So now that the city is floating in a toxic waste dump, they have decided to pump it out into the Mississippi river and off of this river are many lakes, streams rivers and eventually the ocean.
I understand the toxic crap needs to be put somewhere.....but isn't this going to create more problems from an environmental stand?
Katrina environmental issues 'almost unimaginable'
'Too early to call the stagnant liquid a toxic soup'
Wednesday, September 7, 2005; Posted: 4:57 a.m. EDT (08:57 GMT)
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Reuters) -- Hurricane Katrina left behind a landscape of oil spills, leaking gas lines, damaged sewage plants and tainted water, Louisiana's top environment official said on Tuesday.
In the state's first major assessment of the environmental havoc in southern Louisiana, Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Mike McDaniel said large quantities of hazardous materials in damaged industrial plants, the danger of explosions and fires and water pollution were his main concerns eight days after the storm struck.
Preliminary figures indicate 140,000 to 160,000 homes were flooded and will not be recovered, he said. "Literally, they are unsalvageable," he said.
He said it would take "years" to restore water service to the entire city.
"It's almost unimaginable, the things we are going to have to deal with," he said.
Crews have found two major oil spills, one of 68,000 barrels at a Bass Enterprise storage depot in Venice and another of 10,000 barrels at a Murphy Oil facility in Chalmette, McDaniel said.
But huge amounts of oil also oozed from cars, trucks and boats caught in the flood.
"Everywhere we look there's a spill. It all adds up," he said. "There's almost a solid sheen over the area right now."
High-level radiation sources, including nuclear plants, have been secured, and authorities were trying to determine the status of rail cars in the area as well as searching out large caches of hazardous materials in industrial plants.
Although there is a disease risk from contaminated water in the streets of New Orleans, McDaniel said it was too early to call the stagnant liquid a "toxic soup." State and federal agencies had begun quality testing.
"I'm saying that's a little bit exaggerated," he said. "To say it's toxic, it sounds like instant death walking in it. Let's get some better data." (Full story)
Independent experts have said the New Orleans flood water, may cause environmental damage as it flows from the city to Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.
More than 500 Louisiana sewage plants were damaged or destroyed, including 25 major ones. There were about 170 sources of leaking hydrocarbons and natural gas, officials said.
Katrina damaged large areas of wildlife habitat but it was too soon to assess the long-term impact, McDaniel said.
"One thing about nature, it's resilient," he said. "Nature will recover."
they don't really have much choice but to pump it out... whether it stays where it is or moves down stream, it's ultimately gonna cause a s**t load of problems.
Raine,Sep 7 2005, 09:25 AM Wrote:they don't really have much choice but to pump it out... whether it stays where it is or moves down stream, it's ultimately gonna cause a s**t load of problems.
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So now, what was contained to a hundered miles of damage, could potentially damage thousands of miles more???
It must be a tough pill to swallow for the tree huggers huh?
ANTHONYD,Sep 7 2005, 01:28 PM Wrote:Raine,Sep 7 2005, 09:25 AM Wrote:they don't really have much choice but to pump it out... whether it stays where it is or moves down stream, it's ultimately gonna cause a s**t load of problems.
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So now, what was contained to a hundered miles of damage, could potentially damage thousands of miles more???
It must be a tough pill to swallow for the tree huggers huh?
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well it's just going to get absorbed into the ground and from there into the water table and from there well you get the picture....
They should just evacuate everyone one out, and wait a year till it all disappears or soaks up and then start rebulding/cleaning. The city is FUBAR, just write it off.
FociPhil,Sep 7 2005, 11:56 AM Wrote:They should just evacuate everyone one out, and wait a year till it all disappears or soaks up and then start rebulding/cleaning. The city is FUBAR, just write it off.
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That's easy to say, but you're asking people to just pick up with nothing and move elsewhere and start over. Not something that's easy to accomplish.
Besides, if you let the water simply
soak up you run the risk of the ground being so unstable (not to mention contaminated with all manner of crap) that anything you build on it will end up like that castle in "Monty Python & The Holy Grail"
NefCanuck
NefCanuck,Sep 7 2005, 04:00 PM Wrote:FociPhil,Sep 7 2005, 11:56 AM Wrote:They should just evacuate everyone one out, and wait a year till it all disappears or soaks up and then start rebulding/cleaning. The city is FUBAR, just write it off.
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That's easy to say, but you're asking people to just pick up with nothing and move elsewhere and start over. Not something that's easy to accomplish.
Besides, if you let the water simply soak up you run the risk of the ground being so unstable (not to mention contaminated with all manner of crap) that anything you build on it will end up like that castle in "Monty Python & The Holy Grail"
NefCanuck
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Pick up what? They lost everything...most people had nothing, now they have even less. So its their choice if they want to stay in a pool of s**t and chemicals, where your risk of dieing or contracting somethign deadly is increased by 1200%...go for it.
But its like anyone else here said, you pump it out your causing more trouble over a more widespread area. Where as if you let it
soak up your keeping it to one place, and you only have to worry about that area, instead of everything downstream, other states and bigger bodies of water, wildlife, plant life etc.
This is the perfect example of a goverment failing its people, too bad that its the united states, the powerful place on earth. Where people go to pursue the "American Dream", and where it takes them 5 days to respond to the biggest natural disaster in their history :rolleyes:
That city it just a dump now, useless to anyone, thhey should movve 20 -30 miles or more in some direction and start building there. What are they going to have to do? clear the land and start building or they stay in NO and they got to clear all the water, destroy all the buildings, make sure its not toxic, which it will probably be forever now and then build on mudd again, its beeen under water for a while now, that ground is going to be unstabe and full of water.
NefCanuck,Sep 7 2005, 11:00 AM Wrote:that castle in "Monty Python & The Holy Grail"
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Swamp castle. "I built the first one, that sank into the swamp. Built the second one, that sank into the swamp, built the third one, that burnt down fell over then sank into the swamp, but the forth one stood up"
crazikev,Sep 7 2005, 12:54 PM Wrote:NefCanuck,Sep 7 2005, 11:00 AM Wrote:that castle in "Monty Python & The Holy Grail"
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Swamp castle. "I built the first one, that sank into the swamp. Built the second one, that sank into the swamp, built the third one, that burnt down fell over then sank into the swamp, but the forth one stood up"
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Sad thing is I saw that movie only on Sunday and I couldn't remember the name of the castle or the quote at all... Shows how much of an impact that movie had on me <_<
NefCanuck
NefCanuck,Sep 7 2005, 01:57 PM Wrote:crazikev,Sep 7 2005, 12:54 PM Wrote:NefCanuck,Sep 7 2005, 11:00 AM Wrote:that castle in "Monty Python & The Holy Grail"
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Swamp castle. "I built the first one, that sank into the swamp. Built the second one, that sank into the swamp, built the third one, that burnt down fell over then sank into the swamp, but the forth one stood up"
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Sad thing is I saw that movie only on Sunday and I couldn't remember the name of the castle or the quote at all... Shows how much of an impact that movie had on me <_<
NefCanuck
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That movie rules :D Go monty python B)