The Environmental Protection Agency deployed a team of divers Friday to begin inspecting a flooded toxic waste site in Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
“EPA remains committed to providing the necessary resources and personnel to ensure those affected by the devastation of Hurricane Harvey receive proper agency attention,” said Administrator Scott Pruitt on Friday after arriving in Houston to tour the Superfund waste sites.
Pruitt began his visit by inspecting the San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund site. As Pruitt toured the site, “an EPA dive team” began conducting underwater inspections of the site, the agency said.
“EPA will continue to keep the public informed as assessments of the site continue and site determinations are made by the dive team,” the agency added.
EPA has a robust team of divers that dates to its creation in the 1970s. “Our first dive units were established in Seattle and Gulf Breeze, Florida, to support EPA’s monitoring, research and emergency response efforts,” the agency’s website said. “In 2016, we conducted 946 dives involving 65 divers in nine diving units across the country.”
EPA’s team of environmental divers have some hazardous jobs that include sampling submerged drums of “unknown materials,” mapping illegal underwater dump sites, and inspecting waste discharges from seafood processing facilities, to name a few, according to the agency. The divers also can be found assessing the health of seagrass meadows, coral reefs, and other important marine habitats.
Pruitt later left the divers to take to the skies with the Coast Guard for an aerial inspection of other waste cleanup sites.
