New Orleans floodwater is not “toxic soup”
Tags: environmental damage, epaFrom this:
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Louisiana coast, flooding the city of New Orleans, journalists began reporting on a “toxic soup” of chemicals and dangerous microbes bathing the city. Based on no reported data, these stories nevertheless seemed reasonable; the city’s sewer system had flooded, and thousands of cars, houses, and chemical storage tanks lay beneath water, which in part of the city reached more than 3 meters in depth. In addition, 24 Superfund sites are in the affected area, and the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Coast Guard have tallied more than 400 oil and hazardous chemical spills.
However, research posted to ES&T’s Research ASAP website (es0518631) finds that the water that drowned New Orleans was no more toxic than typical floodwater washing down an urban street after a hard rain. Researchers expressed surprise at the findings but warned that it is still unknown whether the muck left behind is toxic.
“We don’t see the very elevated levels of toxics that would make you think of this water as toxic waste,” says the study’s lead author, John Pardue, director of the Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute at Louisiana State University (LSU). “What was so unique about this event was that we had such a large volume of water and so many people wading around in it for extended periods,” he says…
