On Saturday , Associated Press journalistsJason Dearen and Michael Bieseckerreported at least five toxic , Houston - area Superfund sites in the itinerary of Hurricane Harvey hadbeen deluged with floodwater , potentially distributing the assorted nasty things contained within across a much large geographical expanse . The AP report remark while its reporters were able to get at the sites via boat , the Environmental Protection Agency was not on scene , and did not supply a timeline for when its staff would be able to call them .
Now the EPA , which is under the ascendancy of Donald Trump appointment and longtime EPA hater Scott Pruitt , has fired back with one of the administration ’s pet tactics : defame the messenger . In anextraordinary statementthat appeared on the agency ’s website on Sunday , the EPA shout out the AP account “ misleading ” and attacked Biesecker ’s “ audacity ” and credibility .
“ Here ’s the truth : through aerial imaging , EPA has already take initial assessments at 41 Superfund sites—28 of those site show no damage , and 13 have experienced implosion therapy , ” the EPA wrote .
Notably , the EPA attempt to bury that its “ initial assessment ” wasconducted with “ airy images,”not literal on - situation assessments , and that the agency had failed to visit at least 11 maybe storm - damaged Superfund site as of Saturday . That is totally in line with the original AP report .
“ Administrator Pruitt already visited Southeast Texas and is in constant contact with local , state and county official , ” the statement continued . “ And EPA , has a squad of experts imbedded with other local , res publica and federal regime , on the primer answer to Harvey – none of which Biesecker included in his story . ”
“ regrettably , the Associated Press ’ Michael Biesecker has a history of not letting the facts get in the way of his fib , ” the EPA uphold . “ Earlier this summer , he made - up a coming together that Administrator Pruitt had , and then deliberately throw out information that rebut his inaccurate narration — in the end prompting a nation - wide rectification . Additionally , the Oklahoman took him to undertaking for sensationalized reporting . ”
( Biesecker did not make up the floor , which is that Pruittmet with Dow CEO Andrew Liverisbefore deciding not to banish Dow ’s chlorpyrifos pesticide , but rather issued a correctionregarding the duration of said coming together . )
In a followup command , EPA Associate Administrator Liz Bowman claim the AP was “ once again ” attempting to “ misinform Americans ” by “ cherry - picking facts , ” and slammed the theme as “ jaundiced journalism . ” The statement also links to far - correct web site Breitbart , one of the president ’s favourite web site .
Since the EPA did not actually contest any of the facts in the AP clause , this appear an dreadful lot like petty retaliation against journalists for have the audaciousness to report on things like the EPA ’s response to an environmental cataclysm — or any number of other thing , like Pruitt’sextremely unelaborated tiesto theclimate change denial movement , war on environmental scienceor architectural plan to eliminatehuge number of EPA staff .
Going after reporter might please the large , stupefied and passing petty man in the Oval Office . But that ’s precisely because responding to bad promotional material by doubling down and smearing critics is the way a tyke would handle things . Never mind the toxic wastefulness potentially spread all around Houston — a lot of Trump appointees ’ egos are the real dupe here .
Update , 7:40pm : On Sunday evening , the original statement on the EPA site became inaccessible . Though the timing appeared to correlate with a irregular outage of the entire EPA website , when the web site make out back online minutes later , the statement still say “ Page Not Found ( Restricted ) . ”
Other EPA wardrobe releases continued to load unremarkably .
Obviously , removing the affirmation from the website — if indeed that is what happened , rather than a technological mistake — would do nothing to disguise the fact the EPA save it in the first place . An archived rendering of the statement isavailable here .
Update , September 4th , 2:40pm : The statement is againvisible on the EPA website .
Climate changeDonald TrumpPollutionSciencescott pruitt
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