Experts miss EPA office opening due to Texas duty

Thursday, Feb. 6, 2003 | 9:50 a.m.

The Environmental Protection Agency opened its new Environmental Response Team West office in Las Vegas today, but three of its environmental experts missed the ceremony because they were busy monitoring the Texas air for potential toxins from the space shuttle explosion.

It's an example of why the new Las Vegas team is so important, officials said. The team can respond to environmental emergencies throughout the west within hours, its director, Denise Valdez, said. When fully staffed, there will be 15 team members. Eight are at work today.

The agency's air monitoring experts were sent to Texas after the shuttle exploded Saturday morning as it returned from a 16-day orbit.

In addition to monitoring air, water or soils, the team can assess and respond to chemical, biological and radiological threats, Valdez said.

Once at the site of a hazardous release, the team can identify and analyze the contaminated materials, she said.

"The team will provide a better response for oil spills and those funky chemicals people play around with," Valdez said.

When terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, a similar EPA team from Edison, N.J., responded quickly, she said.

Marianne Horinko, associate administrator of the EPA's Superfund program in Washington, said: "One big lesson we have learned over the past couple of years is how valuable it is to have resources close to environmental emergencies. No one can foresee what kinds of things we are going to be facing."

In Texas, the trio dispatched from the new Las Vegas office detected a dangerous gas in two canisters that fell from the shuttle, Horinko said. It was nitrogen petroxide, one of two ingredients in rocket propellant that fuels the shuttle.

The EPA experts used a mobile monitor called a Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzer that measures toxic materials in the air or soils. Some of the nitrogen petroxide had been found in soils under the canisters and was being cleaned up, she said.

EPA emergency teams have responded to 1,900 hazardous materials releases and oil spills in all 50 states, U.S. territories and commonwealths, she said.

Besides responding to the World Trade Center, EPA teams have handled: anthrax cleanups in Washington, and Boca Raton, Fla.; chemical contamination at Love Canal, N.Y., Valley of Drums, Ky., and Times Beach, Mo., as well as the Ashland oil spill in Pittsburgh and the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Since Sept. 11, EPA also has a homeland security strategic plan. Under the plan, the agency hired 50 new on-scene coordinators and 20 new Environmental Response Team members to strengthen EPA's ability to respond to several incidents at once. The EPA provided additional training and equipment for the staff.

EPA also has awarded nearly $50 million in grants to the nation's largest drinking water treatment plants to assess their vulnerabilities and make security improvements.