Love Canal-type landfill submerged in New Orleans floodwaters

[Guest guest]

This is SOOOO, Important for our Children and their Children we have these Toxic

Landfills and MOLD all over the State of Florida ask yourselves can this happen

where you are. Or ant no stopping them now........their in the grove and it's

happen to You!?.

E

Solid Waste & Recycling, 9/1/2005

http://www.solidwastemag.com/issues/PrinterFriendly.asp?id=47051 & RType= & PC= & issu\

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Love Canal-type landfill submerged in New Orleans floodwaters

A Solid Waste & Recycling magazine exclusive

Overlooked in many news reports about the unfolding storm disaster in the

southern United States, especially in the City of New Orleans, in the aftermath

of hurricane Katrina, is a potentially dramatic pollution issue related to a

toxic landfill that sits under the flood waters right in the city's downtown,

according to map overlays of the flooded area. The situation could exacerbate

the already dire threat to human health and the environment from the flood

waters.

The Agriculture Street Landfill (ASL) is situated on a 95-acre site in New

Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana. The ASL is a federally registered Superfund

site, and is on the National Priorities List of highly contaminated sites

requiring cleanup and containment. A few years ago the site, which sits

underneath and beside houses and a school, was fenced and covered with clean

soil. However, three feet or more of flood waters could potentially cause the

landfill's toxic contents - the result of decades of municipal and industrial

waste dumping - to leach out.

Houses and buildings that were constructed in later years directly atop parts of

the landfill. Residents report unusual cancers and health problems and have

lobbied for years to be relocated away from the old contaminated site, which

contains not only municipal garbage, but buried industrial wastes such as what

would be produced by service stations and dry cleaners, manufacturers or

burning. The site was routinely sprayed with DDT in the 1940s and 50s and, in

1962, 300,000 cubic yards of excess fill were removed from ASL because of

ongoing subsurface fires. (The site was nicknamed " Dante's Inferno " because of

the fires.)

The ASL can be thought of a sort of Love Canal for New Orleans -- and now it

sits under water.

The ASL site is three miles south of Lake Pontchartrain and about 2.5

north-northeast of the city's central business district (roughly halfway between

the old French Quarter and the shore of Lake Pontchartrain).

Disturbingly, the site is also very close to the Industrial Canal Levee, a

section of which collapsed and allowed flood waters to pour in, almost directly

in the direction of the ASL site.

Government reports describe ASL as being " bounded on the north by Higgins

Boulevard and south and west by Southern Railroads right-of-ways. The eastern

boundary of the landfill extends from the cul-de-sac at the southern end of

Clouet Street, near the railroad tracks to Higgins Boulevard between Press and

Montegut Streets. "

Locate that site on a map (see websites below), and then overlay published maps

of New Orleans flooding, and one finds the old toxic landfill is situated right

in the middle of a huge area of three-foot flooding. That industrial area is

almost continuously connected with water to the downtown and northern areas of

the city. It's not outlandish to consider the possibility that toxic waste from

the landfill may mix with floodwaters and spread far beyond the old landfill

site.

Although the humanitarian rescue operation must take precedence at the current

time, authorities and the public must not overlook this pollution situation,

which in both the near and long-term may be dangerous to human health and the

environment. We must hope that emergency responders will investigate this site

as soon as possible and take steps to mitigate potential off-site migration of

hazardous materials. It may be that sandbag walls are required here, as well as

on the broken levees.

This magazine will update the situation as more information becomes available.

Story prepared by Guy Crittenden, editor. Contact 705-445-0361 or

gcrittenden@... (See useful websites below.)

Useful websites:

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/PHA/agriculturestreet/asl_p3.html

This website offers the Appendix to the government Public Health Assessment and

further technical details about the site, plus a small map at the end.

http://www.umich.edu/~snre492//agstreet.htm

Environmental Justice Case Study website offers a detailed description of the

Agriculture Street Landfill, and the history of pollution problems and residents

seeking to relocate:

http://www.nbc17.com/hurricanes/4887230/detail.html

NBC-17.com website offers interactive map of New Orleans flooded areas. (Look

near top of blue sidebar at right beside main story for " Interactive: New

Orleans' Damage. " )

http://maps.google.com

Google map of New Orleans can be pulled up at this website. Enter " Higgins

Blvd., New Orleans " to get the approximate location of the landfill, then

compare this with the NBC-17 map. (Note: you can zoom in and out, and toggle

around this Google map, and also hit " satellite " in the upper right to switch

from map view to a satellite view of the terrain.)

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