New Orleans:
The Toxic Timebomb
By Andrew Gumbel
and Rupert Cornwell
07 September 2005
The
Independent
The
devastation of Hurricane Katrina has created a vast toxic soup that
stretches across south-eastern Louisiana and Mississippi, and portends
the arrival of an environmental disaster to rival the awe-inspiring
destruction of property and human life over the past week.
Toxicologists and
public health experts warned yesterday that pumping billions of gallons
of contaminated water from the streets of New Orleans back into the
Gulf of Mexico - the only viable option if the city is ever to return
to even a semblance of its former self -would have a crippling effect
on marine and animal life, compromise the wetlands that form the first
line of resistance to future hurricanes, and carry deleterious consequences
for human health throughout the region.
The full extent
of the danger is unknown and unknowable, but the polluted waters are
known to contain human and animal waste, the bodies of people and animals,
household effluence, and chemical and petrochemical toxins from the
refineries that dot the Gulf coast in and around New Orleans.
Even before the
pumping is complete, a process city officials said yesterday would take
at least three weeks (some engineers believe it could last months),
the consequences for all living creatures - humans, animals, fish and
micro-organisms - are likely to be dire.
"We're talking
about a mass of decomposing dead bodies and animals. This is going to
produce a horrible festering of unknown consequences," said Harold
Zeliger, a chemical toxicologist and independent consultant based in
New York State.
The waters now swilling
around the streets and neighbourhoods of New Orleans will probably end
up either in the Mississippi River or in Lake Pontchartrain, just to
the north of the city, where they are likely to react with the oxygen
in the water and deprive all living creatures, starting with the fish,
of the means to life.
"We're looking
conceivably at zero-dissolved oxygen, which will lead to the death of
fish and other organisms," Dr Zeliger said. "If the migratory
birds who pass through the area find any fish to eat, they will be contaminated
so the birds will start dying in large quantities ... Reptiles and snakes
are going to be driven out of their nests and habitats, which has implications
for human safety. We're going to see water moccasins [a highly venomous
snake], which are nasty critters, and alligators threatening people."
The prospect of
severe chemical fallout overshadowed the cautious progress made by army
engineers and rescue workers yesterday. The flood waters began to recede
in New Orleans after they successfully plugged the biggest breach in
the city's levee system and managed to activate the first water pumps.
The breach along the 17th Street Canal, at the eastern end of the city,
was responsible for allowing the single biggest body of water to cascade
into the city from Lake Pontchartrain, leaving 80 per cent of the city
submerged.
But officials are
fearful of what they will find once the water level goes down. The human
death toll is expected to number in the thousands. Then there is the
damage to buildings and artefacts, some of them of immense historical
value, wrought by the storm. There is still no fresh running water or
air conditioning, while daily temperatures are 90F (32C) or more.
Already, more and
more bodies are appearing, floating in the water, or pointed out by
people still being rescued from their homes. Some of the bodies have
been loaded onto refrigerated trucks and mobile morgues before being
identified.
"It's going
to be awful, and it's going to wake the nation up again," said
Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans, who has suggested that 10,000 may have
died in his city alone.
Mr Nagin said that
once pumping was completed, it would take several weeks more to clear
the debris. Some military engineers are measuring the process in months
rather than weeks, and are warning that it could take a year or more
before New Orleans was once again habitable in any meaningful sense.
The 17th Street
Canal is, moreover, only one of the major problems facing the recovery
operation. Other smaller levee breaks in New Orleans defences are still
defying the best efforts of the army, which is dropping giant 16,000lb
sandbags on damaged sections. Restoring electricity could take up to
eight weeks.
The toxic consequences
of the disaster will have a profound impact on New Orleans even after
the initial clearing is done. Dr Zeliger pointed out that the only way
to make the water remotely potable would be to chlorinate it, but given
the degree of contamination, this would create its own devastating side
effects.
"If one chlorinates
poor-quality water, it creates categories of trihalmethanes and other
compounds that produce their own nightmarish effects on human health,
such as spontaneous abortions," he said. "You'll see the formation
of chloroform and bromoform and other toxins. It will be a long time
before decent potable water can be drawn - my prediction would be a
minimum of one year."
Such warnings have
not deterred a minority of New Orleans residents - perhaps 10,000 people
- from trying to remain in their homes, or wherever they can find shelter.
"We can't force them out," said a member of the Kentucky National
Guard, one of thousands of armed guardsmen patrolling the streets alongside
army and marines units.
Mr Nagin said it
was essential that everyone left so that the repair and recovery could
begin. "It's just not safe, leave for a little while," he
urged.
Slowly but perceptibly,
progress is being made by both federal and state agencies, helped by
churches and charities. The emergency medical airlift from New Orleans
airport is complete. In some areas, the first financial resources are
being distributed to refugees who have lost everything. Across the ravaged
region, some communications are starting to be restored.
But thousands of
families, if not tens of thousands, remain separated. Many still search
for missing relatives. And New Orleans is only one casualty of a storm
that, in varying degrees, devastated a region almost as large as Britain.
From south-eastern Louisiana across coastal Mississippi, towns and villages
have been all but obliterated.
The devastation
of Hurricane Katrina has created a vast toxic soup that stretches across
south-eastern Louisiana and Mississippi, and portends the arrival of
an environmental disaster to rival the awe-inspiring destruction of
property and human life over the past week.
Toxicologists and
public health experts warned yesterday that pumping billions of gallons
of contaminated water from the streets of New Orleans back into the
Gulf of Mexico - the only viable option if the city is ever to return
to even a semblance of its former self -would have a crippling effect
on marine and animal life, compromise the wetlands that form the first
line of resistance to future hurricanes, and carry deleterious consequences
for human health throughout the region.
The full extent
of the danger is unknown and unknowable, but the polluted waters are
known to contain human and animal waste, the bodies of people and animals,
household effluence, and chemical and petrochemical toxins from the
refineries that dot the Gulf coast in and around New Orleans.
Even before the
pumping is complete, a process city officials said yesterday would take
at least three weeks (some engineers believe it could last months),
the consequences for all living creatures - humans, animals, fish and
micro-organisms - are likely to be dire.
"We're talking
about a mass of decomposing dead bodies and animals. This is going to
produce a horrible festering of unknown consequences," said Harold
Zeliger, a chemical toxicologist and independent consultant based in
New York State.
The waters now swilling
around the streets and neighbourhoods of New Orleans will probably end
up either in the Mississippi River or in Lake Pontchartrain, just to
the north of the city, where they are likely to react with the oxygen
in the water and deprive all living creatures, starting with the fish,
of the means to life.
"We're looking
conceivably at zero-dissolved oxygen, which will lead to the death of
fish and other organisms," Dr Zeliger said. "If the migratory
birds who pass through the area find any fish to eat, they will be contaminated
so the birds will start dying in large quantities ... Reptiles and snakes
are going to be driven out of their nests and habitats, which has implications
for human safety. We're going to see water moccasins [a highly venomous
snake], which are nasty critters, and alligators threatening people."
The prospect of
severe chemical fallout overshadowed the cautious progress made by army
engineers and rescue workers yesterday. The flood waters began to recede
in New Orleans after they successfully plugged the biggest breach in
the city's levee system and managed to activate the first water pumps.
The breach along the 17th Street Canal, at the eastern end of the city,
was responsible for allowing the single biggest body of water to cascade
into the city from Lake Pontchartrain, leaving 80 per cent of the city
submerged.
But officials are
fearful of what they will find once the water level goes down. The human
death toll is expected to number in the thousands. Then there is the
damage to buildings and artefacts, some of them of immense historical
value, wrought by the storm. There is still no fresh running water or
air conditioning, while daily temperatures are 90F (32C) or more.
Already, more and more bodies are appearing, floating in the water,
or pointed out by people still being rescued from their homes. Some
of the bodies have been loaded onto refrigerated trucks and mobile morgues
before being identified.
"It's going
to be awful, and it's going to wake the nation up again," said
Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans, who has suggested that 10,000 may have
died in his city alone.
Mr Nagin said that
once pumping was completed, it would take several weeks more to clear
the debris. Some military engineers are measuring the process in months
rather than weeks, and are warning that it could take a year or more
before New Orleans was once again habitable in any meaningful sense.
The 17th Street
Canal is, moreover, only one of the major problems facing the recovery
operation. Other smaller levee breaks in New Orleans defences are still
defying the best efforts of the army, which is dropping giant 16,000lb
sandbags on damaged sections. Restoring electricity could take up to
eight weeks.
The toxic consequences
of the disaster will have a profound impact on New Orleans even after
the initial clearing is done. Dr Zeliger pointed out that the only way
to make the water remotely potable would be to chlorinate it, but given
the degree of contamination, this would create its own devastating side
effects.
"If one chlorinates
poor-quality water, it creates categories of trihalmethanes and other
compounds that produce their own nightmarish effects on human health,
such as spontaneous abortions," he said. "You'll see the formation
of chloroform and bromoform and other toxins. It will be a long time
before decent potable water can be drawn - my prediction would be a
minimum of one year."
Such warnings have
not deterred a minority of New Orleans residents - perhaps 10,000 people
- from trying to remain in their homes, or wherever they can find shelter.
"We can't force them out," said a member of the Kentucky National
Guard, one of thousands of armed guardsmen patrolling the streets alongside
army and marines units.
Mr Nagin said it
was essential that everyone left so that the repair and recovery could
begin. "It's just not safe, leave for a little while," he
urged.
Slowly but perceptibly,
progress is being made by both federal and state agencies, helped by
churches and charities. The emergency medical airlift from New Orleans
airport is complete. In some areas, the first financial resources are
being distributed to refugees who have lost everything. Across the ravaged
region, some communications are starting to be restored.
But thousands of
families, if not tens of thousands, remain separated. Many still search
for missing relatives. And New Orleans is only one casualty of a storm
that, in varying degrees, devastated a region almost as large as Britain.
From south-eastern Louisiana across coastal Mississippi, towns and villages
have been all but obliterated.
© 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.