Link to Reference: Jackie Damico, neworleanscitybusiness.com, 02/27/2006

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Highlights:
- New Orleans Public Schools officials estimate it will take three to five years and approximately $800 million to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.
- Construction work on 24 schools has already been put out to bid and selected. The schools with more damage will be bid on individual timetables,
- Roughly 60,000 students were enrolled in New Orleans Public Schools before Katrina. Estimates predict somewhere between 4,000 and 7,000 students will return this year.

Desks and supplies are strewn through this classroom in Hardin Elementary in the Lower Ninth Ward. Hardin was one of the worst-hit schools in the Orleans Parish School District.
New Orleans Public Schools officials estimate it will take three to five years and approximately $800 million to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

All of the system’s 124 schools sustained damaged to varying degrees in the storm, said Martin McFarland, managing director for Alvarez and Marsal, the New York-based management firm in charge of the school system.

About $25 million in contracts have been awarded to repair the first wave of schools with initial projects focusing on schools that can be quickly brought back into service.

Construction work on 24 schools has already been put out to bid and selected. The schools with more damage will be bid on individual timetables, said McFarland.

About a quarter of the schools, 32 buildings, sustained minimal damage such as blown out windows and mold growth.

“A lot of them were damaged only because power was off and mold started to grow due to the moisture,” McFarland said.

Approximately 20 Orleans Parish schools have reopened. Ben Franklin Elementary, relatively unscathed, was the first non-charter public school in Orleans Parish to reopen Nov. 28.

Roughly 60,000 students were enrolled in New Orleans Public Schools before Katrina. Estimates predict somewhere between 4,000 and 7,000 students will return this year.

A third of the schools, 41 buildings, are classified as badly damaged because they were filled with 4 to 5 feet of floodwater. Another 33 buildings were severely damaged after taking 8 to 10 feet of water. Many of those schools were filled with toxic mud and debris.

The worst damage afflicted the 18 schools in eastern New Orleans, the Ninth Ward and the City Park area. Those buildings are deemed total losses. Many of those buildings are missing walls and roofs.

FEMA has pledged to replace schools deemed “damaged beyond economical repair,” McFarland said.

McFarland says contracts awarded so far have been an even split between local and national companies. New Orleans-area companies working on the projects include NOMAR Construction, Arc Abatement, Crown Roofing and Remediation Experts.

The biggest problem the school system is facing with the rebuilding process is the lack of workers.

“I am shocked at the people who will not bid because they have no subcontractors to get the work done,” McFarland said. “A lot of people are working in Mississippi and Alabama. When they came to Louisiana, they go to Jefferson Parish first. There’s just not enough workers to go around.”

A lot of the schools haven’t begun demolition or removal of damaged drywall and flooring because the system is trying to focus resources where they can have the most effect.

Four months after the storm, crews assessing the damage are still finding dead dogs and other animals inside schools.

“It’s amazing that four months into this these animals are just being discovered,” McFarland said. “I think people in this country don’t know how bad the damage is down here.”

Hardin Elementary in the Lower Ninth Ward was one of the schools hardest hit. Floodwaters floated a car into the middle of one classroom.

Carver High School in eastern New Orleans was especially hard hit. Desks are piled eight high in classrooms filled with massive amounts of growing mold.

The most heavily damaged schools won’t be dealt with yet because there aren’t enough people living near the schools to justify reopening them, McFarland said.

“If they’re repaired depends on if we need them again,” said McFarland.

Contractors interested in bidding on the projects can contact Alvarez and Marsal at www.alvarezandmarsal.com.•

Link to Reference: Environment News Service, Feb 17, 2006

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Highlights:
- Despite public concerns about Bush administration political interference with science, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is requiring prior headquarters approval for all communications by its scientists with the media
- The EPA’s screening of all press interviews is at variance with recent pronouncements of scientific openness by two other federal agencies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
- “Why are scientists at NASA free to answer questions about global warming while their colleagues at EPA are not?” asked PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “Science does not come in Republican or Democratic flavors; scientists should be able to discuss findings without having to check whether facts comport with management policy.”

WASHINGTON, DC, February 17, 2006 (ENS) - Despite public concerns about Bush administration political interference with science, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is requiring prior headquarters approval for all communications by its scientists with the media, according to an agency email released Thursday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a national association of government workers in natural resource agencies.

The EPA’s screening of all press interviews is at variance with recent pronouncements of scientific openness by two other federal agencies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

In a February 9, 2006 email to all staff, Ann Brown the news director for the EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD), wrote, “We are asked to remind all employees that EPA's standard media procedure is to refer all media queries regarding ORD to Ann Brown, ORD News Director, prior to agreeing to or conducting any interviews…Support for this policy also will allow reasonable time for appropriate management response.” By contrast, on February 4, 2006, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin sent an all-employee email in which he committed the agency to “open scientific and technical inquiry and dialogue with the public.”

Griffin wrote, “It is not the job of public affairs officers to alter, filter or adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA's technical staff.”

On February 10, 2006, NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher told The Washington Post that “I encourage scientists to conduct peer-reviewed research and provide the honest results of those findings,” adding that “My policy…is to have a free and open organization.”

“Why are scientists at NASA free to answer questions about global warming while their colleagues at EPA are not?” asked PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “Science does not come in Republican or Democratic flavors; scientists should be able to discuss findings without having to check whether facts comport with management policy.”

Scientists often fall outside the coverage of whistleblower protection laws, says Ruch, so scientists who violate agency gag rules may be punished for insubordination.

Legislation that would grant scientists the right to openly discuss their findings is pending before both houses of Congress. California Representative Henry Waxman, a Democrat, introduced HR 839 in the House, and Illinois Senator Richard Durbin, also a Democrat, introduced S 1358 in the Senate.

Link to Reference: NOAA Magazine || NOAA Home Page, Commerce Dept. NOAA News Tue, 24 Jan 2006

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Highlights:
- NOAA announced today that analyses of the second and third round of toxicology survey results from Gulf water, marine species and sediment samples show no elevated toxins of bacteria from recent hurricanes.
- The samples were tested for toxins that might have been released into the marine ecosystem after hurricane flooding, such as PCBs, pesticides, and fire retardants. All samples show the levels of these compounds are well below federal guidelines for safe seafood consumption.
- The survey results are consistent with similar findings recently announced by the FDA, the EPA, and the States of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, which concluded Gulf seafood was deemed safe for human consumption.

Jan. 19, 2006 — NOAA announced today that analyses of the second and third round of toxicology survey results from Gulf water, marine species and sediment samples show no elevated toxins of bacteria from recent hurricanes. Agency scientists have been collecting samples since two weeks after Katrina made landfall. The initial samples contained no elevated toxins or bacteria. The latest analyses also found no cause for concern. (Click NOAA image for larger view of the destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in Gulf Port, Miss., as seen from the NOAA Ship NANCY FOSTER on Sept. 10, 2005. Click here for high resolution version. Please credit “NOAA.”)

The samples were tested for toxins that might have been released into the marine ecosystem after hurricane flooding, such as PCBs, pesticides, and fire retardants. All samples show the levels of these compounds are well below federal guidelines for safe seafood consumption.

The samples also were tested for potential bacteria such as E. coli, which is associated with human fecal contamination. None of the samples harbored the bacteria, although other vibrio bacteria that normally inhabit the marine environment were found.

Steven Murawski, director of scientific programs at the NOAA Fisheries Service, said that the presence of vibrio bacteria is expected, and the FDA recommends that fish, crab and shrimp be thoroughly cooked prior to consumption.

The survey results are consistent with similar findings recently announced by the FDA, the EPA, and the States of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, which concluded Gulf seafood was deemed safe for human consumption. NOAA continues its sampling program in the Gulf of Mexico to detect potential trends or changes that might occur over time. (Click NOAA image for larger view of the areas where the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster collected samples as of Sept. 12-16, 2005. Click here for high resolution version. Please credit “NOAA.”)

Also, a just completed NOAA survey also shows that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita did not cause a reduction in fish and shrimp populations in offshore areas of the Gulf of Mexico.

NOAA's annual survey of shrimp and bottomfish—completed in November 2005—shows some species, such as the commercially valuable and overfished red snapper, had a higher population in 2005 than in 2004. The survey found that the Atlantic croaker population doubled in 2005.

"Marine life in the Gulf of Mexico is resilient and well-adapted to the natural environment," said Bill Hogarth, director of the NOAA Fisheries Service. "We had some concerns about the possible impacts of the Gulf hurricanes on fish and shrimp populations in the region, particularly in wetlands and nursery areas, but we've found that the fish stocks withstood the country's most devastating natural disaster."

Hogarth noted that there have not been any reported fish die-offs in the Gulf due to the hurricanes. He also said that the reduction in fishing activities in the Gulf of Mexico since the hurricanes could be a contributing factor to the population up tick for some of the shorter-lived species. The agency will continue to monitor potential population changes due to damaged habitats, nursery areas and wetlands.

Overall abundance of shrimp and bottom fish increased by about 30 percent from 2004 levels, with increases in Atlantic croaker, white shrimp and red snapper contributing much of the change. Agency scientists have conducted the survey, known as SEAMAP, every year since 1972. Information from the annual survey is compared to survey results in previous years and the data are used in fish stock assessments. Fish and shellfish populations are designated each year as either overfished or not overfished based on these assessments.

NOAA Fisheries Service is dedicated to protecting and preserving the nation's living marine resources and their habitat through scientific research, management and enforcement. The NOAA Fisheries Service provides effective stewardship of these resources for the benefit of the nation, supporting coastal communities that depend upon them, and helping to provide safe and healthy seafood to consumers and recreational opportunities for the American public.

NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation's coastal and marine resources.

Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners and nearly 60 countries to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Hurricane Katrina Environmental Impacts

NOAA Fisheries Service

Media Contact:
Susan Buchanan, NOAA Fisheries Service, (301) 713-2370

Link to Reference: Paul Singer, National Journal, 1/9/06

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Highlights:
- When the winds died down and the flood waters receded, the storms left behind a line of debris some 500 miles long.
- By most estimates, the hurricanes created at least 50 million cubic yards of debris in Louisiana and another 40 million in Mississippi. Trucks will still be carting it away next Thanksgiving.
- But, in the end, there's no getting around these facts: Katrina and Rita trashed the Gulf Coast. And trash disposal is expensive and environmentally difficult.

NEW ORLEANS -- When Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged the Gulf Coast, they turned dozens of communities into massive trash heaps. When the winds died down and the flood waters receded, the storms left behind a line of debris some 500 miles long.

By year's end, contractors hired by the Army Corps of Engineers and other government agencies had hauled away some 40 million cubic yards of junk in Louisiana and Mississippi. Even so, millions of cubic yards of debris remained, much of it in houses that will have to be gutted or demolished.

By most estimates, the hurricanes created at least 50 million cubic yards of debris in Louisiana and another 40 million in Mississippi. Trucks will still be carting it away next Thanksgiving.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency calculates that in Alabama and Texas, the storms transformed an additional 12 million cubic yards of bathtubs, tree limbs, car fenders, and smoke alarms into trash. Just how much rubbish is that? Well, the average professional football stadium could hold only about 2 million cubic yards of debris.

To the untrained eye, the rubble that used to be New Orleans's lower 9th Ward looks as if it simply needs to be pushed out of the way by bulldozers to allow new construction to begin. But when waste experts eye the rubble here and in other wrecked neighborhoods, they see something else entirely: a dozen kinds of garbage, each of which needs to be collected and disposed of separately.

Thus, several crews must pick over each pile of rubble, so that they can sort, number (yes, really), and lug the various parts of the pile to the places best equipped to receive them.

Nearly every item in the millions of tons of trash that Katrina and Rita created will be assessed for hazardousness before it ends up in a final resting place -- one of the hundreds of landfills around the region, a hazardous-waste disposal facility, or a recycling plant.

Where Dead Refrigerators Go

Down a dirt road on a Louisiana National Guard outpost, past the Slidell Police Canine Training Range and the recreational paintball field, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is operating what looks like a refrigerator graveyard on a former helicopter landing pad. In fact, the site is more like a refrigerator mortuary -- the place where dead appliances are prepped for their final destination in the beyond.

Each day, waste contractors who are scouring the streets of Katrina-ravaged St. Tammany Parish deliver hundreds of refrigerators, ovens, washing machines, and other major appliances. Mortuary overseer Michelle Rogow, an EPA employee from San Francisco, constantly updates a parish map posted on a trailer's wall. Each red dot on the map indicates where a refrigerator or other appliance has been left at a curb.

Each red square signals where hazardous household waste has been sighted. Each pinpointed item is logged into a database and tracked until it is delivered to the helicopter field. Only then is it crossed off the map. Since the first week of October, when the EPA's collection process began, Rogow's site has received more than 47,000 "white goods" and 71,000 containers of hazardous material.

The logistics of getting all of this junk to the mortuary demonstrate the enormousness of the debris management problem. After the storms, many people returned to their houses and dragged most of the contents to the curb. The EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and local waste-management authorities explore every street to assess the waste piles.

The Corps handles debris management for FEMA, and its contractors haul off nonhazardous debris. But if a pile contains a refrigerator or another hazard, the Corps tells the EPA to pick it up.

Items delivered to the helicopter pad are inspected for toxicity as they are unloaded. Refrigerators are emptied of their rotted food, then power-washed with bleach. The Freon or other coolant is drained for recycling, and the ruined appliance is piled on a heap to be crushed into metal bales.

A scrap-metal dealer buys the compacted remains and hauls them away. The state Department of Environmental Quality estimates that Louisiana will recover 1 million pounds of Freon, a fluorocarbon that can damage the ozone layer if it's released into the environment.

Other hazardous materials -- paint, pesticides, solvents, and the like -- are separated, sampled, and placed in safe containers. They are then transferred to a licensed hazardous-waste disposal site. Televisions and computer monitors are pulled out for collection and recycling. The EPA estimates that the typical TV contains 4 pounds of lead, which can cause brain damage if it leaches into drinking water.

"We are literally managing individual pieces of people's stuff," Rogow said.

Chuck Brown, state assistant secretary of environmental quality, said that Louisiana may ultimately retrieve and dismantle 1 million appliances, each of which will be tracked individually, sorted by several contractors, and emptied largely by hand. The EPA is running half a dozen hazardous-waste and appliance mortuaries around the state, at a cost of about $2 million a day.

The Waste Doctors

On a blustery December morning, a small EPA crew gathered in the parking lot of an unremarkable office park in eastern New Orleans. The cluster of low, black-glass buildings had been battered by the storm and then gutted by looters and contractors. Now, piles of debris sat on the pavement. The debris contractor hired by the Army Corps of Engineers could not haul the trash away until the EPA found and removed anything dangerous.

Most of the office-park mess was no different from countless other rubble piles around town -- furniture, books, magazines, sodden chunks of drywall, sections of carpet. But because these office suites housed medical professionals, the waste also included hazardous medical debris. The EPA crew in white hazard suits and yellow boots picked through the junk with handheld grabbers, retrieving bottles of toxic chemicals, biological waste, needles, and several canisters of compressed oxygen, which explode if they're crushed.

As the workers finished picking over a section of the pile, a small backhoe spread out the remains so that the workers could see any hazardous materials they had missed. The property owners "probably hired people to gut the office, and they did not distinguish between drywall and blood products," said Brad Stimple, EPA's on-scene coordinator for this operation.

Stimple said that EPA crews have visited dozens of small commercial locations like this one. Typically, one site yields enough hazards to fill two dozen special cardboard boxes, each the size of a nightstand.

But like all other government-led cleanup crews, Stimple's is allowed to sort through only what property owners have dragged out to the curb. Officials throughout the region stress that, except in extraordinary circumstances, they are not authorized to remove anything from private property without the owner's permission.

For instance, one medical lab in the office park that Stimple's crew was scouring that December day had been torn apart by the storm and apparently looted, but had not yet been emptied by the owner. The hurricane had wrenched the door from its hinges.

Inside the lab, vials of who-knows-what were strewn everywhere. A poster ominously warned of "blood-borne pathogens." Yet Stimple and his crew had no authority to enter. As renters and property owners return home and begin to clean up, they dump new piles of debris at the curb. At some point, the feds will declare their job done and local officials will be left to cope with whatever garbage is left. Even now, some officials wonder which trash is FEMA's responsibility.

Marnie Winter, director of environmental affairs for Jefferson Parish, just west of New Orleans, said, "FEMA will not authorize pickup of new-construction debris, but it will be pretty hard to determine which is which" if one homeowner is tearing out flood-damaged walls and a neighbor is throwing out scraps from a remodeling project unrelated to the storms.

Indeed, Axel Hichos and his Boston-based crew from Trident Environmental Group, a subcontractor for the Corps, spent a recent Wednesday afternoon collecting the asbestos tile -- and only the asbestos tile -- from a debris pile in front of a house on New Orleans's Lowerline Street in the city's southern bulge along the Mississippi River.

That neighborhood suffered little storm damage and no flooding. But many roofs need repairing, and some residents have taken the opportunity to renovate or clear out their houses. The debris pile that Hichos and his crew were tackling was, according to neighbors, the result of an eviction and a renovation, not an inundation. "We'll come back through here in three days, and there will be more piles," Hichos predicted.

Although the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11 created 2 million cubic yards of rubble, all of that debris was concentrated in a few square blocks of Lower Manhattan. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, by contrast, spread their destruction over thousands of square miles.

Every town in the storms' paths now has hazardous hotspots that used to be photo shops, drycleaners, hardware stores, or nail salons. Toxic chemicals are hidden under heaps of brick, wood, and wallboard.

Josie Clark, an EPA employee from Chicago, is heading a "school assessment group," a 10-member team that searches storm-tossed Louisiana communities for schoolroom hazards, mostly chemistry labs with collections of toxic materials in various states of disarray and destruction. By late December, Clark's team had worked its way through 40 schools that officials hope to reopen. Schools beyond repair will be searched later.

Many of the cleanup jobs involve coping with stomach-turning stenches. Rick Tillman, a Corps debris specialist, won't soon forget the New Orleans meat-storage facilities where the loss of power caused tons of chicken and seafood to rot. The Corps, worried that the carcasses posed a health threat, hauled 50 million pounds of putrid meat to a special dump in lined trucks that had to be decontaminated before they could return to the roads. Tillman says that his truck stank for weeks.

And then there are the wrecked vehicles. In Louisiana alone, officials expect they will have to dispose of 350,000 cars and perhaps 37,000 boats. Each will be tagged, towed, disassembled, drained of petroleum products and other hazardous waste, stripped of recyclable materials, and finally crushed.

A FEMA spokesman in Mississippi pointed out that several hundred cars and boats have to be dredged up off the coast before being tagged, towed, and all the rest.

How Much Wood Could a Termite Gnaw?

By Army Corps of Engineers estimates, Katrina and Rita together produced 12 million cubic yards of vegetative debris in Louisiana, mostly downed trees and branches. Mississippi officials estimate that the hurricanes created 20 million cubic yards of woody waste. Much of this debris was gathered up quickly, as crews cleared streets for safe passage.

Woody waste presents some excellent recycling opportunities. In Washington Parish, north of New Orleans, the waste is being ground up to serve as fuel in a paper mill. Elsewhere, it is being chipped or shredded for use as temporary cover for landfills. Environmental groups suggest that the woody materials could be used to build new levees around endangered wetlands, and some have even proposed that clean woody waste be used to fill industrial canals that contributed to the flooding of New Orleans.

But even for this seemingly benign material, disposal can be complicated, because of a pernicious local critter called the Formosan termite. Accidentally imported in the 1940s by U.S. warships returning from Asia, the termite is such a serious problem that Louisiana's wood waste cannot be shipped out of state or to uninfested regions of Louisiana.

"If we didn't have a termite problem, we could use barge or rail to send this stuff to other states," said Brown of the DEQ. "People from Texas and Alabama have called us asking for some of our waste," but it cannot be sent. The prohibition also applies to wooden waste from residences.

What's more, warns Bob Odom, Louisiana's commissioner of agriculture and forestry, "if you buried all this wood waste, all you would have done is to create a haven for those termites." Odom advocates burning the woody waste or spraying it with a pesticide. He said he would support composting only if he could be convinced that it would generate enough heat to kill the insects. Otherwise, he said, all of the chipped wood will have to be sprayed before it can be used.

Even woody waste from areas not infested with termites generates questions. Winter said that FEMA approved collection of Jefferson Parish's downed trees and limbs, but did not immediately approve the collection of stumps. "People kept calling and saying, 'When are you going to pull out these stumps?' "

Eventually, FEMA agreed to get rid of the stumps, but then had to assign contractors to the task. In the Army Corps's debris database, it still counts tree removal and stump removal as separate disposal operations.

The infrastructure developed to track and manage all of this waste is extraordinary. In a dingy building in Baton Rouge, Georgiann Shult, a Corps employee from central Pennsylvania, has developed a computerized database that tracks every truckload of waste hauled by her agency's contractors.

Every load has a paper ticket signed by the driver and by the operator of the disposal site. Dozens of staffers in the Baton Rouge office enter information from those tickets into the database, at a rate of several thousand tickets per day. At the touch of a few buttons, Shult can locate any truckload of waste.

By late December, she had records on more than 300,000 loads of debris hauled by the 10,000 trucks that the Corps's primary contractors had operated since September.

Where Does It All Go?

After hurricane debris is picked through, sorted, and collected, a dizzying array of hurdles still must be cleared before it is laid to rest somewhere. In New Orleans, the Army Corps of Engineers is using the Old Gentilly landfill as its primary disposal site for construction and demolition rubble, but reopening that site has sparked a firestorm of protests. Gentilly, a former city-owned municipal landfill, was closed in 1986.

The city was in the process of getting a site permit for construction debris when Katrina struck. The landfill reopened days later. Critics contend that the dump does not meet the standards of a modern landfill. Marsh surrounds Gentilly, and owners of nearby landfills argue that they have plenty of capacity for hurricane-related waste and can handle it more safely.

Joel Waltzer, a lawyer suing on behalf of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network to try to force the state to close the landfill, said that Gentilly is simply not equipped to handle the hazardous materials that are almost certainly mixed in with the curbside debris that's arriving by the truckload.

"They can pluck through those rubbish piles, and they will get the [dangerous] stuff that's on top.... But if they get even 25 percent of it, I will be shocked," Waltzer said.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality counters that Gentilly is needed. Assistant Secretary Brown said, "If it weren't available, we would really be behind the eight ball." He added that the landfill "meets every standard that every other construction and demolition debris landfill meets."

Gentilly sits on a spit of marshy land east of downtown New Orleans that is covered with decades-old illegal dump sites. Herons and other coastal birds stand in brackish waters amid abandoned cars, junked furniture, and garbage from various eras. Trucks bearing hurricane debris continually drive in and out of unregulated sites that have no apparent environmental controls.

"I've been raising hell about those sites," but the DEQ has not shown any interest in shutting them down, said Sierra Club organizer Darryl Malek-Wiley. DEQ Enforcement Director Harold Leggett testified before the state Legislature's environmental committees in mid-December that the state had not emphasized enforcement in the immediate aftermath of the storms, but said, "There are some criminal investigations going on related to the landfill activities."

Brown said that his agency is very concerned about illegal dumping near the Gentilly landfill and is working with city police to identify the perpetrators.

In some places, the Louisiana DEQ favors burning hurricane debris, but the EPA has issued warnings about the combustion of debris that may be contaminated with asbestos or other health hazards. The Corps, officials said, is not burning any waste and will not unless the EPA approves.

Brown said that his agency is burning clean, woody debris and is hoping to rely heavily on shredding or grinding other wastes to reduce the space they take up in landfills. The state has begun using a tractor-trailer-sized grinding machine called the "annihilator" that can chew more than 100 tons of waste an hour into 2-foot chunks.

In Mississippi, about half the hurricane debris is woody waste, but the state Department of Environmental Quality would prefer not to burn it. "We tolerate [burning], but we don't encourage it," said Mark Williams, the department's solid-waste administrator. Mississippi's biggest challenge, he said, is sorting through the debris fields that were left after the storm.

Katrina made a direct hit on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and while Louisiana was left with thousands of damaged structures, most of the buildings along the Mississippi coast were obliterated. Ron Calcagno, public works director of the pulverized town of Waveland, Miss., said that officials are scheduling waste-crew visits so that residents can meet the crews at their former homes to collect any valuable or sentimental objects that remain.

The greatest mystery lying at the bottom of the massive piles of hurricane waste is the total cost of disposal. The federal government has already signed waste contracts totaling $2 billion. But FEMA and the Army Corps refuse to say what they are paying per ton for waste hauling. Officials maintain that totals are not yet available or that releasing the information would give contractors a leg up in price negotiations.

Parishes around New Orleans have complained that the structure of FEMA's waste contracts -- FEMA hires the Army Corps, which hires national contractors, who hire local subcontractors -- guarantees that the hauling price will be marked up several times. Local haulers hired directly, critics contend, could do the job more cheaply. A FEMA official in Mississippi said that the recovery of recyclable materials will defray some of the disposal cost.

But, in the end, there's no getting around these facts: Katrina and Rita trashed the Gulf Coast. And trash disposal is expensive and environmentally difficult.

Link to Reference: David Brown, Washington Post Staff Writer, 12/15/05

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Highlights:
- Some New Orleans neighborhoods are covered in a layer of sediment containing lead above the concentration the federal government considers hazardous to human health, a new study has found.
- The team sampled 14 sites, 12 of them inside the city limits. In two, lead was above the 400-parts-per-million concentration of the Environmental Protection Agency's "high-priority bright line screening" level, a hazardous designation set by the EPA. One was on Esplanade Avenue downtown (406 ppm) and the other was on the bank of the Industrial Canal (642 ppm).
- They also sampled snakes and an alligator to determine baseline levels of various pollutants the animals acquired before the flood. More will be sampled later to see if the flood increased their levels of toxic substances

Some New Orleans neighborhoods are covered in a layer of sediment containing lead above the concentration the federal government considers hazardous to human health, a new study has found.

The dirt poses the greatest hazard to small children who might play in it, said Steven M. Presley, a toxicologist at Texas Tech University, who led the soil survey team. The hazard could be reduced by keeping the dirt from becoming dry and airborne, by covering it with uncontaminated soil or, if necessary, by hauling it away.

"These levels are not astronomical. It's not like this is an insurmountable hazard. But we are saying that we did find levels that exceeded these thresholds for human health," Presley said yesterday after the study, which will appear in Environmental Science & Technology, was posted on the American Chemical Society's Web site.

The team sampled 14 sites, 12 of them inside the city limits. In two, lead was above the 400-parts-per-million concentration of the Environmental Protection Agency's "high-priority bright line screening" level, a hazardous designation set by the EPA. One was on Esplanade Avenue downtown (406 ppm) and the other was on the bank of the Industrial Canal (642 ppm).

Slightly elevated levels of arsenic and numerous organic chemicals, including some pesticides, were also found at the Industrial Canal. Presley said that was not surprising because "it was the neck of the funnel for the water being pulled from New Orleans."

The researchers also found slightly elevated concentrations of iron at one site near the Lakefront neighborhood and elevated pesticide residues near City Park, which Presley speculated might have come from a nearby golf course.

Presley thinks the chief implication of the study is that more extensive sediment testing needs to be done, as contamination is likely to vary across the city.

The source of most of the lead was exhaust from a century's worth of leaded gasoline burned by automobiles. In many places, it was under the soil surface and covered with vegetation. Hurricane Katrina and the flood suspended it in the water and then redeposited it, sometimes a long way from where it originated.

The sediment is inside many buildings that will be torn down or renovated, making it a potential hazard to construction workers. They should wear masks in dusty areas and wash their clothing and hands, Presley said.

Eryn Witcher, an EPA spokeswoman, said the new findings are "consistent with the sampling we have done. We have seen elevated levels of lead and arsenic, and we have urged the public to avoid contact with the sediments."

The researchers also sampled water and found high levels of some pathogenic bacteria, including various species of Aeromonas that caused many skin infections in victims of last December's tsunami in Southeast Asia. The sampling was done in mid-September; these organisms would have died as the water evaporated.

They also sampled snakes and an alligator to determine baseline levels of various pollutants the animals acquired before the flood. More will be sampled later to see if the flood increased their levels of toxic substances

Link to Reference: BRETT MARTEL, Associated Press Writer, 12/13/05

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Highlights:
- Eight sections of steel sheet pulled from a failed New Orleans levee Tuesday appear to have been driven into the ground to the specified depth, contradicting earlier tests, engineers said.
- The steel had been sunk into the ground to prevent water from saturating the soil and destabilizing the flood walls. Initial testing by sonar had indicated the sheet pilings were driven to only about 10 feet below sea level, even though the design called for 17.5 feet below sea level.
- After pulling and measuring the pilings, officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expressed a measure of relief, since the Corps was responsible for ensuring the construction matched the design when the flood wall was built in the early 1990s.
- restoring about 350 miles of hurricane protection levees in the New Orleans area.

NEW ORLEANS - Eight sections of steel sheet pulled from a failed New Orleans levee Tuesday appear to have been driven into the ground to the specified depth, contradicting earlier tests, engineers said.

The sheet pilings were removed as part of an investigation into why the flood wall at the 17th Street Canal failed, contributing to floods that covered 80 percent of the city when Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29.

The steel had been sunk into the ground to prevent water from saturating the soil and destabilizing the flood walls. Initial testing by sonar had indicated the sheet pilings were driven to only about 10 feet below sea level, even though the design called for 17.5 feet below sea level.

The discrepancy fueled suspicion of wrongdoing in the building of the flood wall, attracting criminal investigators to the work site. The U.S. attorney, the state attorney general and the district attorney all have launched investigations into the building and maintenance of the levees.

After pulling and measuring the pilings, officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expressed a measure of relief, since the Corps was responsible for ensuring the construction matched the design when the flood wall was built in the early 1990s.

But if the flood wall was built to specifications, as the latest inspection indicated, the next question will be whether the design was faulty.

"We need to look at all the failure mechanisms because obviously something did happen here and each piece of the puzzle helps us determine what happened," said Col. Lewis Setliff, commander of the task force restoring about 350 miles of hurricane protection levees in the New Orleans area.

Brig. Gen. Robert Crear said the length of the sections pulled all exceeded 23 feet. About six feet of the sheet piling was above sea level, leaving a little more than 17 feet below sea level — in accordance with design specifications.

Engineers also plan to test the concrete and the reinforcing bars in the flood wall to ensure they were made properly.

Also, engineers must try to figure out why the sonar tests yielded bad results on how deep the sheet pilings were driven.

Link to Reference: Ana Radelat, hattiesburgamerican.com, 12/11/05

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Highlights:
- The Sierra Club this week released a report that said that soil samples taken in Hurricane Katrina-hit regions of Mississippi and Alabama have dangerous levels of pollution.
- Katrina's storm surge - which covered the coast with sludge that contained heavy metals and microorganisms - is to blame.
- Bass said his agency did not test the soil at DeLisle Elementary School. But he said sampling of nearby areas showed there's no danger to the children who attend the school. "Unless the children are eating the dirt, I don't think there's a high risk," he said.

WASHINGTON - The Sierra Club this week released a report that said that soil samples taken in Hurricane Katrina-hit regions of Mississippi and Alabama have dangerous levels of pollution.

The samples revealed higher than normal levels of arsenic, heavy metals, dioxin and life-threatening E-coli bacteria, the environmental group said.

Wilma Subra, a Sierra Club chemist, said Katrina's storm surge - which covered the coast with sludge that contained heavy metals and microorganisms - is to blame.

"There's a need to determine the extent of that contamination and establish a plan to remove the contaminants in order to prevent residents and workers from being harmfully exposed," Subra said.

The Sierra Club said the highest levels of arsenic - 27 times more than Environmental Protection Agency limits - were found in Moss Point on Elder Ferry Road near the site of the former Rohm and Hass chemical plant. The group also found high levels of arsenic in Gulfport's Big Lake and near Pearlington in Hancock County.

The Sierra Club also said it found unsafe levels of arsenic at DeLisle Elementary School in Pass Christian, which is located near a DuPont chemical plant.

But Phil Bass, director of pollution control at the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said his agency and the EPA have conducted sediment and soil tests on the Gulf Coast and have not found anything to be alarmed about.

"What we're getting back looks pretty good," Bass said.

He said all of the samples have not been processed, but those that have failed to show "any huge issues." He also said that Mississippi normally has higher-than-average amounts of arsenic in its soil.

Bass said his agency did not test the soil at DeLisle Elementary School. But he said sampling of nearby areas showed there's no danger to the children who attend the school. "Unless the children are eating the dirt, I don't think there's a high risk," he said.

The Sierra Club has urged the EPA to conduct more tests and is warning residents returning to what it calls high-risk neighborhoods to take certain precautions, including donning protective gloves and smocks and using respirators.

Disaster preparation

The Council for Excellence in Government and the American Red Cross released poll results last week that showed that Southerners say they do the most to prepare for a disaster. Midwesterners report doing the least.

Only 52 percent of Midwesterners report doing a great deal or some things to prepare for a disaster, followed by the Northeast, 58 percent, the West, 64 percent and the South, 74 percent.

The survey also showed that 38 percent of Americans were not motivated at all by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to prepare for an emergency.

The poll was conducted before and during Hurricane Katrina (Aug. 26-31) and then repeated two months later (Oct. 26-30).

In August, about one in four Americans reported preparing a disaster kit of emergency supplies such as water, food and medicine.

But a majority, 59 percent, of people who live in areas affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita said they prepared such a kit. The percentage didn't increase after the storms.

The poll also found that people with at least some college education are more likely to have taken steps to prepare for a disaster than those with a high school degree or less education. Those with household incomes of less than $40,000 per year are also less likely than those with higher incomes to have taken preparedness steps, the survey found. But there was no difference in preparedness by race.

Seeking cures

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., has teamed up with Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., to introduce a bill this week that would create a new division at the National Institutes of Health that would focus exclusively on finding the cures for cancer, diabetes and other diseases.

The American Center for Cures Act would authorize $5 billion to be spent on hiring more doctors and researchers and setting up new ways for NIH to collaborate with other government researchers.

"I'm excited about the Center for Cures. We know that where there is interest and a dedicated effort, there will be success," Cochran said.

Mississippi has the highest rates of some of the chronic diseases that would be targeted by the new center. The state has the highest percentage of population with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It also has the highest percentage of overweight people, about 67 percent of Mississippians are obese or overweight.

Link to Reference: JOHN SURRATT, The Mississippi Press, December 09, 2005

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Highlights:
- Seafood from the Mississippi Sound and the Gulf of Mexico is safe to eat and overall water quality of the Coast's bays and estuaries is good, despite the debris deposited in the water by Hurricane Katrina
- Preliminary test results by DEQ, Folmar said the state Department of Marine Re-sources, Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration indicated that the overall water quality was good, that there no metals, PCBs or pesticides in the seafood to warrant seafood advisories. And, he added, bacteria levels were much lower than expected.
- Tests did indicate low dioxin levels in the sediment in the Escatawpa and Pascagoula River area and in St. Louis Bay near Bayou LaCroix and low dissolved oxygen concentrations in the Escatawpa and St. Louis Bay and elevated nutrient levels in Bayou Casotte and Back Bay Biloxi.

OCEAN SPRINGS -- Seafood from the Mississippi Sound and the Gulf of Mexico is safe to eat and overall water quality of the Coast's bays and estuaries is good, despite the debris deposited in the water by Hurricane Katrina, the director of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said Thursday.

Henry Folmar, who oversees the DEQ's laboratory activities, announced the news about Coast seafood and its waterways during a Thursday night post-Katrina update meeting on the seafood industry and recreational fishing at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory.

The announcement was part of a "good news, bad news" presentation, which was a central theme during the entire program. The presentation was held to give area residents and commercial fishermen an idea of how the Coast's seafood and recreational fishing industries have faired in the wake of Katrina's Aug. 29 assault on the Coast.

Katrina's passage across the Coast raised concerns by many environmentalists, commercial fishermen, biologists and residents about the quality of Coastal waters and seafood.

But according to preliminary test results by DEQ, Folmar said the state Department of Marine Re-sources, Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration indicated that the overall water quality was good, that there no metals, PCBs or pesticides in the seafood to warrant seafood advisories. And, he added, bacteria levels were much lower than expected.

However, Folmar said tests did indicate low dioxin levels in the sediment in the Escatawpa and Pascagoula River area and in St. Louis Bay near Bayou LaCroix and low dissolved oxygen concentrations in the Escatawpa and St. Louis Bay and elevated nutrient levels in Bayou Casotte and Back Bay Biloxi.

Folmar also said fish kills were found in several areas of the Pascagoula, which he said were primarily caused by vegetation being blown into the river and dissolving the oxygen.

But while the Coast's seafood is in good shape, there are few people and equipment to harvest it.

GCRL scientist Jim Franks told the residents that the damage to the Coast's commercial and recreational fishing industries could total an estimated $170 million to $200 million, not including the damages to structures like marinas, piers, wharves and commercial support businesses, which he said could total an extra $10 million.

"Preliminary information based on interviews with 25 percent of the commercial fisherman indicate that the total estimated damage to the fleet is $50 million," Franks said. "Interviews with 30 percent of the processors and dealers put the total estimated damage to Katrina at $120 million."

A similar problem exists in the Coast's oyster industry, which took a major hit from the hurricane.

Bradley Randall, DMR biological program coordinator for shellfish, said preliminary reports indicated that 90 to 95 percent of the Coast's legal --three inches or larger -- oyster crop was killed by Katrina.

"The rest were scattered to where we can't find them," he said. "But the spats (oysters less than legal size) survived."

He said oyster larvae, which formed before Katrina hit, managed to stay in place, leaving the potential for another oyster crop to develop. But Randall said the spats won't reach legal size for another 18 to 24 months, meaning that the next money oyster crop could be two years away.

"It could be sooner than that," he said. "We're still investigating. We could find other beds that were never affected by the storm."

Randall said, however that Coast's offshore areas could benefit from the storm, because the water churned up by the hurricane could help refurbish the fisheries and stir up and redistribute nutrients. It could also create new areas for oyster larvae to attach themselves and induce them to spawn.

But even if the oyster beds were in good shape, the facilities to process and sell the crop would be few and far between. Many of the processing and dealer facilities were severely damaged by Katrina.

"Right now, we only have one processor in operation in Pass Christian," Randall said. "And it's processing Texas oysters."

Link to Reference: Gulf of Mexico Sea Surface temperatures and location of Loop Current waters affecting recent strong hurricane crossings

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Highlights:
- The LSU Earth Scan Lab is deeply pained by the events wrought in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
- Hurricane Katrina's Aftermath is being monitored, and studied with satellite imagery acquired at the ESL, and obtained from outside sources.
- Warm water provided by the Loop Current plays a role in the strengthening of hurricanes as they traverse the Gulf of Mexico

The LSU Earth Scan Lab is deeply pained by the events wrought in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Our thoughts are with the victims of this tremendous natural disaster, and our hopes are for a safe and rapid recovery for the victims, the city of New Orleans, and the State of Louisiana.

Our lab has served the the emergency relief efforts, state-wide, and at the LOHSEP since before Katrina made landfall, and, will continue to provide satellite-based analysis and operational support throughout the recovery effort. Hurricane Katrina's Aftermath is being monitored, and studied with satellite imagery acquired at the ESL, and obtained from outside sources. Links to other sites related to the post-storm analysis are also provided.

Warm water provided by the Loop Current plays a role in the strengthening of hurricanes as they traverse the Gulf of Mexico. For more information on the Loop current visit our research page.

For information concerning the effects hurricanes have on the Loop Current, read Dr. Nan Walker's recent work on cold-core cyclones in the Gulf of Mexico here.

Link to Reference: NASA Hurricane Resource Page

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Highlights:
- The warming of the Pacific Ocean waters which is commonly referred to as El Nino, deters hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean because the warm water creates strong westerly winds which disrupt tropical depressions before they can develop enough intensity.
- El Nina has the opposite effect encouraging more hurricanes then typical.

The warming of the Pacific Ocean waters which is commonly referred to as El Nino, deters hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean because the warm water creates strong westerly winds which disrupt tropical depressions before they can develop enough intensity.

El Nina has the opposite effect encouraging more hurricanes then typical.

Link to Reference: The U.S. EPA and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, (MDEQ) 11/11/05

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Highlights:
- completed a water quality study along major bay systems on the Mississippi coast following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that showed few chemicals of concern in bays and rivers where samples were taken.
- Overall, the sampling data show that few water quality criteria were exceeded during the study. In areas where elevated contamination levels were found
- To determine if there may be any long term effects of the hurricane, additional data will be collected and compiled with existing data.

WASHINGTON (11/11/05) -- The U.S. EPA and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) have completed a water quality study along major bay systems on the Mississippi coast following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that showed few chemicals of concern in bays and rivers where samples were taken.

The study looked for any serious short term problems with water quality. EPA and MDEQ specifically targeted areas with the greatest potential for environmental harm because of the proximity to industrial or municipal areas. Overall, the sampling data show that few water quality criteria were exceeded during the study. In areas where elevated contamination levels were found, EPA and MDEQ will continue to evaluate the need for additional site specific studies to determine if there are any further adverse environmental impacts. Samples collected show bacteria concentrations at or below levels EPA considers suitable for swimming.

To determine if there may be any long term effects of the hurricane, additional data will be collected and compiled with existing data.

The study encompassed major bay systems on the Mississippi coast including Bangs Lake, Bayou Casotte, the Pascagoula and West Pascagoula River systems, the Back Bay of Biloxi, St. Louis Bay, and the Pearl River. 

The full report is available online. Testing results by state, county or testing site can be viewed by using EnviroMapper.

Link to Reference: Government of the United States of America, 21 Nov 2005

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Highlights:
- FEMA has distributed nearly $4.4 billion in federal aid to more than 1.4 million households
- More than 14,000 federal personnel have been deployed to help state and local officials along the Gulf Coast recover from Katrina and Rita.
- The United States Coast Guard rescued more than 33,000 lives in the wake of Katrina.

President George W. Bush declared major disasters for areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is actively managing federal assistance to these affected communities to speed response and save lives.

FEMA - FEMA has distributed nearly $4.4 billion in federal aid to more than 1.4 million households. A record-setting 44 states and the District of Columbia have been given emergency declarations to cover expenses related to sheltering millions of evacuees forced from their homes by Katrina and Rita.

FEMA has thousands of phone operators taking registrations on its 24-hour phone bank. Callers may register faster by calling during the off hours of 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Those registering should be ready, if able, to provide their Social Security number, insurance information, financial information, contact information and their direct deposit information. Registration will remain open for many months to ensure that all citizens eligible for assistance have had the opportunity to apply.

More than 14,000 federal personnel have been deployed to help state and local officials along the Gulf Coast recover from Katrina and Rita.

FEMA's Transitional Housing Assistance Program has provided nearly $1.2 million in cash assistance to eligible households to help with their immediate housing needs.

FEMA established a Housing Area Command to oversee all temporary housing operations across the Hurricane Katrina impacted areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Housing Strike Teams are being readied for deployment into each state to begin the process of quantifying temporary housing needs.

Individuals in declared counties can register online for disaster assistance at www.fema.gov or call FEMA’s toll free registration line at 1-800-621-FEMA (3362).

Coast Guard - The United States Coast Guard rescued more than 33,000 lives in the wake of Katrina.

Thousands of Coast Guard men and women from around the nation continue conducting waterway reconstitution and environmental impact assessment operations from Florida to Louisiana with other federal, state and local agencies.

A multi-agency task force of environmental response experts continue to remedy as many as 575 cases of hazardous materials and oil pollution in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. This federal, state and local task force is comprised of 10 agencies representing the U.S. Coast Guard, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as Florida, Alabama and Mississippi state environmental conservation and protection departments. Various commercial and private contractors have been enlisted as well.

The Coast Guard is conducting port surveys and moving assets into these ports to restore buoys, lights, and aids-to-navigation, thus allowing maritime traffic to safely navigate.

Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement - U.S. Customs and Border Protection(CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) trucks delivered several thousand items of clothing to Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Jackson, Miss., Houston and San Antonio, Texas. The clothing, seized in violations of U.S. trademark laws is worth estima