RICHMOND, Ind. — The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing an explanation for why the agency has yet to release the debris testing results from the toxic fire at a Richmond plastics recycling facility.
The I-Team has been pressing the EPA for more than a week about the massive fire in Richmond from three months ago. The agency said it has debris testing results from the toxic fire site, but still has work to do before it releases those results publicly.
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In Richmond, the cleanup work at what’s left of the toxic fire from April can’t start until the EPA finds out what potential hazmat is in the mess.
The I-Team’s John Bedell has emailed the EPA three times in the last week asking about their work in Richmond. Last Thursday, he asked the agency when they’ll release the debris sample test results they took in May.
A spokesperson wrote back, saying that the EPA expected to “get the validated results by the end of this week.” They said once they get them, they’ll publish them on the website dedicated to the fire.
Five days later, on Tuesday, the agency had not published any results, so Bedell reached out again. The EPA said they were “still waiting for the fully validated analytical results” and that their lab anticipated having results by the end of this week.
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Friday morning, Bedell emailed again asking if the results would be published by the end of the day. This time the agency called back saying they now have the raw data from the debris testing and it’s been validated, but now EPA scientists must analyze it. They hope that’s done “within the next week or so.”
The I-Team asked the agency if the results would actually be posted at the end of next week.
“The lab technicians were hoping to do the work sooner but, you know, they have their work issues. And we have no control over that. And so when we gave you those timeframes, those were probably best case and for whatever reason got moved back a little bit. So again, they tell us they anticipate the results, the finalized information, everything by the end of next week. I can in no way confirm that. I can just, you know, tell you what I was provided,” Allen Jarrell, on-scene coordinator for the EPA, said Friday.
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