EPA told ABC News its responders were on-scene within hours of the derailment.
An Environmental Protection Agency whistleblower told ABC News the United States EPA wasted critical time gathering data in the days immediately following theSenior research scientist Robert Kroutil alleged the EPA delayed days in deploying one of its most effective tools in assessing chemical incidents: The Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology plane.
According to Kroutil, the ASPECT plane is able to identify 78 different compounds using artificial intelligence and collects data allowing scientists to identify another 530 compounds by hand. These compounds include vinyl chloride and many of the VOC's independent scientists have tested for since the derailment.
Portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed the night before burn in East Palestine, Ohio, Feb. 4, 2023."It was very unusual," Kroutil told ABC News. "When I saw a news feed, I wondered why the plane would not be deployed to this particular type of accident because of the technology on the airplane and being able to assess the situation immediately."
"It was very worrying based on what I looked at in the data, but it took me a while to assess that," he said. "I just analyzed the data and it is what it is."
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