EAST PALESTINE, OH - An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) whistleblower has come forth and stated that the agency failed the residents of East Palestine, Ohio in 2023 when a freight train derailed in that community, causing an environmental disaster.
On Feb. 6, 2023, officials in this Ohio town vented and burned five tank cars containing vinyl chloride after the Norfolk Southern train derailed just days before. The whistleblower, Robert Kroutill, claims the federal EPA “deviated from normal procedures” when testing for chemical contamination after the derailment, according to NewsNation.
Three days after the “controlled burn” of the tanker cars, the EPA gave the “all clear” for residents, who had been evacuated, to return to the area. Almost immediately, those residents began complaining of unexplained illnesses and rashes.
“I undressed to get into the shower, and I had a rash all over the side of my face on both sides, and all over my chest,” said East Palestine resident Katlyn Schwarzwaelder. A viral video showed Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance at a creek with dead fish visible in the water and an oily sheen visible on top of the water.
Joe Biden didn’t have time to visit the area and in his stead sent EPA head Michael Regan, who praised the EPA and credited the use of a high tech plane called ASPECT he said was used to detect chemical compounds in the air.
“We’ve had boots on the ground, leading robust air quality testing, including the advanced technology ASPECT plane,” Regan bragged at the time.
Ironically it was Kroutil who spent some forty years creating the ASPECT program, originally for the Department of Defense and later as a contractor with the EPA. Kroutil is now slamming the EPA and their use of the ASPECT plane and related technology at the train derailment disaster.
Kroutil said the “deployment [of the aircraft] was the most unusual deployment I’ve ever seen. You just wouldn’t do it that way.”
The protocol is supposed to see the aircraft up in the air within hours of such a chemical disaster. He said that in all the missions he’s been involved in, he’s never seen a response such as was deployed in East Palestine, which is located in a state that went for former President Trump in the 2020 election.
“In East Palestine, we had a big delay,” Kroutil told NewsNation. “There was a big delay in getting the aircraft to Pittsburgh.”
Kroutil said the delay, which lasted five days, was a mystery to him.
“I’m still asking myself that question,” he said. “Why would you deploy this aircraft five days late?”
He said the aircraft should have been deployed immediately and flown the area for days, gathering data.
“We should be collecting data on the 4th, 5th, 6th, multiple flights on the 7th,” he continued. “We should be there at least two weeks to monitor the situation.”
Kroutil was at pains to point out that this was not what happened and noted that the plane should have been collecting data while the toxic cloud was still in the sky.
“We only were deployed for two missions on Feb. 7. By that time, the plumes were out, the fire was out. It was after the event and burn, so that was not the time to actually use this particular aircraft,” he said. “The aircraft only collected data, eight minutes worth of data with the targets.”
The data collected from an ASPECT aircraft in a typical deployment would amount to 100 minutes of data, according to Kroutil. He noted that scientists looked at the data and found it to be inconclusive, however the final EPA report didn’t reflect that assessment of the data.
Moreover, he said, and more troubling was the fact that the plane turned off sensors while overflying the creeks in East Palestine.
“The program manager informed the operator to turn those sensors off when we’re flying up a couple of creeks,” he said.
Why would the program manager do that, Kroutil asked, noting that there was no reason given for deactivating the sensors, a deviation from normal protocol.
“I’ve done 180 different responses,” Kroutil said. “I’ve never heard the program manager tell us to turn the sensor off when collecting data.” Kroutil said he raised questions with a program manager, who ignored him and didn’t give a response.
Kroutil has been offered whistleblower status from the Government Accountability Project.
“The EPA didn’t gather the chemical information that it could have gathered to inform first responders, the community, government officials, to protect the public,” Lesley Pacey, an investigator with GAP said. “They could have done this and they didn’t. The question is why.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) called the allegations “disturbing.”
“These are disturbing allegations and EPA must thoroughly investigate this incident. EPA needs to immediately release more details surrounding this incident–they at least owe that to the people in East Palestine,” Brown said.
NewsNation reached out to the EPA for a response, and the agency said Kroutil’s characterization of the response was false, noting a Feb. 7, 2023 report. The agency claimed that the ASPECT plane couldn’t fly on Feb. 6 due to “weather conditions.” Historical weather from the nearby Pittsburgh International AIrport station showed no precipitation on that date with a brief period where winds were at 18mph. Other than that, it was a rather mild winter day.
“Within hours of the derailment on Feb. 3, 2023, EPA responders were on-scene, establishing a robust air monitoring network at the site and within the community. EPA’s ASPECT plane was just one component of a comprehensive air monitoring and sampling network that included several instruments to collect air samples and measure contaminants at and around the site,” the EPA said.
According to the EPA, not sustained chemicals “of concern” were found in the air after the evacuation order was lifted. It continued that Kroutil wasn’t part of the ASPECT flight crew responsible for the determination of flight safety, and refused to comment further, citing internal personnel matters.
Kroutil disputes the weather concerns, noting that upon checking the weather data himself, the plane would have been able to fly safely at 2,000 feet instead of the usual 2,800 feet.
Kroutil said he was also told not to write the words “East Palestine” in any of his reports.
“We were told not to put the words East Palestine in any emails sent to the program manager,” he said.
NewsNation said that by eliminating the words “East Palestine” from any reports, a FOIA request for information about the disaster would exclude any reports addressing that community.
Kroutil said he filed his own FOIA request to get more information on the mission of the ASPECT flight and was threatened with his job.
“I was told that I’d be fired within 24 hours if I didn’t rescind my FOIA request,” he said. He pulled the request back, and then decided to resign.
He said he has chosen to speak out “because it’s the truth.”
Biden didn't visit East Palestine until over a year after the disaster, NPR reported.
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