This Knight Ridder article published Monday in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is an eye-opener. Samples of New Orleans floodwater containing concentrations of lead at 50 times the federal limit; grease and gas from as many as 350,000 submerged vehicles; ubiquitous raw sewage; bleach, cleansers, solvents and pesticides from the cupboards of 160,000 flooded homes; contaminants from the area´s 60-plus refineries and chemical plants. And then, after all of that pungent soup is pumped out of the city, an estimated 20 million tons of debris that will need to be disposed of, much of it coated with sickening -- and, in some cases, possibly toxic -- muck.

The National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences has added a well-conceived and -executed section to its web site dealing with Katrina´s impact and aftermath. One of the section´s many useful aspects is a geographic information system that contains maps (of both New Orleans and the entire hurricane-affected region) denoting the locations of potential trouble spots such as refineries, oil and gas wells, Superfund sites, and facilities that report to the EPA Toxic Release Inventory.

This Los Angeles Times story contemplates the ecological impact of the hurricane and consequent flood on the ecosystems of Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. It´s as depressing as you might guess.

A more, eh, sensuous description of the awfulness that now envelops the Crescent City is provided in this New York Times account. "Not water but a kind of anti-water" indeed. Yecchh.

Godspeed to those down there in the disaster zone now and those who will be going down later to help clean up that hellish mess.

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 Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.

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