The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to recognize responders to Hurricane Harvey with uniquely designed challenge coins, but environmentalists in Texas are opposing the recognition. Speaking to CNN, Texas Sierra Club’s Neil Carmen put down the efforts of the responders and called any recognition of them “disgusting,” stating:
“They didn’t want to make public how bad the situation was. It’s a complicated situation but I can’t believe that they are giving awards to people for this. It’s kind of disgusting to me, because the huge concern is that a lot of material escaped and the flooding carried the dioxin to people’s yards.”
Prior to the storm making landfall, Carmen’s fellow Texas environmental leader Juan Mancias – who worked’ alongside the Sierra Club for a number of protests – prayed for it to hit “full force” to disrupt oil and gas activity in the Lone Star State. After the storm, Mancias stated he was “thankful” for the destructive nature of Hurricane Harvey.
Hurricane Harvey took the lives of 88 Texans. Response efforts drew wide praise as mass casualties expected from a storm that size and flooding were largely avoided.
