NEW ORLEANS: "Floods' Pollutants Within the Norm "

  On September 8, I Posted "Now, This is an Environmental Disaster", about the levels of hazardous wastes in the New Orleans flood waters.  I may have succumbed to the very environmentalist hyperbole against which I so often caution.  Today's Washington Post (free subscription required) headlines:

Floods' Pollutants Within the Norm 

     The article states:

Early tests on the floodwater that covered most of this city do not suggest it will leave a permanent toxic residue or render residential areas uninhabitable for more than a short time, officials of both state and federal environmental agencies said yesterday.

The pollution consists primarily of fecal matter and slightly elevated concentrations of metals such as lead and chromium that were in the city's soil before Hurricane Katrina. There are also trace amounts of many petroleum-based chemicals and some pesticides.

Despite descriptions of the floodwater as a "toxic soup" and a "witch's brew" of contaminants, the preliminary tests reveal it contains little that is different from what has been seen after past floods in other cities and here.

***

"The early results do not indicate specific toxic pollutants at any levels of concern," said Chris M. Piehler, a senior environmental scientist at the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. Asked if residue from floodwaters posed hazards that would keep residents from moving back, he answered: "No. The limiting factor is going to be what structures are going to be salvageable and which ones are not."

     These are still early results; and the same article also says that several specific areas will have greater problems because of oil spills.  Nonetheless, just as (thankfully) the order of magnitude of deaths caused by the hurricane now appears to have been dramataically overestimated, the order of magnitude of contamination caused by the hurricane is beginning to appear to have been overstated with equal drama.

     So, I hereby relearn my own basic truth:  we should know that there is a lot we don't know about the environment, how to keep it clean and how to repair it (or how it repairs itself) when it is dirty.  We should keep this basic truth in mind when making environmental laws and imposing new regulatory restrictions on the economy.

Comments

[Tran]

Yay!! Happy Anniversary!! Mine and Austins was yesterday. Just need to point out, in that first pitcure, I wore the same dress to one of my high school dances. Second pitcure, I have that same bag (from Eddie Bauer, right?) in green. Wedding pitcure, I still have your veil. I'm embarrassed to admit it but it's true. It's packed away nicely at my parents. So, next time I'm there I'll grab and eventually get it to you somehow!I loved the trip down memory lane. And you wrote me a song in college with Adrienne, if you remember? I still know it because it meant so much to me And I remember sitting at Arby's in Provo discussing our boys and Chris and I'm sooooo glad you guys ended up together. What a great couple you are! And one of my favorite memories of you guys is when we came over and Chris had shaved his head! So funny. Love you both!

[Tony]

The more people go green and take their money to cioapnmes that do go green will make more cioapnmes go green to get the all mighty buck. Just think if there were enouph people that didn't buy a toxic product don't you think the company would say we can't make enouph off of this product any more lets change.Even just individuals can make a difference. Think back to how many much more toxic products there were years ago. For example asbestos although it is not banned the consumer demand dropped and the cost of litigation to cioapnmes that still used it by people who got sick got so high that its not available in many countries. Another example is the amount of VOCs in paint. When henery ford was painting his cars it contained close to 90% VOCs and now due to consumer demand for better and safer products even when still talking about oilbased paints many now have under 30% VOCs and if you look at any kind of paint there are now paints with no VOCs.

[Will Gaston]

And might I suggest a Basic Truth Corollary: Take with a grain of salt anything printed in the mainstream media whenever the words 'toxic' or 'contaminant' appear.