Dueling Reports
Weīve been seeing a lot of dueling reports about the mounds of debris
Hurricane Katrina left behind to steep in yuckwater and bake in the sun,
and about how deadly-slash-harmless [take your pick] that wreckage is.
For every story like
this one from The Washington Post asserting that the
pollutants in New Orleansī floodwater fall Well Within The Norm, we see
another like
this from the Los Angeles Times saying the storm-muck is
Highly Contaminated.
What seems clear to me is that itīs still too early to draw any
conclusions either way, and therefore erring on the side of caution
remains the obvious smartest course to take.
Thus I think President Bush is right in
urging New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to ease up on his rush
to get his city running again. Though I do fervently wish the president
would stop doing that urging indirectly through the media. The political
gaming surrounding Katrina is beyond stale at this point. Itīs high time
for a simple phone call to say, "Whoa, Ray, itīs just too soon. I love
your city, too; all of America loves your city. But the all-clear hasnīt
been given yet. Wait another week or two, at least."
Amid the hurricane fallout, the political pussyfooting and
environmental uncertainty, not much is being said about how the
immense mass of Katrina-junk will be handled, and where it will all
end up.
Here
is a good article from MSNBC dealing with that topic.
Among many other interesting points, the MSNBC story notes that the
total amount of debris will dwarf that of the 2001 destruction of the
World Trade Center in New York. Which lends credence to a headline I saw
at the web site of the satirical newspaper The Onion last week: God
Outdoes Terrorists Yet Again.
OK, I admit it: Iīm as weary of this topic as Iīm guessing many of
you are. So I plan to turn to some non-Katrina news very soon -- like,
say, Thursday. I hear theyīre still having a lovely garbage-recycling
scandal out in San Jose, Calif.; that trash vigilantes are popping out
of the woodwork up in Boston; and that college football fans are
attaining heretofore unimaginable new levels of slovenliness.
And thatīs just off the top of the heap. A muckrakerīs work is never
done.
Pete Fehrenbach
is assistant managing editor of Waste News. Past installments of this
column are collected in
the Inbox
archive.
Entire contents copyright 2005 by
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