Doubts on Texas ’cane health info

AUSTIN, Texas — A federal watchdog has released a report that casts doubt on the public health assurances made after Hurricane Harvey unleashed an environmental assault on the country’s largest petrochemical corridor, saying officials relied on limited data to offer residents peace of mind and that Houston’s air quality monitors had been off-line to prevent storm damage.

The report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General paints a picture of state and federal regulators telling those who live in and around the nation’s fourth-largest city, which was inundated with more than 50 inches of rainfall, that there were no public health risks even though it lacked a full range of data to make such a determination.

And while the report issued this month says no instances were found of the EPA relaying inaccurate information during Harvey about air quality, it also determined that none of the air-quality sampling done by the agency — with a mobile laboratory and with a sensor-equipped plane — proved useful to assessing health risks.

Federal officials also said officials from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which is the state’s environmental regulator, declined repeated requests to discuss their decision-making during Harvey or to share data.

“Despite several conversations to arrange for written answers to our initial list of questions, we never received a response from the [Texas commission],” the report states.

Responding to the findings, commission Chairman Jon Niermann said the report reflected “numerous misunderstandings about the Hurricane Harvey response.”

He said the state had acted in good faith to set up meetings and that his agency regretted any miscommunication.