New Orleans now 'hazardous waste site,' experts say

[DoYouEverWonder]

August 31, 2005

The water that swept through New Orleans' streets in the wake of Hurricane Katrina carried more than continued misery for the storm's victims.

It also brought along a potentially toxic soup of pollution - sewage, chemicals and perhaps human bodies.

"The area's become a hazardous waste site," said Dexter Accardo of the St. Tammany Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials are surveying the flooded neighborhoods to gauge how hazardous conditions might be.

"It's not just a normal flood," said John C. Pine, an environmental studies professor at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. "The stuff is on the buildings and inside them, too."

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/31/Worldandnation/New_Orleans_now__haza.shtml

[leftchick]

1. This is horrible

welcome to the polluted world of bush**....

<snip>

The lake has long been a dumping ground for local sewer plants and dairy producers, making it off-limits to swimmers until a cleanup effort began at the end of the 1990s.

New Orleans' sewer system is old and in poor condition, Pine said. During Katrina's onslaught, trees that were ripped out of the ground pulled loose underground pipes, local officials told WWL-TV in New Orleans. The uprooting caused breaks in the sewer and natural gas lines, which then leaked.

The city's port is a major hub for the transportation of hazardous cargo, Pine said, so the waters could be contaminated by that, too.

Gasoline, diesel fuel and oil leaking from underground storage tanks at service stations may also become a problem, federal officials have said.

[saigon68]

2. LAUNDRY LIST OF A SMELLY TOURIST ATTRACTION

Imagine a swirl of

1. Floating dead bodies washed from their above ground crypts.

2. Gas and oil from 300,000 abandoned cars and trucks

3. Millions of gallons of untreated sewage.

4. The overflow of a million of gallons of industrial pesticide waste.

5. Thousands of bloated dead cows and horses.

6. Uncounted tons of stockpiled industrial chemicals.

7. Hundreds of truckloads of floating dirty used diapers, depends and Kotex pads

8. Half a million people defecating and urinating in the street

[leftchick]

3. not to mention those super fund hazardous waste sites

:(

[saigon68]

4. THE WHOLE CITY will be a super fund site

The insurers will NEVER EVER, NEVER EVER, NEVER EVER


LET THEM REBUILD THE BIG EASY.

[WyLoochka]

7. Yep - the insurance companies

will make the decision to abandon NO. They will NOT insure rebuilding projects.

The big insurance companies have been mapping projections of areas to be hit hardest by climate change for years and have been moving out of property insurance in those areas for quite some time.

This horrible event will just re-affirm those decisions. The re-insurers - the big companies that insure the insurers - had conducted their own scientific studies and long ago determined the climate change models that BushCo and the right wing whackos ridiculed as "junk science" to be correct.

The companies that were still providing property insurance in the area are looking at making total loss payouts to every policy holder. The experience rating combined with the hard fact that climate change is known to be occurring will jump out on the actuarial tables, making the decision to not insure property in these areas again obvious.

[Mizmoon]

9. I bet the government will insure it all

just like they keep insuring those houses in the flood plains.

[demo dutch]

16. Its time that the government coordinate hurricane insurance

for hurricane prone areas, FL, NC, SC, VA, TX, LA, AL, MS etc., just like flood insurance. Insurance companies with their huge profits already refuse to underwrite in FL and so FL was forced to organize it own statefund, however the rates are so outrageous the people can't afford the premiums. It doesn't matter whether you live on the coast or land inwards, everyone is affected. It's a crisis and you can't just abandon those areas, the entire state of FL would have to be abandoned.

[saigon68]

41. I agree with you

They are in it for better or worse to make a profit.

New Orleans will not be rebuilt,

any more than large portions of Plantation and Homestead FL have not been rebuilt.

[Delphinus]

28. I was wondering about that

aloud to someone today about how could they EVER rebuild a city like this. Aren't they going to have to raze the entire thing?

[Dark]

18. No worse than the day after Mardi Gras. . .

[saigon68]

24. Thousands of corpses floating in the street?

Thousands of dead, bloated cattle.

Sounds like a great Mardi Gras spectacle.

[HadItUpToHere]

36. thousands of corpses?

you must be watching a different video feed than the one i'm seeing...

[saigon68]

37. Its the photos of the cemeteries where the above ground crypts

Are releasing the floating coffins. Thousands of above ground crypts are flooded and broken

Remember no below ground internments. in N.O.

[HadItUpToHere]

40. that's a far cry from "thousands of floating corpses"

i still haven't seen any pics of any floating corpses.

[DoYouEverWonder]

46. So if you haven't seen a picture

it means it didn't happen?

Now you know why they won't release the Abu Ghraib pictures.

[Alpharetta]

5. Would you trust crayfish?

after this much widespread toxic seepage, I don't think I'll take any more chances with crayfish or louisiana-farmed catfish, trout, etc.

[screembloodymurder]

6. You couldn't pay me enough to vacation in NO.

They might as well face the facts. NO lived by tourism and tourism will be dead for years to come. Who wants to eat great food in a sewer?

[Alpharetta]

8. I wouldn't trust anything grown for 100's of miles around there

"A toxic film spreads over the water near a flooded home in a lakeside area in New Orleans, Louisiana."

[ramapo]

12. That is horrible

Shockingly, not surprisingly, horrible

[Lone_Star_Dem]

47. Is that a non-touched up photo?

I'm really hoping it's enhanced.

[alkaline9]

10. its sad, but interesting that this might be the cause of...

...the next great depression. People were focused on Iraq and the billions poured into the war, but this hits the heartland. I don't see why anyone would want to travel anywhere within 100 miles of New Orleans now. And what's gonna happen to all those people who live within 100 miles? Their property values will go down to next to nothing. There will be millions more in poverty down there. Its going to effect the entire US economy. Insurance rates for just about everything will go up. People all across America are going to find it harder and harder to get by.

Look at the effect 9/11 had on the NYC metro area... And that was mainly just jobs and lives lost. Now think about the million+ people who have not lost their lives, but have lost everything else... These people will need to be immediately funded by the govt... and for how long? Until they rebuild (if they even had flood insurance)? Then what?

This is such a tragedy for the people of Louisiana, but this will become a tragedy for our entire country soon too.

[raccoon]

11. Yes, it is indeed a tragedy, and does

anybody besides me have an inner queasiness that things happening in NO may be a preview of what will happen in this country if/when things fall apart?

[geckosfeet]

13. NO as we once knew it is gone. I would be surprised if anyone went

back and tried to re-build the city.

I am sure something will spring up in the vicinity, but to re-build a city when the same thing could easily happen again is crazy.

Building a city below sea level on the coast in a hurricane zone is not "economically viable".

[demo dutch]

14. They'll rebuild but it will take years!

[geckosfeet]

32. Many years and many $$$'s.

[raccoon]

19. does anybody here know why it was built below sea level

in the first place? Or maybe it wasn't but it sank to below sea level?

[fudge stripe cookays]

26. Well, I don't think they worried about that much in the late 1600s

and early 1700s. They just needed a port there. The swamps, the yellow fever, the malaria and typhoid and heat were unfortunate consequences of the need for the port and access to the river.

If you know anything about early American life, access to rivers was absolutely necessary for the lives of cities. Most major American cities were built near rivers or lakes for access to their natural resources and goods. Everything was moved by riverboat, horsecart, and later trains.

They had hurricanes, but probably not as bad as anything we're feeling now.

The levees that were built this past half century have caused natural silt deposits to NOT occur, meaning the city has sunk a bit more because of it.

FSC

[raccoon]

30. Yeah, I realize that about cities being built by rivers

Thanks for the info about the levees causing silt deposits to not occur.

[geckosfeet]

33. I suspect that over the years levees and damns and pumping

technology has allowed the city to expand farther and farther into areas that were once under water. They drained swamps and wetlands to expand.

This is great as long as you can keep the water from coming back. But mother nature will have her way.

I think they became complacent and took the technology for granted. That good old invincible feeling.

This generation has grown up the technology. The appreciation, knowledge and collective memory for the complexity and effort that it takes to build and maintain such a system just seems to have slipped away.

I think that George Bush perfectly exemplifies how something like this can happen.

[Spider Jerusalem]

42. It wasn't, to begin with.

The old city is the Vieux Carre...the French Quarter. It wasn't below sea lavel in 1718; levees and channelling of the Mississippi over centuries have stopped the replenishment of the silt and mud that the city is built on (from natural flooding of the Mississippi over its banks), erosion has done the rest, and the city sinks a third of an inch a year or more. From what I've read, given the rate at which the city is sinking, and the loss of wetlands that DID provide a sort of barrier, the loss of the city was inevitable within the next century or so.

[snooper2]

20. Anyone who does would be nuts....

It should be leveled and returned to it's natural original swampland state.

Titties and beer and crawfish can all be found in Monroe going forward. :)

[Pachamama]

43. I feel this is a preview of things to come & it gives me zero confidence

in our government and this administrations ability to handle any crisis...

Atleast w/ this event, they knew it was coming and technically have been
"planning" for years for that time....

Can you imagine if any city in America gets hit by a devastating terrorist attack? :eyes:

We are so screwed....when are Americans going to wake up? :shrug:

[Massachusetts]

17. "its sad, but interesting that this might be the cause of..."

This is the bogeyman in the closet NO one wants to talk about.

Good Point!

[raccoon]

21. "cause of the next depression"? A contributing factor, maybe.

But something that the administration/corporate media/pundits/economists could blame a depression on.

Just as 9/11 was blamed for a sucky economy. I think it was a factor but not the reason for it. Something to blame, however.

[The Stranger]

22. If the U.S wasn't stuck in Iraq fighting for PNAC lies, this would have

been manageable.

[RawMaterials]

39. How about the next plague

something a strange is brewing down in that water.

[Roland99]

15. Rescuers are coming back smelling of gasoline

[OldSchoolDemocrat]

23. Sad-I was just watching Fox News.

The footage they are showing is sad. We should pray for our country's leaders in this time.

[htuttle]

25. Screw our so-called 'leaders'

I'd be praying for our country's people if I were a praying man. It's becoming apparent that we are functionally on our own.

[fudge stripe cookays]

27. FUCK George Bush.

You need to find a board where people pray for him. You won't find that here.

FSC

[Kelvin Mace]

31. I pray he will be impeached

and the rest of his crimnal minion will be sent for trial as war criminals.

We need leaders, not lazy criminals.

[Coexist]

34. Why?

They are leaders - it is their job to step up during times of crisis.

He stole the country - now he has to run it. I will save my prayers for the people hit by the storm, not the cake-eaters.

[Eurobabe]

35. surely you jest, Faux?

I will pray for Blanco, she's a Dem, but fuck the rest of them.

[Puglover]

38. Being and "Oldschooldemocrat"

I think you might be better served getting your "news" somewhere other then Fox. As for praying for our countrys leaders; well the murderous smirking asshole who is in charge should be refreshed by his 5 week vacation that he just finished.
On edit

Welcome to DU!

[Pewlett Hackard]

45. BUSH CAN GO TO HELL!!!!!!1!!11!!!

WE DIDNT HAVE ALL THESE PROBLEMS WHEN CLINTON WAS PRESIDENT!

[riverwalker]

29. but don't "take" anything

Taking those soggy ramon noodles and bags of toxic cheetos is "stealing".:crazy:

[raccoon]

44. Sometimes they call it "finding". nt