.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.75rem 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; font-size: 1.125rem; width: 720px; color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: FreightText, Georgia, serif; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">The FEMA media release summarizing the federal response Harvey’s historic floods said EPA had “conducted assessments of 43 Superfund sites and recovered 517 containers of unidentified, potentially hazardous material.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.75rem 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; font-size: 1.125rem; width: 720px; color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: FreightText, Georgia, serif; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">The Associated Press reported about the statement Saturday afternoon, after EPA’s press office did not responded to questions sent by email to top staffers the night before.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.75rem 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; font-size: 1.125rem; width: 720px; color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: FreightText, Georgia, serif; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">“EPA and our response partners have been collecting containers orphaned after the hurricane,”<b> David Gray, a spokesman for EPA’s regional headquarters in Texas</b>, said in an email to AP on Sunday. “These are not related to Superfund clean ups.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.75rem 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; font-size: 1.125rem; width: 720px; color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: FreightText, Georgia, serif; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">Gray did not respond to questions about why he and other EPA press staff had not sought to clarify the issue for more than 44 hours. Also left unanswered are questions about the results of EPA’s assessments at two highly contaminated Houston-area Superfund sites flooded by Harvey’s record shattering rains.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.75rem 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; font-size: 1.125rem; width: 720px; color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: FreightText, Georgia, serif; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">EPA has not responded to more than a dozen calls and emails from AP over the last two weeks.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.75rem 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; font-size: 1.125rem; width: 720px; color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: FreightText, Georgia, serif; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">AP reported Sept. 18 that a government hotline had received calls about three separate spills at the U.S. Oil Recovery Superfund site, a former petroleum waste processing plant outside Houston contaminated with a dangerous brew of cancer-causing chemicals.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.75rem 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; font-size: 1.125rem; width: 720px; color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: FreightText, Georgia, serif; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">Records obtained by the AP showed workers at the site reported spills of unknown materials in unknown amounts affecting nearby Vince Bayou. Local pollution control officials photographed three large tanks that had been used to store potentially hazardous waste completely underwater on Aug. 29.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.75rem 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; font-size: 1.125rem; width: 720px; color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: FreightText, Georgia, serif; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">EPA has still not disclosed the spills or what was in the tanks before they flooded. The agency says its staff visited the site the following week and saw no visual evidence of contaminants in the bayou.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.75rem 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; font-size: 1.125rem; width: 720px; color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: FreightText, Georgia, serif; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">_</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.75rem 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; font-size: 1.125rem; width: 720px; color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: FreightText, Georgia, serif; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">Associated Press reporter Frank Bajak contributed from Houston.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.75rem 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; font-size: 1.125rem; width: 720px; color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: FreightText, Georgia, serif; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">=</p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-gray-63b91a8">https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-gray-63b91a8</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">scrape</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">George Malone</font></font></font></font></div><div>Senior Attorney at US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)</div><div>
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</div><div>Michelle Peace</div><div>Environmental Engineer with Region 6 of the USEPA</div><div>
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</div><div>Karen Peycke</div><div>Region 6 Targeted Brownfields Assessment Coordinator at US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)</div><div>
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</div><div>Jessica Moore</div><div>Physical Scientist, US EPA Region 6</div><div>
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</div><div>Charles Barnes</div><div>Enforcement Officer at US EPA Region 6</div><div>
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</div><div>Gary Newhart</div><div>geotechnical engineer</div><div>
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</div><div>Ivanna Molina</div><div>Case Management Coordinator at Angels of Care Pediatric Home Health</div><div>
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</div><div>Mary Kemp</div><div>Team Leader, Brownfields Team at US EPA Region 6</div><div>
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</div><div>Cynthia Fanning</div><div>Social Media Coordinator, Web Page Designer at US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-harvey-trump-epa-response-2630918498.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-harvey-trump-epa-response-2630918498.html</a></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Andrea Germanos</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; line-height: 1.5;">Trump</a>'s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; line-height: 1.5;">EPA</a>) and Texas state officials rejected an offer from NASA scientists in 2017 to use their state-of-the-art flying laboratory to evaluate air quality in Houston after Hurricane Harvey, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-nasa-jet-epa-hurricane-harvey-20190305-story.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; line-height: 1.5;">new reporting by the Los Angeles Times reveals</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This is disturbing," <a href="https://twitter.com/JudgeHidalgo/status/1103127288856698880" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; line-height: 1.5;">said</a> Lina Hidalgo, judge for Texas's Harris County.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Harvey brought <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/08/29/class-its-own-no-storm-us-history-has-unleashed-more-rain-hurricane-harvey" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; line-height: 1.5;">historic rainfall,</a> <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/08/28/drones-offer-devastating-footage-damage-harvey-has-wrought" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; line-height: 1.5;">catastrophic flooding</a> and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/03/22/full-impact-still-hidden-public-report-details-environmental-assault-unleashed" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; line-height: 1.5;">triggered</a> potentially dangerous environmental and public health impacts: Houston's many refineries and petrochemical released pollutants into the air and waters, and area residents began to <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/09/12/after-harvey-texas-left-toxic-soup-sewage-spilled-fuel-pesticides-and-more" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; line-height: 1.5;">complain</a> of <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/06/%20/news/2017/08/29/harvey-triggers-unbearable-pollution-refineries-spew-cancer-causing-chemicals" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; line-height: 1.5;">worrisome</a> smells and toxic sights near the facilities, as well as symptoms including headaches. The EPA asserted that the air quality posed no threat.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA, it turned out, was in a good position to gather data on air quality in the area with <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/aircraft/DC-8/overview.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; line-height: 1.5;">its DC-8</a>. The jet, whose ability to ability to gather data dwarfs that of the EPA's <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; line-height: 1.5;">air pollution</a> plane or the hand-held devices used by Texas state officials, was already set up for testing because of a scheduled six-hour test flight to Lamont, Oklahoma on Sept. 14.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The response to NASA's offer? Thanks but no thanks.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Susanne Rust and Louis Sahagun reported for the Times:</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 0px 1em 25px; border-left: 5px solid rgb(82, 149, 70); padding: 0px 0px 0px 25px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Sept. 9, David Gray, the EPA's deputy regional administrator in Texas and leader of the agency's emergency response, wrote to NASA and Texas officials that he was "hesitant" to have the jet "collect additional information that overlaps our existing efforts" until he learned more about the mission. He noted that media and nongovernmental organizations were releasing data that was "conflicting" with the state and EPA's.</font></blockquote><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The NASA scientists offered assurances that their fact-finding would not get in the way, but noted that the data would eventually be seen by the public. Texas and the EPA were unmoved.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The state-level response came from <b>director of toxicology Michael Honeycutt, who now heads EPA's Science Advisory Board and is known for <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/elliott-negin/pruitt-scientists-key-advisory-panel" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; line-height: 1.5;">expressing</a> views well out of the reach of mainstream <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/science/" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; line-height: 1.5;">science</a>, such as the idea that lowering ozone would be bad for public health.</b></font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 0px 1em 25px; border-left: 5px solid rgb(82, 149, 70); padding: 0px 0px 0px 25px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Sept. 11, Honeycutt wrote in an email to NASA and EPA officials that state data showed no sign for concern, and "we don't think your data would be useful for source identification while industry continues to restart their operations."
Gray agreed with Honeycutt: "EPA concurs with your assessment and we will not plan to ask NASA to conduct this mission."</font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Associated Press reporter Frank Bajak <a href="https://twitter.com/fbajak/status/1102955314645790720" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; line-height: 1.5;">noted</a> that the new investigation adds weight to his own news agency's previous reporting showing that "Texas environmental regulators had little interest in exposing most post-Harvey industrial contamination."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reacting to the reporting on Twitter, Dr. Chelsea Thompson, a research scientist in atmospheric chemistry, wrote, "It's worth noting that, over a year later now, all of us involved are still stunned by how this played out."</font></p></div></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality knew air pollution was one of the unseen dangers of Hurricane Harvey, but according to news reports they deliberately chose not to use every available tool to discover it," added Elena Craft, senior health scientist with Environmental Defense Fund. "Their rejection of NASA's plan to fly a pollution-spotting plane over Houston after the storm is an abdication of responsibility and part of a disturbing trend of willful ignorance."
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Their action," she continued, "caused unnecessary risk to the health and safety of Texas families."</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ref</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-nasa-jet-epa-hurricane-harvey-20190305-story.html">https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-nasa-jet-epa-hurricane-harvey-20190305-story.html</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In </font><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">the weeks after Hurricane Harvey’s catastrophic sweep through the Houston area — which resulted in chemical spills, fires, flooded storage tanks and damaged industrial plants — rescue crews and residents complained of burning throats, nausea and dizziness.</span></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">Fifteen hundred miles west in the high desert city of Palmdale, NASA scientists were preparing to fly a DC-8, equipped with the world’s most sophisticated air samplers over the hurricane zone to monitor pollution levels.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">The mission never got off the ground. Both the state of Texas and the EPA told the scientists to stay away.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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.</span></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“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.</span></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">EPA deferred to Honeycutt, a controversial toxicologist <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/14/583972957/top-epa-science-adviser-has-history-of-questioning-pollution-research" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">who has suggested air pollution may be bene</a></span><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/14/583972957/top-epa-science-adviser-has-history-of-questioning-pollution-research" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ficial to human health</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></b></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">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.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">An EPA spokesman said the decision to wave off the Hurricane Harvey mission was made by Texas state officials, whose own pollution monitoring efforts included mobile bus units and crews with hand-held devices on the ground.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">But NASA scientists say that, had the DC-8 been deployed, it would have provided the most comprehensive and detailed analysis of air quality in the region, allowing for a more thorough understanding of the situation.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“It’s totally possible we’d have found nothing at all to be concerned about,” said Tom Ryerson, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researcher who had previously been part of the Deepwater Horizon mission. “But at least we’d have known that,” he said, “without a doubt.”</span></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><b>Some see the EPA decision as part of a pattern.</b></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">Since taking office, the Trump administration has rejected and <a href="https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2018/08/15/trump-administrations-continued-attack-science/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">suppressed established science</a>, partnered<a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-secret-science-20190219-story.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> with fringe researchers</a> and embraced industry-backed views — including appointing a former coal lobbyist as its new EPA administrator.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">At the time of the hurricane, the agency was run by Scott Pruitt, who during his tenure <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/05/climate/trump-environment-rules-reversed.html?r=0" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">targeted dozens of environmental regulations</a> for rollback, including several focused on air pollution.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">“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.”</p></div></div><div data-type="image" class="card card-pull-center card-captioned collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; border-top-width: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><figure class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><figcaption class="caption-text spaced spaced-top spaced-sm flex-container-row justify-space-between " style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; font-family: Benton; line-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12px; flex-direction: row; justify-content: space-between; margin-top: 8px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hurricane Harvey's storm clouds in Houston on Aug. 29, 2017. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)</div></figcaption></figure></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Clouds of benzene over Houston</span></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">On Aug. 25, 2017, Harvey stalled over the Texas coast, unleashing record rainfall on Houston and Galveston.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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.</span></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><b>On Aug. 28, Gov. Greg Abbott suspended state emission rules, including those governing air pollution, after the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality argued they would impede disaster response. The rules remained suspended for the next seven months.</b></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">When the storm finally moved north and east on Sept. 4, the level of environmental destruction and confusion on the ground was unprecedented.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">Smokestacks, pipelines and generators had been <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/harvey-flooding-explosion-petrochemicals/538560/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">damaged or destroyed</a>. Storage tanks filled with toxic chemicals were battered and leaking. <a href="https://apnews.com/27796dd13b9549b0ac76aded58a15122" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Superfund sites were flooded, spilling hazardous waste into nearby rivers</a>, streams and neighborhoods.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">Officials from the EPA and the state environmental agency, which had shut down their stationary air monitors to avoid storm damage, maintained the air quality was fine. In addition to using ground technology, they flew in a single-engine prop plane that took photos and used infrared technology to detect chemical plumes in the area.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">Despite EPA claims that pollutants were “<a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epatceq-harvey-update-air-quality-improving-more-water-systems-operational" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">well below levels of health concern</a>,” residents and rescuers complained of the fumes. Clouds of benzene and other cancer-causing chemicals floated over the city, according to analyses by <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:wi1NZNrmHrAJ:airalliancehouston.org/news/2018-harvey-letter-from-the-director/+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">environmental groups</a> and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/valero-houston-plant-underestimated-harvey-benzene-leak-1505432176" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">news reports</a>.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">As those reports spread, researchers with NASA’s Atmospheric Tomography Mission program thought they could help.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">Since 2016, the chemistry laboratory has flown more that 197,000 miles around the globe, sampling hundreds of unique airborne gases or particles.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">The team was about to embark on its fourth and final mission around the globe and had planned a six-hour test flight for Sept. 14 that would take them east to Lamont, Okla., where they’d carry out compass measurements, before heading back to Palmdale.</p></div></div><div data-type="image" class="card card-pull-center card-captioned collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; border-top-width: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><figure class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><figcaption class="caption-text spaced spaced-top spaced-sm flex-container-row justify-space-between " style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; font-family: Benton; line-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12px; flex-direction: row; justify-content: space-between; margin-top: 8px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Chris Jennison, a DC-8 mission manager, aboard the NASA-operated plane in Palmdale. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)</div></figcaption></figure></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p data-page="2" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">The laboratory inside the DC-8, when running at full capacity, hosts roughly three dozen scientists and engineers and a crew of eight. Tubes, spigots and flasks on the aircraft’s exterior <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/blog/2730/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-chemistry/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">guzzle in air samples</a> as the jet bobs up and down between its lowest altitude of 500 feet and its ceiling at 40,000 feet.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">“When fully equipped … it bristles like a porcupine with probes, tubes and laser equipment sticking out of the hull and windows and dangling off the wings — all of them plugged into instruments on board,” said Chris Jennison, the DC-8 mission manager, during a recent tour of the plane.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">It is the most precise and comprehensive airborne air quality lab on the planet, according to scientists familiar with the equipment. Where the EPA’s air pollution single-prop plane can gather some basic chemistry of about two dozen species of air-pollutant compounds, the <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/blog/2730/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-chemistry/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">NASA jet can analyze more than 450</a>.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">As the team watched the disaster unfold, Paul Newman, chief scientist of NASA’s Earth Science Division, suggested they divert their test run and fly over Houston. The timing was serendipitous. The DC-8 was fully equipped and ready to go.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">“We agreed this would be a good opportunity to support the Hurricane Harvey recovery effort,” Lawrence Friedl, NASA’s director of Applied Sciences wrote in a Sept. 8, 2017 email to the agency’s then-acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot and others. Indeed, <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6938" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">NASA’s press shop was touting its coordination </a>with the hurricane emergency response.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">But over the next few days, it became clear neither the EPA nor the state of Texas saw this particular offer in that same light.</p></div></div><div data-type="image" class="card card-pull-center card-captioned collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; border-top-width: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><figure class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><figcaption class="caption-text spaced spaced-top spaced-sm flex-container-row justify-space-between " style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; font-family: Benton; line-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12px; flex-direction: row; justify-content: space-between; margin-top: 8px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">The NASA-operated DC-8 in its Palmdale hangar between missions. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)</div></figcaption></figure></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Emails detail how EPA officials fretted about ‘overlaps’</span></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Sept. 9, David Gray, the EPA’s deputy regional administrator in Texas and leader of the agency’s emergency response, wrote to NASA and Texas officials that he was “hesitant” to have the jet “collect additional information that overlaps our existing efforts” until he learned more about the mission. He noted that media and nongovernmental organizations were releasing data that was “conflicting” with the state and EPA’</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">s.</span></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">NASA scientists tried to reassure Gray and Honeycutt that they wouldn’t do anything to hinder the data collection efforts. They said they wouldn’t focus on particular facility emissions but instead assess whether large changes in air quality had occurred following the disaster. They also promised not to deliver their data to the media, although they underscored it would eventually be made public.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">In addition, they noted, similar interagency missions had succeeded in the past. In 2010, a NOAA plane with a similar payload aided the EPA in assessing air quality over the Deepwater Horizon spill. The data showed Gulf air was OK to breathe, assuaging the concerns of rescue operators and emergency responders.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">Jane Lubchenco, the former NOAA administrator who oversaw the Deepwater Horizon mission, said the cooperation and tone of discussion then “was set at the highest level: The president made it clear he wanted teamwork throughout.”</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">“There is no good reason why that cannot happen most of the time,” she said.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">But the NASA scientists’ assurances didn’t work.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">The key decision-maker was Honeycutt, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/14/583972957/top-epa-science-adviser-has-history-of-questioning-pollution-research" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">known for his energy industry-friendly views</a> on toxic chemicals and pollutants. Six weeks later, Trump’s EPA would appoint Honeycutt chairman of the agency’s Science Advisory Board, an independent panel of scientists charged with providing advice to the agency’s administrator.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">On Sept. 11, Honeycutt wrote in an email to NASA and EPA officials that state data showed no sign for concern, and “we don’t think your data would be useful for source identification while industry continues to restart their operations.”</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">Gray agreed with Honeycutt: “EPA concurs with your assessment and we will not plan to ask NASA to conduct this mission.”</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">The NASA team was stupefied.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">“NASA does NOT need EPA approval,” Newman wrote to the team’s project coordinator, Barry Lefer. “We certainly should notify and potentially coordinate, but we don’t need approval.”</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">His superiors disagreed, and that evening Michael Freilich, the director of NASA’s Earth Sciences division, called off the flight. Freilich retired on Feb. 28.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">The agency had “received emails from both TCEQ and EPA stating unambiguously that they do not want NASA to use the DC-8 for any data acquisition,” he wrote. “I am personally sorry.”</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">In recent interviews, EPA and Texas officials maintained the NASA flight would not have provided useful information.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">“NASA is equipped to gather atmospheric chemistry data, not ground-level data, which is why we declined their offer,” Honeycutt wrote in an email.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">“I did not tell NASA they could not fly their DC-8,” he said. “I don’t have that kind of authority; I’m just a state employee.”</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">John Konkus, an EPA spokesman, said the EPA didn’t deny the offer, either.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">“This is EPA facilitating the decision-maker, which in this case was the state,” he said. EPA, he said, was “satisfied with the air monitoring technology that EPA had and [that the state] requested we deploy.”</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">An investigation from the <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/In-Houston-and-beyond-Harvey-s-spills-leave-a-12771237.php" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Associated Press and the Houston Chronicle</a> showed there was widespread, unreported pollution and environmental damage in the region. The team identified more than 100 Harvey-related toxic releases, most of which were never publicized or vastly understated, including a cloud of hydrochloric acid that leaked from a damaged pipeline and a gasoline spill from an oil terminal that formed “a vapor cloud.”</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">Even if the DC-8 flight had not detected that pollution, it is unsettling that NASA was prevented from even looking, Newman said.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item card-border-bottom card-border-bottom-thick card-border-bottom-dark" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-width: 4px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">“Science is about numbers,” he said. “And if you’re unwilling to look, you’re not doing science.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"></p></div></div>