Anarchia Report This Comment Date: September 03, 2005 05:55AM
Along with the sewage in the floodwater is a witches' brew of chemicals from a
variety of sources, including leaking fuels and oils from gas stations and
submerged cars, paints and solvents from small businesses and household cleaners
and pesticides from peoples' homes.
But the biggest chemical plants and refineries to the south and east of the city
were spared a direct hit by the hurricane. If that had happened, breaches in
large tanks and other industrial facilities might have spewed heavy petroleum,
hydrocarbons and chlorine gas.
"From the perspective of chemical or environmental contamination, it could
have been much worse. One advantage is that we have so much water in the city
and that dilutes out the chemicals," Pardue said. "People shouldn't
have an irrational fear of chemicals in the water. I'm more concerned about the
viral and bacterial things. There's going to be a lot of gastrointestinal and
public health issues."
Sam Coleman, a regional director for EPA's Superfund toxic waste division in
Dallas, said he could not predict how long it would take to clean, disinfect and
then test the hundreds of small community drinking water systems that no longer
work because of the loss of power.
"Personally, I've never seen anything like this," he said. "No
one has quite seen it this bad."
TrueBlue Report This Comment Date: September 04, 2005 07:28PM
That is a great picture.