Cover-up: toxic waters 'will make New Orleans unsafe for a decade'

September 11, 2005

" Zepp " <zepp

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 08:58:39 -0700

[Zepps_News] #EPA official claims Bush covering up

bio-hazards in NO

Cover-up: toxic waters 'will make New Orleans unsafe for a decade'

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Correspondent

Published: 11 September 2005

Toxic chemicals in the New Orleans flood waters will make the city

unsafe for full human habitation for a decade, a US government official

has told /The Independent on Sunday/. And, he added, the Bush

administration is covering up the danger.

In an exclusive interview, Hugh Kaufman, an expert on toxic waste and

responses to environmental disasters at the US Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA), said the way the polluted water was being pumped out was

increasing the danger to health.

The pollution was far worse than had been admitted, he said, because his

agency was failing to take enough samples and was refusing to make

public the results of those it had analysed. " Inept political hacks "

running the clean-up will imperil the health of low-income migrant

workers by getting them to do the work.

His intervention came as President Bush's approval ratings fell below 40

per cent for the first time. Yesterday, Britain's Deputy Prime Minister,

John Prescott, turned the screw by criticising the US President's

opposition to the Kyoto protocol on global warming. He compared New

Orleans to island nations such as the Maldives, which are threatened by

rising sea levels. Other US sources spelt out the extent of the danger

from one of America's most polluted industrial areas, known locally as

" Cancer Alley " . The 66 chemical plants, refineries and petroleum storage

depots churn out 600m lb of toxic waste each year. Other dangerous

substances are in site storage tanks or at the port of New Orleans. No

one knows how much pollution has escaped through damaged plants and

leaking pipes into the " toxic gumbo " now drowning the city. Mr Kaufman

says no one is trying to find out.

Few people are better qualified to judge the extent of the problem. Mr

Kaufman, who has been with the EPA since it was founded 35 years ago,

helped to set up its hazardous waste programme. After serving as chief

investigator to the EPA's ombudsman, he is now senior policy analyst in

its Office of Solid Wastes and Emergency Response. He said the clean-up

needed to be " the most massive public works exercise ever done " , adding:

" It will take 10 years to get everything up and running and safe. "

Mr Kaufman claimed the Bush administration was playing down the need for

a clean-up: the EPA has not been included in the core White House group

tackling the crisis. " Its budget has been cut and inept political hacks

have been put in key positions, " Mr Kaufman said. " All the money for

emergency response has gone to buy guns and cowboys - which don't do

anything when a hurricane hits. We were less prepared for this than we

would have been on 10 September 2001. "

He said the water being pumped out of the city was not being tested for

pollution and would damage Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi river,

and endanger people using it downstream.