If New Orleans is "doomed" to be "rebuilt", why the hurry

[SoCalDem]

to pump all that TOXIC water into Lake Ponchartrain? I suppose the water was not all that clean because it's already the receptacle for storm run-off, but it seems to me as if someone's in an awful hurry to get rid of the water NOW..and "worry" about what they have done LATER..

I am thinking that the Lake Ponchartrain "clean-up" will end up costing MORE than the "dewatering"...

Has Robert Kennedy weighed in yet? I have not seen anything, if he has..

The crap in that water is not going to just vanish once it's moved to the lake...and judging from the size of those pipes, there are probably bodies being swept into the lake too:(

From where I sit, it looks like the mistakes are just compounding..not being corrected.

[lse7581011]

1. I've Been Wondering About This Too

Ever since I saw the project beginning. Doesn't the water from Ponchatrian drain into the Gulf?

[sui generis]

2. what's a little more nitrogen to feed those big ass algal blooms

in the gulf? :shrug:

We just need to find a way to harvest it and pay workers in agar instead of the minimum wage and we'll be set.

And about those bodies in those 48" pipes; when republicans say, "eat the poor", they really mean it.

[pitohui]

5. what the hell are we supposed to do

suggestions?

[SoCalDem]

10. Perhaps hiring a team of scientists to analyze the situation

would be in order.. The properties sitting in the water are unsalvagable anyway, so why not take a few days to at least ponder the future implications of the actions..

The lack of future planning LED to the disaster in the first place..

[the_spectator]

3. Well,

you wrote that "The crap in that water is not going to just vanish once it's moved to the lake." You are right, to an extent. It's not going to vanish no matter what happens. So why leave it in the homes and streets of New Orleans?

Also, that water becomes more and more of a health risk the longer it stands stagnant. Pump it into the lake, and at least it begins flowing again, yes, into and out of the Gulf. For what it's worth, there was a news story a day or two ago about preliminary testing of the water quality in Lake Ponchatrain now that water has been pumped into it - the results were pretty good!

What else do you want to do with the water? Let it sit in New Orleans, get more and more toxic, declare the whole city a no-go environmental disaster area?!? Do you know anyone who has ever lived in that city? Please!

[pitohui]

6. thank you spectator

i really wonder abt ppl sometimes

[SoCalDem]

8. I suppose the same people who analyzed the water

also analyzed the air at the WTC?

[pitohui]

12. look i wanna go home

easy to sit in southern california & tell me to be homeless indefinitely

let it go

the air is fine


ppl drink bottled water in new orleans area anyway

[SoCalDem]

14. Good Luck to you.. I hope you do get to go home soon

and I also hope you stay healthy :hug:

The kind of damage that emerges from ecological disasters, often takes years to manifest itself, and sometimes is visited on the offspring of the exposed:(

[Skidmore]

4. R corporate bosses know that the trough will be empty of slop

in 06. Piggies are trying to get their due before it's too late.

[sandnsea]

7. Bobby on climate change

Haven't seen anything on this toxic mess yet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20050829/cm_huffpost/006396

[spindoctor]

9. Advise to future tourists:

"Don't drink the water, don't eat the crawlfish!"

Lake Ponchartrain soon to be renamed Lake Gumbo.

[mcscajun]

13. I'd avoid the shrimp, certainly...but the crawfish may be just fine

They flourish in the wild in shallow ponds and weedy swamps...not in lakes (although you might find some there). They're captured in the wild and raised as a crop throughout appropriate areas in Louisiana.

They're almost all raised, along with catfish, in flooded rice beds (as a crop rotation) nowhere near the Mississippi River -- some notable towns from areas producing the crawfish crop: Natchitoches, Breaux Bridge (The Crawfish Capital).

I'd avoid the oyster po-boy's for a while, too.

But let's not go knockin' da' crawfish, cher. Dem folks down there got enough trouble right now.

PS: We're out of crawfish season right now, anyhow.

[tx_dem41]

16. The drinking water doesn't come from Lake Pontchartrain...

it comes from the River. People from New Orleans are smart enough to not drink it if possible.

[mcscajun]

11. Actually, 'dead bodies' are the one thing...probably the only thing

that they will be filtering out of what they're pumping.

I do recall reading here at DU somewhere in the last week or so, about how the pumps/pipes would have to be stopped and cleaned periodically to keep functioning. They know there's going to be quite a bit of debris (to put it mildly) in what they're pumping.

It's one reason it's going to take as long as it will.

[tx_dem41]

15. For one thing I don't agree with the premise posed in your title...

Also, Lake Pontchartrain has been TOXIC for years and years. Every seven years or so, the Mississippi (which is TOXIC) is diverted through the Bonne Carre Spillway into the lake to alleviate potential flooding. Also, since the TOXIC Mississippi pours into the Gulf at a few billion gallons of water every hour or so....guess what? Its TOXIC as well.

This runoff is a drop in the bucket.