Epa - Tumblr Posts
hey guys. I've been really stressed out by all the chaos, and recent news has made me feel pretty sick. Im sure each of you can relate...
Here’s a small fraction of what’s going on, but this is the big hits against the scientific community so far:
The EPA ( Environmental Protection Agency)
“(Trump is) also ordering it to remove a critical page on climate change from its website and put a freeze on awarding grants and contracts critical to our nation's environmental health. (In case you're in any doubt as to what a Trump presidency means for climate change and the environment, just consider that one of his first official acts after being sworn in was to announce he'd be eliminating The Climate Action Plan - legislation critical to combating anthropogenic global warming.)”
NPS (National Park Service)
“the NPS refuses to be silenced. While their main official Twitter account has fallen into line, tweeting an apology for their inauguration retweets and sticking to innocuous fluff since, the Badlands National Park official account defiantly started tweeting about climate change...”
all information taken from the Scientific American...go here if you want more information. We’re really going to have to start fighting tooth and nail against this horrible, horrible man.
credit goes to Paul Nicklen for the leopard seal close up as inspiration, I’m sure many of you have seen the post going around of the leopard seal feeding a photographer (Paul) penguins.
This is fearmongering.
I am an Environmental, Health & Safety manager who has worked (and currently works) with PSM/RMP covered chemicals, including some that can create toxic vapor clouds similar to the one in Conyers, GA. I would like to explain why this post, and many similar posts in the comments alleging that "they" (who are "they"?) are trying to get people injured by exposure to chlorine or chlorine-containing gases in the air, is incorrect. These posts come from ignorance, which can be corrected by understanding.
This is a long post, so please see the rest after the break. It's a lot faster to make misinformation than to correct it.
When an environmental incident occurs, the Federal EPA is notified nearly immediately by the company, by concerned citizens, and by community management (such as the Emergency Management Agency referenced in the screenshot above). Georgia is covered under Region 4, the southeast United States. When the Region is notified, they will immediately take action to begin monitoring the area and deploy a small army of contractors for cleanup, monitoring, and incident management. The EPA has a very special rule called a TDD (technical direction document) that allows them to immediately authorize workers to begin work to stop the incident - a verbal authorization can suffice. In other words, time is of the essence to stop emergencies from affecting the public.
I've spoken directly to several EPA agents in my line of work, all of whom are deeply committed to public welfare. Their lives are dedicated to protecting their communities. All of them lived in the Region they were tasked with protecting.
But don't take my word for it: during an emergency, the EPA will often post real-time data on the emergency. You can see the same info they're seeing in the same places they're seeing it.
This snippet was taken at 5:41 PM Eastern Time, 10/4/2024. You can see that their air monitoring is reporting toxicity levels at a safe level (not necessarily zero - more on that in a minute). Each square or diamond is a monitoring location where they've placed a person or device to monitor air quality. Here's an example of one by Draeger, commonly used on industrial chemical sites:
These meters constantly pull in air, networking with each other to develop a map of the affected area. The results can be found in data summary reports on epa.gov like this one:
https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-10/biolabchlorine_datasummaryreport_20241004_5am.pdf
Here's what that data means: VOC is Volatile Organic Compounds, often solvents, pesticides, or irritants. Ethane, acetone, and methanol are all classic examples. H2S is Hydrogen Sulfide, the characteristic smell of rotten eggs and a natural gas additive. CL2 is Chlorine, the element currently in question from the original fire and damage at the BioLab facility. It creates hydrochloric acid on contact with water or in your lungs, causing severe damage.
Based on this data, we can see that this monitoring device detected chlorine 72 times during the reading period (5:00 PM on 10/3/24 to 5:00 AM on 10/4/24, not pictured here), and exceeded the EPA's action level during that time with a highest value of 2.10 ppm. PPM means "parts per million". Like "1 percent" means "1 in 100," and "part per million" can be thought of as how many molecules per million of air. On average, this meter was reading 0.06 ppm of chlorine in that 12 hour period.
Chlorine is an extremely irritating chemical, and you can detect it at approximately 0.32 ppm (source: CDC.gov) which is well below the OSHA permissible exposure limit of 1 ppm (source: OSHA.gov). You can detect it before it is dangerous to you, which is good for your safety and bad for your nighttime walks. In an abundance of caution, if you can detect it at all, you should avoid it. Your nose doesn't know the difference between 0.32 ppm and 1 ppm!
The "action level" is the amount of that chemical (usually 1/2 of the OSHA PEL, or "personal exposure limit") that initiates certain required activities like exposure monitoring, medical surveillance, or community crisis management (like shelter-in-place or evacuations). You can see that we exceeded that number overnight!
So why did they only have you shelter in place at night!?
As others in the replies have already explained, a nighttime inversion is a weather phenomenon where cold air in contact with the ground is lifted upward, and warmer air from slightly higher up is pushed toward the ground. (source: Weather.gov) Without enough wind, warm air gets stuck underneath a "blanket" of cold air, much like smoke from an extinguished candle might be stuck under a bowl placed over it. If that air contains chlorine or chlorine-containing compounds from the BioLab fire, it may become more hazardous than during the day when it would otherwise blow away or dissipate into the atmosphere.
Here's the same table, but from the day before - 5 AM to 5 PM local time.
Look at that! The action level wasn't exceeded, so it's not necessary to force people to shelter-in-place during the day. In the areas where the action level is still being exceeded, the emergency management teams on the ground will likely evacuate affected persons and block access to prevent people from becoming exposed.
It's not because "they" (whoever "they" is supposed to be!!) are trying to hurt you, it's just because there is an elevated level of risk at night. The EPA exists to protect your community, not to sustain capitalism.
