[StBernard] State of St. Bernard soil is still murky

[Westley Annis]

State of St. Bernard soil is still murky
Researchers analyze effects of oil spill 
Sunday, August 13, 2006
By Karen Turni Bazile
St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau 

A team of University of Michigan graduate researchers said Saturday there
are no easy answers to soil contamination issues facing St. Bernard Parish
residents after Hurricane Katrina, but the group is trying to identify the
most common questions and link worried residents to possible solutions. 

 
The researchers have been analyzing soil tests taken by 53 residents and
paid for the nonprofit Louisiana Bucket Brigade in March. They also have
been interviewing residents. 

On Saturday, they organized a public discussion with Howard Mielke, a Xavier
University soil contamination specialist, who told about 30 residents that
post-Katrina levels of arsenic and lead in St. Bernard are still lower than
in inner-city "hot spots" in New Orleans that had high levels even before
the storm. 

Even so, some St. Bernard properties had high levels when tested in March. 

"I just want to know what to do with my property," said Liz Quaglino, who
lives on Palmisano Boulevard and scraped off and replaced the top layer of
soil from her yard in the heart of the Murphy Oil Refinery spill area in
Chalmette. "How do you know if it's good enough?" 

Lead and arsenic can make children sick, and arsenic is a known carcinogen. 

Mielke said covering contaminated soil with several inches of good soil is
one way to remediate property, but he couldn't say what is the best way to
address contamination issues for residents with diesel range organics in
their soil. 

Some positive tests for oil could be a result of the oil spill at Murphy Oil
USA's refinery, but oil also showed up in other neighborhoods and probably
represents contamination from automobiles and gasoline in sheds that flooded
during Katrina, the researchers said. 

Flooding during Katrina's immediate aftermath dislodged an above-ground
storage tank at Murphy's refinery, releasing more than 25,000 barrels of
crude oil into an area of about 1,800 homes. 

In January, U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon consolidated 27 lawsuits
against the company into a class-action suit. The trial is to begin Oct. 2.
Murphy has been removing the top few inches of residents' soil when tests
show high levels of contamination. 


Mielke and the University of Michigan researchers tried to explain the soil
testing results from March and compared those results to post-Katrina
testing done earlier by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. 

Suzanne Perry, a graduate student, said the March results showed that 30
percent of the 53 samples taken by the residents exceeded state Department
of Environmental Quality guidelines for arsenic that would trigger a
required cleanup. However, of 91 samples EPA took through February, only 14
percent showed high levels of arsenic. 

For lead, 4 percent of the 53 Bucket Brigade samples by residents exceeded
state standards, compared with 2 percent of 103 EPA samples. 

For diesel range organics, 12 percent of the 53 residents' samples exceeded
a state screening level, compared with 44 percent of the EPA's 472 samples. 

Meredith Haamen, one of the graduate students, said only so much can be
gleaned from such statistics. She said she knows the residents need more
information. 

"Our ultimate goal is to allow citizens an avenue to talk and help
themselves because there is a point where we won't be here anymore," Haamen
said. 

Part of the researchers' survey questions residents about where they are
getting information about ways to address concerns about soil and air
contamination and whether they have been contacted by any state or federal
officials. 

"St. Bernard is the forgotten parish," said Katherine Foo, one of the
graduate students. "On several levels there is a sense of isolation for
social and information needs." 

The students were in Louisiana to help with the sample gathering in March
and spent much of the summer here, but they are leaving in September. They
said they will return later in the fall with the results of the survey. They
also plan to publish a handbook of resources and informational sheets. 

For more information, call the Michigan researchers at(504) 948-7353 or
e-mail st.Bernard.survey at umich.edu. 

. . . . . . . 

Karen Turni Bazile can be reached at kturni at timespicayune.com or (504)
826-3335.