During a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing last week, Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) asked EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin about the agency's actions to mitigate ecological harm caused by the invasive Asian Carp.
00:04And since we're talking about the first 100 days accomplishments,
00:08I guess I would ask unanimous consent that those 100 accomplishments be submitted for the record.
00:15Without objection, so ordered.
00:17Thank you, Administrator Zeldin, for joining us today.
00:21I appreciate the fact that your very first trip as administrator was to East Palestine, Ohio,
00:28along with the Vice President and Senator Moreno and myself and many other people from the state.
00:34It was very important to that community because, as many of you know or if you recall,
00:39they experienced a devastating train derailment and chemical fire in the days several years ago.
00:49And that derailment was devastating for the community.
00:52And many of those individuals in the community felt like they were not getting proper attention over time.
00:59And so the fact that you made your first trip as administrator to East Palestine,
01:05your first trip was to East Palestine, meant a lot to those folks as they continue to recover
01:11and show the resiliency that that community certainly has.
01:15I'm also a proud representative of Ohio and a Great Lakes State.
01:22I recognize that I'm the only member of this committee who actually represents a Great Lakes State.
01:29And since it is 20% of the world's usable fresh water, I'm going to take pride in that and spend a little time on that today,
01:39even though I could talk to you about how some of the environmental rules that we have in this country
01:45are actually harming the environment rather than benefiting it.
01:49And I would love to update those things.
01:50I'm going to spend a little time though on the Great Lakes if I could,
01:53particularly as it relates to, because we have a lot of issues.
01:57We have dredging issues.
01:58We have algae blooms.
01:59But we have invasive species that threaten the quality of those Great Lakes.
02:08It's been an issue for many, many years.
02:10And the Asian carp is one of those threats that I know many people in those great fisheries are concerned about.
02:18And President Trump issued an executive order directing several agencies, including the EPA,
02:23to address the spread of the Asian carp in our waterways.
02:27And given the economic cost of this to the Great Lakes, and particularly Lake Erie,
02:31which is on the northern border of Ohio,
02:34I want to just ask you to talk about how the EPA will use the GLRI dollars to mitigate this issue
02:42and just give us a little insight to that, because I know it matters to all of the Great Lakes states.
02:47Yes, Senator.
02:48And this is something that's been a point that the President has personally reached out to me on multiple occasions.
02:56I think that having a vice president now who has previously and still takes great pride in Great Lakes will make sure that it stays on the top of the agenda for the entirety of the administration.
03:13The Great Lakes program is one that EPA takes great pride in, has done important work, and that work needs to continue.
03:22Working with Congress, hopefully, that is fully funded to continue that work to be able to address this issue.
03:30Grateful for your advocacy. As soon as I was sworn in, the vice president called immediately saying we're going right away to East Palestine, Ohio,
03:40where you were on the ground and that it was the first visit with urgency from the vice president.
03:48So I am sure, and I'm confident without risking speaking for you, I'm sure that you're also confident that this vice president and this team will make sure that you have that voice,
04:01that we're meeting with you as much as you want, we're hearing from you as much as you want on behalf of your constituents to address this.
04:08Great. And I know we have more work to do there, but on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, I just want your assurance that you're going to be transparent about how those dollars are spent.
04:20People will be able to track them and we will be able to come up with one of those great lists of all the things that we did with the Great Lakes funding.
04:27Senator, I want to be transparent on every dollar spent by the agency.
04:31Great. Thank you. And then and then finally, I will give you a chance to the EPA learned a lot.
04:38What what takeaways do you have from the East Palestine situation with a with a we had rail corridors, chemical fires, things like that?
04:50I know that that we're still there's still work to do there.
04:53What lessons learned have been communicated to you from the team that was working on that?
04:58We have to do more faster. We we have to ensure that we're present on the ground instantly.
05:06And when I say we, I'm talking about any agency that has any jurisdiction whenever disaster strikes delays of just a few days when disaster strikes could end up being critical.
05:19Lost time that that ends up compounding the amount of cost it's going to take.
05:25Evidence can get lost and a community's voice might feel like it's not being heard.
05:29Then junior senator J.D. Vance was on the ground instantly and the residents of Ohio are highly confident that they haven't missed a beat.
05:40Being able to to see you now fill that position. We look forward to working with you on it.
05:46As far as lessons learned, it's a lesson in leadership in making sure that whenever disaster strikes anywhere in the country,
05:52that all agencies with any equities are instantly present on the ground and and and acting, not just reacting, but ensuring that we're heeding those calls instantly.
06:04Yeah, I will share one last point on that because we were on the ground.
06:08Governor DeWine had had to make decisions about how to respond to that derailment.
06:14And I can tell you he did not get access to timely information to make the very difficult decisions that he needed to make.
06:21And I just encourage you to work with your agency to make sure that in the case that something like that happens again,
06:32that that governors of whatever state that might happen in won't have to fly blind because the EPA was not there to give them the information when they needed it.
06:40Yeah. And Senator, I would just also add that an important lesson learned, which is still a work in progress,
06:45is that there are many others around East Palestine who used to go to East Palestine.
06:51And the message needs to go out to them of just how much East Palestine has rebounded under your leadership.
06:58And it's time to help reinvigorate that local economy inside of East Palestine communication,
07:05not just to the residents inside of that community, but to the residents around that community.
07:10It's time to go back to East Palestine and help them recover.
07:13I look forward to the time that we can get you back and we can tie this one up and help East Palestine recovery
07:20to even higher, better status than it was before.
