Back last fall, when I followed the path of destruction wrought by Hurricane Harvey as it tore through Texas on its way to Houston, most of the first responders I talked to in that city were worried not only about the damage done by the wind and the devastating rains, but of another problem specific to Houston that they feared might not truly manifest itself until everything dried out. (They did not anticipate that the storm itself would get shoved out of the news cycle by two other massive storms—Irma and Maria—that did even more damage.) They worried not about the floodwater itself, but what poisons might be swirling around in it. The Houston area is one of the country’s chemical capitals.

As they worked, the members of the fire departments, the rescue workers, and the civilian volunteers all expressed concern about what they might be breathing and what they might be wading through as they went about their business. Turns out they were right to be worried. Turns out it was worse than they thought it was. From Time:

More than a half-year after floodwaters swamped America’s fourth-largest city, the extent of this environmental assault is beginning to surface, while questions about the long-term consequences for human health remain unanswered. County, state and federal records pieced together by The Associated Press and The Houston Chronicle reveal a far more widespread toxic impact than authorities publicly reported after the storm slammed into the Texas coast in late August and then stalled over the Houston area.

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Nearly half a billion gallons of industrial wastewater mixed with storm water surged out of just one chemical plant in Baytown, east of Houston on the upper shores of Galveston Bay. Benzene, vinyl chloride, butadiene and other known human carcinogens were among the dozens of tons of industrial toxins released into surrounding neighborhoods and waterways following Harvey’s torrential rains. In all, reporters catalogued more than 100 Harvey-related toxic releases — on land, in water and in the air. Most were never publicized, and in the case of two of the biggest ones, the extent or potential toxicity of the releases was initially understated.

You mean that local authorities, Scott Pruitt’s EPA, and American corporations downplayed environmental damage? In Texas? In 2017? I may never recover.

Only a handful of the industrial spills have been investigated by federal regulators, reporters found. Texas regulators say they have investigated 89 incidents, but have yet to announce any enforcement actions. Testing by state and federal regulators of soil and water for contaminants was largely limited to Superfund toxic waste sites. Based on widespread air monitoring, including flyovers, officials repeatedly assured the public that post-Harvey air pollution posed no health threat. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official in charge now says these general assessments did not necessarily reflect local “hotspots” with potential risk to people.

This “official” is going to get a raise. “There’s no danger, folks. Unless you live in one of these ‘hotspots,’ in which case, it might be time to check Craigslist for that new thyroid.” Jesus, these people.

Samuel Coleman, who was the EPA’s acting regional administrator during Harvey, said the priority in the immediate aftermath was “addressing any environmental harms as quickly as possible as opposed to making announcements about what the problem was.” In hindsight, he said, it might not have been a bad idea to inform the public about the worst of “dozens of spills.”

Ya think? JESUS, THESE PEOPLE!

The chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Bryan Shaw, declined when asked by lawmakers in January to identify the worst spills and their locations. He told a legislative subcommittee hearing he could not publicly discuss spills until his staff completed a review.

I give up. No, truly. I quit.

The amount of post-Harvey government testing contrasts sharply with what happened after two other major Gulf Coast hurricanes. After Hurricane Ike hit Texas in 2008, state regulators collected 85 sediment samples to measure the contamination; more than a dozen violations were identified and cleanups were carried out, according to a state review. In Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters ravaged New Orleans in 2005, the EPA and Louisiana officials examined about 1,800 soil samples over 10 months, EPA records showed. “Now the response is completely different,” said Scott Frickel, an environmental sociologist formerly at Tulane University in New Orleans.

You’d think that, if he were going to spend $68,000 on travel expenses from last August to this past September, Pruitt might have been able to find a discount flight to Houston. This EPA’s response to Harvey has been worse than the Bush EPA’s response to Katrina was. Roll that around in the ol’ cabeza for a while.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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