Gulf Coast poisoned?

Toronto Sun ^ | 2005-09-05 | Peter Worthington

[Clive]

NORMALLY, ONE wouldn't expect a small environmental magazine in Canada to discover a shocking reality of the New Orleans hurricane disaster that seems to have escaped notice.

It seems that a toxic landfill site on which housing was built in central New Orleans is now under floodwaters with the potential to pollute and contaminate portions of the Gulf Coast.

Despite the overwhelming international coverage of Hurricane Katrina's lethal attack on southern U.S. states, it is the current issue of Solid Waste & Recycling magazine that unearthed an environmental hazard that has the potential of being an underwater Love Canal.

CNN and Fox News have now been alerted.

Something called the Agriculture Street Landfill (ASL) is located on a 95-acre site in central New Orleans.

It is registered as a "Superfund site" (whatever that is) on the federal government's national priorities list of highly contaminated sites requiring cleanup and containment. But nothing has been done.

Instead of removing the mass of toxic waste 50 years ago, the site was covered with clean soil and houses and a school were built on top of it.

Not only was municipal garbage dumped there, but for decades industrial wastes from service stations, manufacturers, and chemical facilities were put there.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the site was routinely sprayed with DDT, but in 1962 some 229,300 cubic metres of excess fill was removed because subsurface toxic fires kept erupting (and got the site known as "Dante's Inferno").

According to the editor of Hazardous Waste magazine, the ASL site -- now under water -- will almost inevitably leach toxic effluent into the floodwaters, with the potential of inflicting unpredictable damage on the coast, and those that live there -- a possible environmental catastrophe.

The editor of the magazine is Guy Crittenden, coincidentally my stepson, but also a recognized "expert" on hazardous environmental issues.

Guy used maps of the old ASL site and overlaid them on maps of today's New Orleans and found that "the old toxic landfill is situated right in the middle of a huge area of 3-foot flooding."

In the past, residents who lived in housing atop the landfill have complained about unusual cancers and ill-defined health problems, and even lobbied unsuccessfully to be relocated.

Apparently, a case study listed on the website of a group known as Environmental Justice has a detailed description of the ASL and its history of pollution.

For those who care, or know New Orleans, the contaminated ASL is bounded on the north by Higgins Blvd. and the south and west by a railroad right-of-way. The eastern boundary is Clouet St. to Press and Montegut Sts.

That means nothing to me, but it is roughly midway between Lake Pontchartrain and the New Orleans business district and the French Quarter.

As Crittenden points out, while the immediate concern in the hurricane aftermath is humanitarian -- rescuing and relocating people -- the long-term concern may be toxic pollutants leached from the flooded downtown landfill.

The more one learns of New Orleans, the more one comes to a conclusion that it would be folly to try and restore the city -- especially parts that are significantly below sea level.

Realistically, the city should be relocated, with the historic French Quarter -- the original town, built on higher ground -- which escaped serious damage, left as a tourist attraction or theme park. A Williamsburg of the Gulf.

There is no safeguard against hurricanes -- even if George W. Bush weren't president.

While the federal government reacted weakly, the greatest blame for what has happened in New Orleans must go to the inept municipal government and its hopeless (hapless?) mayor, and the state government which waited four days before sending in the National Guard.

And, of course, the startling lack of initiative on the part of those who lived there.

[Peach]

It seems that a toxic landfill site on which housing was built in central New Orleans is now under floodwaters with the potential to pollute and contaminate portions of the Gulf Coast.

Could this be what the left is afraid of? How in the world was this permitted to happen?

[Arkie2]

There is no safeguard against hurricanes -- even if George W. Bush weren't president.

They couldn't resist the "It's Bush's fault" slam at the end could they?

[popdonnelly]

"Gulf Coast poisoned?"

Yeah, by toxic Louisiana politicians.

[hiredhand]

"Gulf Coast poisoned?"

Yeah, by toxic Louisiana politicians.

More than we all know...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1477607/posts

...or directly via...

http://tiadaily.com/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=1026

[Clive]

"They couldn't resist the "It's Bush's fault" slam at the end could they?"

Read the column again.

I saw it as Worthington's sarcastic response to all the Bush-bashing that has gone on respecting this disaster.

Certainly Worthington cannot be charged with being either a leftist or anti-Bush.

[festus]

Well I guess we'll just have to hire Halliburton to clean it up then.

Its all part of Rove's master plan dotcha know.

[dixie sass]

There are places like this all over the country. Even here in our beloved city of Charleston and other places where there is or was heavy industry at one time or another.

Dumps covered over and buried - out of sight, out of mind until something happens or someone wakes up to the dangers.

[joesnuffy]

My guess is crooked politicians siphoned off the money earmarked for cleanup..then cooked the books...sold the land to greedy developers who slipped a little more cash into those same outstretched crooked politicians paws and then put houses on it...

Cant believe they missed a chance to put an orphanage on the site..

What's next tying nuns to the railroad track...

[dixie sass]

Wasn't much of a slam. It seems that the Mayor of NO and Governor of LA got a slap in the face with a leather glove.

Wasn't this at one time called Death Alley or Chemical Alley for all of the refining and chemical plants?

[Kozak]

While the federal government reacted weakly, the greatest blame for what has happened in New Orleans must go to the inept municipal government and its hopeless (hapless?) mayor, and the state government which waited four days before sending in the National Guard. And, of course, the startling lack of initiative on the part of those who lived there.

I don't know the Bush stuff sounded like sarcasm, particularly when juxtaposed over this direct hit.

[planekT]

LOL.

[hiredhand]

:-)

[Beth528]

A Dirty Political Deal In 1967 the executive officer of the local public housing agency of New Orleans (HANO), Robert L. Bragnac, wrote a memo to his board of directors expressing that area civic groups were excited about the possibility of constructing more public housing units. These units were to be built on the landfill site and Mr. Bragnac recommended, “trying to obtain the junkyard as a site for public housing.” A newly formed group called the Desire Community Housing Corporation (DCHC) submitted plans to construct on the site. Construction plans for the Gordon Plaza subdivision fell short as according to reports the DCHC were supposed to remove old landfill cover dirt and replace it with eighteen inches of clean river sand, but most of the soil was never applied in order to cut costs and increase profits for the developers (Timmons-Roberts, 2000). A program was implemented that targeted low-income African-American families for a piece of the American dream, the opportunity to own their own home. The Mayor at the time, Dutch Morial, and other city leaders billed this development as a way for low to middle income African-Americans to have a piece of the American Dream. It attracted African-Americans who were told that this would be the “new wave of power in New Orleans’ black community.” Proud resident began moving in, completely unaware that they were laying their foundations on a dump (Timmons-Roberts, 2000).

[gaspar]

I'll bet there are a score of authors hurrying to publish exposes on New Orleans. The place was a pesthole, but this only seems to confirm it.

[SueRae]

I believe Halliburton is one of the few that are capable of the cleanup job.

[jpsb]

I have read that most of the superfund monies have gone to lawyers sueing the government. Very little to cleaning sites up. ACLU and clones are really hurting this nation.

[Howlin]

Okay.......got it.

[alloysteel]

STILL way down on the list of concerns that ought to be occupying the attention of those in charge of stemming and diverting the waves of disaster that have swept over the New Orleans basin.

Dilute ANYTHING with enough water, and its toxicity decreases proportionately. Most of the toxins from years before have either leached away already, or have metabolized into relatively harmless compounds.

Even plutonium doesn't last forever. What we have here is dread superstition with no foundation in reality.

[Howlin]

FYI.