WASHINGTON (AP) " A manager who supervises the Environmental Protection Agency's program for cleaning up the nation's most contaminated properties and waterways says the government needs to plan for the ongoing threat posed to Superfund sites by climate change.
The congressional testimony Thursday by EPA Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator Barry Breen conflicts with the agency's policy positions under President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax. Breen's boss, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, has publicly questioned mainstream climate science.
A Superfund Task Force appointed by Pruitt last year issued a list of 42 recommendations that makes no mention of climate change, flooding risks from stronger storms or rising seas. More than a dozen Superfund sites flooded during Hurricane Harvey.
EPA's press office declined to comment on whether Pruitt agrees with Breen's testimony.