Editorial: Darts and laurels for Upper Delaware hazmat drill

Holding government agencies accountable takes a commitment of time and perseverance. Getting answers to how well those in public service have done their jobs protecting or regulating the Delaware River is not always easy — or fast.

One of our missions at Delaware Currents is to engage in watchdog journalism, which has produced many accountability stories, including one recently about how agencies responded to the March 2023 spill of a latex product into the Delaware River and our frustrations with the Philadelphia Water Department in its withholding of key elements of an after-action report about the spill.

In a similar way, reporter Chris Mele spent about a year and filed nearly a dozen requests for public records to assess an October 2023 hazardous materials drill on the Upper Delaware.

In the drill, more than a dozen federal, state, county and local agencies on the Pennsylvania and New Jersey sides of the river were put to the test responding to a nightmare scenario: A train carrying Bakken crude oil, chlorinated solvents and other materials, like soybeans, derails. Some train cars catch fire, oil is discharged into the river and hazardous substances are released into the air.

In the aftermath of the reporting on the drill’s outcomes, we thought it important to offer a report card about the public agencies and their responsiveness to our inquiries about the drill’s effectiveness and shortcomings.

Without further ado, here are the awardees of Darts and Laurels…

Laurels: To the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and particularly Shaun Eagan, a public affairs specialist for the EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Region office. Eagan was a breath of fresh air among government public relations representatives for his timely responses and pledge to keep Delaware Currents updated about the status of an after-action report on the drill. Not only did he deliver on those promises but he made the report available without the rigmarole of having to go through a Freedom of Information Act request, which can be a cumbersome process.

Darts: To the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Park Service. More than a year later, records requests to these drill participants remain outstanding, and with no clear outlook for when they will be fulfilling the requests. Understandably, agencies are regularly backlogged in dealing with FOIA requests but clearer communications with updates would be appreciated.

Laurels: To Lindsey Kurnath, the superintendent of the Upper Delaware Scenic & Recreational River, a unit of the National Park Service. Kurnath was generous in her time in responding to follow-up email questions about what the aftermath of the drill revealed.

Laurels: To Pike County, Pa., the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for their speedy and complete responses to our records requests about the drill.

Darts: To the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, which denied a public records filing related to the drill for a narrow, particular set of dates was “overbroad.” It was like they were not even trying.

And finally…

Darts: To Northampton and Monroe Counties in Pennsylvania, which denied records requests from Delaware Currents, saying they had no records because they were not drill participants.

Remarkably, though, the EPA confirmed that Northampton County participated in the full-scale exercise and Monroe County participated in a tabletop exercise.

Northampton’s denial particularly stood out for its preemptory (and uninformed) response: “Your request is DENIED and likely misdirected,” it said, adding that records related to the county’s participation in the drill “are typically addressed or enforced either through state’s Department of Environmental Protection and/or the local municipality, rather than the County of Northampton.”

Maybe it was the county’s response that was misdirected.