EPA regulator investigates delays in deployment of sensor plane after fiery derailment in Ohio

The EPA’s inspector general is investigating why the agency was unable to launch its special aircraft, equipped with state-of-the-art sensors, until four days after the devastating Norfolk Southern derailment over East Palestine last year.

The Associated Press reported in the spring on a whistleblower’s concerns about delays and inconsistencies in the use of the EPA’s ASPECT aircraft. The plane could have provided important information about chemicals in the air and shown that tank cars filled with vinyl chloride were unlikely to explode as authorities feared.

The controversial decision to blow up the vinyl chloride cars and burn the toxic plastic component created a huge cloud of black smoke over the Ohio city and fueled ongoing fears of potential long-term health damage from contact with a mixture of burning chemicals.

The inspector general’s statement on the investigation, which was released quietly on Tuesday, said the regulator would “determine whether EPA and its contractors followed ASPECT flight equipment response procedures during the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio,” in the hope of better responding to future emergencies.

The man who wrote the software and helped interpret data from the plane’s sophisticated radiological and infrared sensors said this mission is different from the 180 other missions of this aircraft since the program began after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Robert Kroutil said he was unsure why the ASPECT plane was not deployed sooner and why it was able to gather only limited information in two short flights.

The National Transportation Safety Board, in its investigation of the accident, concluded that the venting and burning were not necessary because a feared chemical reaction in the tank cars probably did not occur. But the officials who made that decision never heard that opinion from the chemical manufacturer. And they did not have the detailed temperature data that Kroutil said the ASPECT aircraft could have provided on the tank cars. First responders on the ground had great difficulty taking temperature readings because of the ongoing fire.

The EPA defended the way it deployed the plane, saying that authorities did not request the plane to be deployed from its Texas base until two days after the derailment, even though the agency touts that the ASPECT plane can be deployed within an hour of any type of chemical spill.

EPA spokesman Nick Conger said Wednesday that the agency would cooperate fully with the Office of the Inspector General.

EPA officials have said they believed the aircraft’s use in eastern Palestine was appropriate. They claim they had enough sensors on the ground to track the chemicals released after the derailment and the controversial vent and burn operation three days later. Officials have said the ASPECT aircraft was unable to fly on the day of the vent and burn operation due to weather conditions, but it is unclear why it was not airborne earlier.

Kroutil said he resigned from the EPA contractor Kalman & Company, where he worked, out of frustration with the East Palestine mission earlier this year. Kroutil said his team called the mission inconclusive because the two flights recorded only eight minutes of data and the plane’s chemical sensors were turned off over the streams. But he said EPA managers changed their report and declared the vent-and-burn mission successful because the plane found so few chemicals on its eventual flight.

Long after the derailment, Kroutil said EPA officials who oversee the ASPECT plane asked the company he worked for to prepare plans for the flight and backdate them so they would look good if they were later uncovered in a public records request.

The Government Accountability Project watchdog group, which works with Kroutil, has raised other questions about the EPA’s response in East Palestine, including whether the agency should have warned people against gardening and declared a public health emergency after the derailment. On both counts, the agency defended its decisions because it believes tests have shown gardening is safe and officials believe they have all the legal authority to ensure the community’s safety and force the railroad company to pay for the cleanup.