Trump administration stopped processing new samples at the Region 6 EPA lab in August with no plan to protect Gulf Coast communities before the new Oklahoma lab is ready

Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) called on Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Lee Zeldin to request a public meeting to explain how EPA will protect Houston and the Gulf Coast after halting essential work at its Region 6 Laboratory in Houston.  The effort comes after the Trump administration ordered the Houston lab to stop processing new samples even though EPA acknowledges that its lab in Ada, Oklahoma will not be fully operational for months.  EPA has presented no plan for testing air, water, and soil across five states if a hurricane or industrial accident strikes.  The closure also upends the lives of the lab's scientists, many of whom may leave EPA rather than move 400 miles away.  And many questions remain about the impact of moving the lab several hundred miles away will have on Houston’s public and environmental health following disasters.   

“Housto is home to a large number of chemical plants and refineries, and this lab and its highly trained staff are essential to EPA’s mission of protecting human health and the environment,” Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher wrote.  “In the case of extreme weather events, these scientists are among Houston’s essential first responders.  Many EPA inspectors working on the Hurricane Harvey emergency response were based out of the Houston Lab.  Moving the lab to a remote area exposes real infrastructure and logistics issues, which threatens Houston’s access to the critical air, water, and soil testing performed at the lab and the return of results as quickly as possible.

“Closing the Houston lab is ill-advised and I have advocated against it for years.  At a minimum, EPA should present a comprehensive plan for how the lab’s functions will be carried out as this consolidation with Ada occurs,” Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher continued.  “However, EPA ordered the lab to stop processing new samples on August 28, 2026, and EPA personnel communicated to my office during a meeting on September 9, 2026, that the Ada lab will not take over the Houston lab’s functions for several months… EPA has not articulated a plan for how new samples will be processed or how emergencies will be managed during this interim period.  This is unacceptable and dangerous.  With no plan in place, Houston and Region 6 residents cannot feel confident that the air they breathe and the water they drink will be safe if an industrial accident or natural disaster occurs.

“In light of these concerns, I request that EPA holds a public meeting in Houston by the end of 2026 to detail its plans for the continuity of the Region 6 Houston lab’s functions and receive input from impacted stakeholders and the public,” Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher concluded.  “Additionally, I request answers to the following questions by October 30, 2026:

• Has EPA developed a plan to ensure continuity of the Region 6 lab’s functions during the period from August 28, 2026, when the lab stopped processing new samples, to when the Ada lab is fully operational;
• When will EPA communicate, in detail, its plans regarding management-directed reassignments to the Ada lab and relocating remaining staff to another Houston facility to the Houston lab’s current employees;
• Once the Houston and Ada lab consolidation is complete, how will EPA ensure samples from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico are transported and processed in Ada in a timely manner;
• What impact will the Houston and Ada lab consolidation have on the processing time of samples from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico?  What, if any, analysis has been conducted on the potential public and environmental health impacts of delays caused by the consolidation?  What was the result of this analysis; and
• EPA personnel communicated to my office during a meeting on September 9, 2026, that the consolidation of the Houston and Ada labs will result in no detrimental impact on Region 6’s analytical capability.  Please provide data substantiating this claim.”

The Region 6 Laboratory is a full-service analytical lab providing critical emergency response and disaster prevention services for five states.  The Houston Lab is being moved from a newer facility built in 1990 to an older facility built in 1966, which is having to undergo extensive renovations to properly function.  Since the EPA ordered Region 6’s lab functions to cease last month, the lab is in flux and operating in a diminished capacity, threatening Houston’s access to the critical air, water, and soil testing performed at the lab.

In 2019, Congresswoman Fletcher led an appropriations letter to the LHHS Subcommittee asking that they include language barring the EPA from using any funds to close the Region 6 EPA lab.  Following this, Congresswoman Fletcher sent multiple letters to the EPA Administrator since 2019 in opposition to the lab relocation and a letter to the EPA Office of the Inspector General asking for an investigation into the closure.  During EPA’s Fiscal Year 26 Budget Hearing, Congresswoman Fletcher raised this issue with Administrator Zeldin, who committed to looking into the issue.