dealing with climate change and its increased
risk of disasters breaching Superfund sites.
Assistant EPA administrator Peter Wright largely
avoided the words “climate change” in his formal
response to the GAO and in a statement. “The
EPA strongly believes the Superfund program’s
existing processes and resources adequately
ensure that risks and any effects of severe
weather events, that may increase in intensity,
duration, or frequency, are woven into risk
response decisions at nonfederal NPL sites,”
Wright said.
The GAO report emphasizes the challenges for
government agencies under President Donald
Trump, who belittles the science of climate change.
Wheeler’s highest-profile public remarks on the
matter came in a March CBS interview, when
Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, called global
heating “an important change” but not one of
the agency’s most pressing problems.
“Most of the threats from climate change are
50 to 75 years out,” Wheeler said then, rejecting
conclusions by scientists that damage to climate
from fossil fuel emissions already is making
natural disasters fiercer and more frequent.
Nonfederal National Priority List sites that are
vulnerable to flooding or other environmental
hazards. (AP Graphic)
The GAO review comes after a 2017 review by
The Associated Press found that 2 million people
in the U.S. live within a mile (1.6 kilometers)
of 327 Superfund sites in areas prone to
flooding or vulnerable to sea level rise caused
by climate change. The AP analyzed national
flood zone maps, census data and EPA records
Image: Andrew Harrer