Katrina’s environment threat not over, greens say

By Frank McGurty

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Reuters) – Early environmental
tests after Hurricane Katrina have given authorities little
cause for alarm, but some environmentalists say they are
concerned that severe pollution may still be a threat.

The Gulf Coast hurricane slammed into one of the most
industrialized areas of the United States, home of more than
400 refineries, chemical plants and other facilities that
produce, use or store hazardous material, according to
Greenpeace, the environmental advocacy group.

The storm caused at least five major oil spills along the
Mississippi River south of New Orleans, according the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency.

It swept through 31 Superfund sites — heavily polluted
areas awaiting federal cleanup — including five in New
Orleans. As of Wednesday, the EPA had still been unable to
visit all of them and one, in Crescent City, was still under
water.

The floodwaters that covered 80 percent of New Orleans,
including many of the poorest neighborhoods, may leave
contamination from bacteria and pollutants as they withdraw and
residents return, some environmentalists fear.

“My fear is that the people who suffered the most when
Hurricane Katrina struck will be the people who become most
exposed to toxins,” said Eric Olson, a senior attorney for the
Natural Resources Defense Council.

Federal and state officials say two weeks of sampling
floodwaters has not raised any alarm bells, even though it is
swimming with e. coli bacteria that may indicate the presence
of other bacteria that could be harmful.

The water contains heavy metals such as lead and arsenic,
and oil products such as diesel, but not huge amounts, and the
evidence shows that people would have to eat the residue or
drink the water to be poisoned.

“We are looking for this long-term risk and it doesn’t seem
to be there,” said Dr. Tom Clark, an infectious disease
specialist with the Centers for Disease Control in New Orleans.

Heavy concentrations of petroleum products in the muck have
complicated the process of sample testing, EPA says.

Evacuated residents of St. Bernard Parish, where nearly
20,000 barrels of crude oil spilled out of a damaged tank, were
told that when they returned, they would have to wear rubber
gloves and boots and leave children behind to protect them from
the residual sludge.

But officials say it is too soon to give a definitive
evaluation of damage and even more difficult to say how long it
will take to fix any problems.

“Until we have a better handle on what’s the magnitude of
the problem — whether it’s sediment, whether it’s water,
whether it’s debris issues or whether it’s air issues — it
really is impossible to speculate on what it’s going to take
and what time it’s going to take,” said EPA Administrator
Stephen Johnson.

Questions remain in part because it took nearly a week
after the storm struck on August 29 for assessments to begin.
Before that, EPA officials on the scene were too busy with
rescue operations.

In addition, the heavy concentration of petroleum products
in the muck has complicated the process of sample testing, EPA
says.

The EPA and the Louisiana Department of Environmental
Quality have flown 15 missions with aircraft equipped to
collect environmental screening data. So far, nothing of acute
concern has been found.

(Additional reporting by Ben Berkowitz in Baton Rouge and
Maggie Fox in New Orleans)