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I wonder if this will be downplayed by the media and the administration?
I wonder if this will be downplayed by the media and the administration?
AN ECOLOGICAL HAZARD
Report offers 'grave' view of impact on environment
By DINA CAPPIELLO
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Drums full of hazardous medical waste and industrial chemicals float in the tainted floodwaters.
As the water recedes, it leaves behind a sludge so laden with petroleum that federal officials are having trouble analyzing it.
Millions of gallons of oil have spilled from refinery storage tanks. And at least one hazardous waste site — an old New Orleans landfill — is submerged, increasing the risk that chemicals buried long ago could escape.
These are the early signs of the environmental destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, a storm that struck one of the most industrial and polluted areas of the country when it made landfall on the Gulf Coast.
Along the hurricane's path sat 31 hazardous-waste sites and 466 facilities handling large quantities of dangerous chemicals. What impact — if any — the storm had on these areas is still being analyzed by the hundreds of personnel deployed, including those aboard mobile laboratories and in air-pollution-scanning aircraft.
"This is the largest natural disaster that we believe the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and nation has faced," EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said during a media briefing Wednesday.
"We are concerned about the water, we are concerned about the land, but we are also concerned about the air," he said.
"It is certainly a volume problem," he said referring to the debris, "but in other cases, it is a hazardous materials problem that needs to be dealt with."
Reaction to the report
The briefing was the grimmest and most comprehensive picture of the hurricane's toll on the environment offered by the EPA since the storm struck 2 1/2 weeks ago .
The status of the air, water and soil in the affected areas will help determine when it will be safe for people to return. Already, the agency has issued advisories warning people not to wade in or drink the floodwaters based on early tests that found it contained high concentrations of bacteria and the toxic metal lead.
Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said the briefing he got Wednesday from the EPA was a "a grave and sobering assessment."
"We heard that the degree of environmental damage is considered catastrophic," Jeffords said.
Among the developments revealed Wednesday:
•More recent tests on floodwaters detected a new suite of chemicals, including hexavalent chromium, a chemical used in metal plating, and arsenic, which is used to treat wood.
•More than 5,000 containers, containing everything from gas to medical waste, have been collected.
•The EPA has instructed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to use booms to prevent the oil and gasoline floating on top of the water from entering canals, the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. Aerators — blowing oxygen in the water — have been set up in some canals to help fish breathe.
•On flights over the area, officials detected the industrial chemical chloroacetic acid leaking from a 55-gallon drum, a gas-well fire and numerous oil spills and sheens, although monitoring detected no chemicals above federal workplace standards.
WHAT'S BEING DONE
Graphic: Katrina's Ecological Damage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Federal officials have dispatched teams to the Gulf Coast to deal with environmental hazards linked to Hurricane Katrina:
The workers and their tasks
• Personnel: 470 in Louisiana; 157 in Mississippi; 19 in Alabama
• Water sampling: Began Sept. 3
• Watercraft: 50 of them
• Rescues: 800 done by EPA
Possible hazards so far
• 5,000: Orphaned containers collected
• 5: Number of large oil spills
• 6 million gallons: Amount of oil released from those spills
• 60: Sea turtle nests lost
• 466: Facilities in area that handle at least one of 143 hazardous chemicals
• 31: Number of Superfund sites in Louisiana hurricane zone
• 5: Number of Superfund sites in New Orleans; one under water
• 16: Number of wildlife refuges on Louisiana coast
• 386: Number of calls to National Response Center for, smells, spills etc.
Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; U.S. Coast Guard; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, in charge of the 16 now-closed wildlife refuges along the Louisiana coast, said the storm reduced one — the 18,273-acre Breton National Wildlife Refuge — to half its size and caused $94 million worth of damage to its facilities. About 50 sea turtle nests were lost on the Alabama coast. And dunes harboring an endangered mouse, and trees that are home to endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers, have been destroyed.
The science behind it
Assessment of the storm's environmental damage was delayed for more than a week while federal officials charged with keeping tabs on public lands and waters helped with rescue operations. The EPA took its first water tests Sept. 3. Earlier this week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sent a research vessel into the Gulf to begin assessing the storm's effects on the fish, water and sediments.
"We have had some reports of fish kills. But there were also some prior to the hurricane from some harmful algal bloom activity," said Peter Ortner, the chief scientist for NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami.
But he cautioned that with more time, Katrina could wreak more havoc, including in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, another locale officials will be studying.
The science itself has been hampered by the storm. Analysis of air pollution was hindered since some of the state's monitors were down, either from damage or no electricity, according to the EPA. Flooding has restricted access to some sites and limited soil testing. And the National Marine Fisheries Service laboratories in Pascagoula, Miss., were severely damaged.
The EPA is just beginning to assess the water quality in Lake Pontchartrain, the Gulf and Mississippi River, receptacles for the tainted soup that covered New Orleans.
The largest oil spill documented to date occurred at the Murphy Oil Corp. refinery in Chalmette, La., where floodwaters lifted a storage tank off the ground. When the steel tank settled, the structure crumpled and 819,000 gallons of oil spilled into the refinery and surrounding St. Bernard Parish, a company spokesman said.
"The vast majority was contained in refinery boundaries, but an undetermined quantity did go beyond that. It could have affected some of the neighboring houses in the area, but we will have to see," said Mindy West, a spokesman for Murphy, which processes 125,000 barrels , or 5.25 million gallons, of crude oil per day.
Avoiding politics
On Wednesday, Johnson vowed to employ the latest scientific techniques to monitor the area's soil, water and air. The EPA — which has been criticized in the past for having its science influenced by politics — has appointed scientific advisory boards to help the agency determine how best to conduct the analysis.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency also gave the EPA more than $100 million — enough to conduct the assessment, for now, Johnson said.
"Everyone is looking to the EPA for what are the results and are these being done in a scientifically appropriate and sound way," Johnson said. "We don't want to be bureaucratic, we want to be sure that they are results we can stand by."
Report offers 'grave' view of impact on environment
By DINA CAPPIELLO
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Drums full of hazardous medical waste and industrial chemicals float in the tainted floodwaters.
As the water recedes, it leaves behind a sludge so laden with petroleum that federal officials are having trouble analyzing it.
Millions of gallons of oil have spilled from refinery storage tanks. And at least one hazardous waste site — an old New Orleans landfill — is submerged, increasing the risk that chemicals buried long ago could escape.
These are the early signs of the environmental destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, a storm that struck one of the most industrial and polluted areas of the country when it made landfall on the Gulf Coast.
Along the hurricane's path sat 31 hazardous-waste sites and 466 facilities handling large quantities of dangerous chemicals. What impact — if any — the storm had on these areas is still being analyzed by the hundreds of personnel deployed, including those aboard mobile laboratories and in air-pollution-scanning aircraft.
"This is the largest natural disaster that we believe the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and nation has faced," EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said during a media briefing Wednesday.
"We are concerned about the water, we are concerned about the land, but we are also concerned about the air," he said.
"It is certainly a volume problem," he said referring to the debris, "but in other cases, it is a hazardous materials problem that needs to be dealt with."
Reaction to the report
The briefing was the grimmest and most comprehensive picture of the hurricane's toll on the environment offered by the EPA since the storm struck 2 1/2 weeks ago .
The status of the air, water and soil in the affected areas will help determine when it will be safe for people to return. Already, the agency has issued advisories warning people not to wade in or drink the floodwaters based on early tests that found it contained high concentrations of bacteria and the toxic metal lead.
Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said the briefing he got Wednesday from the EPA was a "a grave and sobering assessment."
"We heard that the degree of environmental damage is considered catastrophic," Jeffords said.
Among the developments revealed Wednesday:
•More recent tests on floodwaters detected a new suite of chemicals, including hexavalent chromium, a chemical used in metal plating, and arsenic, which is used to treat wood.
•More than 5,000 containers, containing everything from gas to medical waste, have been collected.
•The EPA has instructed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to use booms to prevent the oil and gasoline floating on top of the water from entering canals, the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. Aerators — blowing oxygen in the water — have been set up in some canals to help fish breathe.
•On flights over the area, officials detected the industrial chemical chloroacetic acid leaking from a 55-gallon drum, a gas-well fire and numerous oil spills and sheens, although monitoring detected no chemicals above federal workplace standards.
WHAT'S BEING DONE
Graphic: Katrina's Ecological Damage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Federal officials have dispatched teams to the Gulf Coast to deal with environmental hazards linked to Hurricane Katrina:
The workers and their tasks
• Personnel: 470 in Louisiana; 157 in Mississippi; 19 in Alabama
• Water sampling: Began Sept. 3
• Watercraft: 50 of them
• Rescues: 800 done by EPA
Possible hazards so far
• 5,000: Orphaned containers collected
• 5: Number of large oil spills
• 6 million gallons: Amount of oil released from those spills
• 60: Sea turtle nests lost
• 466: Facilities in area that handle at least one of 143 hazardous chemicals
• 31: Number of Superfund sites in Louisiana hurricane zone
• 5: Number of Superfund sites in New Orleans; one under water
• 16: Number of wildlife refuges on Louisiana coast
• 386: Number of calls to National Response Center for, smells, spills etc.
Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; U.S. Coast Guard; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, in charge of the 16 now-closed wildlife refuges along the Louisiana coast, said the storm reduced one — the 18,273-acre Breton National Wildlife Refuge — to half its size and caused $94 million worth of damage to its facilities. About 50 sea turtle nests were lost on the Alabama coast. And dunes harboring an endangered mouse, and trees that are home to endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers, have been destroyed.
The science behind it
Assessment of the storm's environmental damage was delayed for more than a week while federal officials charged with keeping tabs on public lands and waters helped with rescue operations. The EPA took its first water tests Sept. 3. Earlier this week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sent a research vessel into the Gulf to begin assessing the storm's effects on the fish, water and sediments.
"We have had some reports of fish kills. But there were also some prior to the hurricane from some harmful algal bloom activity," said Peter Ortner, the chief scientist for NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami.
But he cautioned that with more time, Katrina could wreak more havoc, including in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, another locale officials will be studying.
The science itself has been hampered by the storm. Analysis of air pollution was hindered since some of the state's monitors were down, either from damage or no electricity, according to the EPA. Flooding has restricted access to some sites and limited soil testing. And the National Marine Fisheries Service laboratories in Pascagoula, Miss., were severely damaged.
The EPA is just beginning to assess the water quality in Lake Pontchartrain, the Gulf and Mississippi River, receptacles for the tainted soup that covered New Orleans.
The largest oil spill documented to date occurred at the Murphy Oil Corp. refinery in Chalmette, La., where floodwaters lifted a storage tank off the ground. When the steel tank settled, the structure crumpled and 819,000 gallons of oil spilled into the refinery and surrounding St. Bernard Parish, a company spokesman said.
"The vast majority was contained in refinery boundaries, but an undetermined quantity did go beyond that. It could have affected some of the neighboring houses in the area, but we will have to see," said Mindy West, a spokesman for Murphy, which processes 125,000 barrels , or 5.25 million gallons, of crude oil per day.
Avoiding politics
On Wednesday, Johnson vowed to employ the latest scientific techniques to monitor the area's soil, water and air. The EPA — which has been criticized in the past for having its science influenced by politics — has appointed scientific advisory boards to help the agency determine how best to conduct the analysis.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency also gave the EPA more than $100 million — enough to conduct the assessment, for now, Johnson said.
"Everyone is looking to the EPA for what are the results and are these being done in a scientifically appropriate and sound way," Johnson said. "We don't want to be bureaucratic, we want to be sure that they are results we can stand by."
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