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EPA Receives FEMA Mission Assignment for Greensburg, Kansas, Tornado Response

Release Date: 05/11/2007
Contact Information: Beckie Himes, (816) 896-0027, himes.beckie@epa.gov or Dianna Whitaker, (913) 909-5788, whitaker.dianna@epa.gov

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Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Kansas City, Kan., May 11, 2007) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been tasked by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to remove oil, hazardous materials, household hazardous waste and white goods, in response to the Greensburg, Kan., tornado.

EPA will be collecting these items at curbside starting today. An EPA flier to be handed out to residents lists items that will be picked up including refrigerators, washers and dryers, compressed gas cylinders and propane cylinders, batteries, paint and other household chemicals. There is no charge for this service.

EPA on-scene coordinators have been in Greensburg since May 5 to address fuel releases, chlorine cylinders, anhydrous ammonia tanks, propane tanks, and other hazardous materials. EPA also deployed the mobile command post from its Region 7 office in Kansas City, Kan. The command post is near the courthouse building.

The ASPECT (Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology) plane flew over the path of debris so that EPA could determine the location of hazardous materials.

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