[StBernard] La. officials ask feds to keep paying 100 percent of cleanup

[Westley Annis]

08:36 PM CDT on Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Cain Burdeau / Associated Press 
  
CHALMETTE, La.-- Southeast Louisiana's parish leaders on Tuesday said they
cannot afford to pay a share of the cleanup from last year's hurricanes. 
 
The federal government has asked the parishes to pay 10 percent of the
cleanup costs beginning Saturday. But the parishes say they're too
cash-strapped to pay even that much. 
 
"This could be the final nail in the coffin for St. Bernard," said Henry
"Junior" Rodriguez, the St. Bernard Parish president. 
 
He made his statements at a news conference with fellow parish leaders. The
event was held in the middle of a site where excavators worked through giant
piles of debris 10 months after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of New
Orleans and destroyed tens of thousands of homes. 
 
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said his city can't afford to pay "even 2
percent of the cleanup" without disrupting the city's rebuilding effort. 
 
The city has struggled financially, Nagin said, and paying a portion of the
cleanup would force officials to cut back resources for some parts of the
city. "Some neighborhoods would suffer" because of that, he added. 
 
The cleanup of New Orleans is far from over. Ross Fredenburg, a Federal
Emergency Management Agency spokesman, said about 48 percent of the cleanup
has been completed in the city. 
 
Nagin said each cubic yard of waste costs $43 to remove. With about 5
million cubic yards of debris still to go, it would cost the city about
$21.5 million to pay a 10 percent share. 
 
Fredenburg said the deadline extension request is under review. 
The FEMA spokesman said the cleanup from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which
devastated much of south Louisiana, has cost about $1.7 billion. The storms
generated about 42 million cubic yards of debris. 
 
Fredenburg said most of the debris from Rita has been picked up. 
For example, Cameron Parish, the hardest-hit area, has only about 2 percent
left to clean up, he said. 
 
But the New Orleans metropolitan area still faces a mountain of waste. 
 
Besides what's left in New Orleans, only 32 percent of St. Bernard's 2.5
million cubic yards has been removed and in Plaquemines Parish 78 percent of
the 1.9 million cubic yards of debris has been picked up, Fredenburg said.
Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes are further along, he said. 
 
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)