Problems Plague EPA's Radiation Program

Assistant administrator Gina McCarthy is widely expected to be President Obama's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, but a key program under her oversight has drawn sharp criticism from its internal watchdog.

Soon after a huge earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011, the EPA announced that its U.S. air-monitoring system had detected very low levels of radioactive material associated with the Japanese disaster.

But as a critical report from the EPA's inspector general later detailed, the monitoring network, known as RadNet, was in disarray when radiation began spewing from Fukushima. Fully 20 percent of RadNet monitors across the United States were inoperative, and had been for an average of 130 days.

Monitors in Laredo, Harlingen, El Paso, Lubbock and Corpus Christi were among the 25 that were inoperative at the time of Fukushima.

In its report, the inspector general faulted maintenance of the monitors and also pointed out that implementation of the program was incomplete and years behind schedule.

Now, nearly two years after Fukushima, the EPA did not specifically respond to questions about which monitors are now working, and whether an additional 10 planned monitors have been installed. "EPA is actively working to address questions and concerns within the inspector general's report," an agency official said this week.

The April 2012 inspector general's report was unequivocal. "Because EPA did not manage RadNet as a high-priority program, parts shortages and insufficient contractor oversight contributed to the extensive delay in fixing broken monitors," it said.

The EPA official said Tuesday that even with the broken monitors, the RadNet system was able to provide sufficient data to determine airborne levels of radioactivity from Fukushima.

In a random sampling of 12 monitors from May 1, 2010 to April 30, 2011, the inspector general's office found more than 41 percent of filter changes were not made. At the Houston monitoring station, for example, 30 of the 104 changes were not made, and in Fort Worth, 39 were not made.