WASHINGTON (AP) – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday he expects the Environmental Protection Agency “to get on top” of the threat of possible water contamination after an Associated Press report of highly toxic waste sites flooded in the Houston area.
“The EPA is monitoring that. The EPA is going to get on top of that,” said Abbott, when asked on “Fox News Sunday” whether toxic floodwaters could pose a continuing health threat to Texas residents.
“We are working with the EPA to make sure that we contain any of these chemicals harming anybody in the greater Houston area or any other place,” he said.
The Houston metropolitan area is home to more than a dozen Superfund sites, designated by the EPA as being among America’s most intensely contaminated places. The AP surveyed seven of them and reported Saturday that all had been inundated with water, in some cases many feet deep, raising the concern that floodwaters may wash in pollution.