[StBernard] Final EPA report deems N.O. safe

[Westley Annis]

Final EPA report deems N.O. safe
Pockets of contamination to be monitored; activists disappointed 
Saturday, August 19, 2006
By Matthew Brown
West Bank bureau 

Wrapping up the agency's 11-month effort to pinpoint chemical contamination
of soil and water following Hurricane Katrina, Environmental Protection
Agency officials Friday gave most of New Orleans and surrounding communities
a final clean bill of health, while pledging to keep watch over a handful of
toxic hot spots and the million-gallon Murphy Oil spill in St. Bernard
Parish. 

In the end, federal and state officials said the contamination they found
was typical of many cities. They rebuffed calls by residents and
environmental groups to scrape up the roughly 3 million cubic yards of mud
left by the storm. 

Other than in the vicinity of the Murphy spill, where a company-sponsored
cleanup continues, the EPA's sole recommendation for soil removal involved a
6-foot by 6-foot plot in Audubon Park, where lead contamination was
discovered near a playground that did not flood, said New Orleans Health
Department Director Kevin Stephens. An EPA letter dated Aug. 14 traced the
possible source of the contamination to discarded AA batteries. 

No decision has been made on another area contaminated with benzo(a)pyrene,
the 56-town house Press Park public housing complex near the old Agriculture
Street landfill. The EPA announced in April that the carcinogen had been
found at levels almost 50 times the health screening level. 


Missed opportunity? 

The quiet end of soil testing stands in stark contrast to the EPA's arrival
amid the chaos of the first weeks after Katrina. For months after the storm,
federal authorities clad in head-to-toe protective gear stalked residential
and commercial areas in search of the fatal toxins many believed had been
unleashed by floodwaters. 

Decontamination stations washed down emergency workers and their vehicles
with firehoses, and residents were barred from or advised against returning
to areas considered a health hazard. 

More recently, calls to address widespread lead in the soil -- a pre-storm
problem across 40 percent of the city, confirmed by the EPA's recent tests
-- were dismissed as outside the agency's mission. 

"The hurricane didn't cause any appreciable contamination that wasn't
already there," said EPA toxicologist Jon Rauscher. "There are exceptions
like Murphy Oil and some localized events like that. But on a broad scale,
across New Orleans, the hurricane didn't cause any appreciable change. At
this point we don't envision any more broad testing." 

But some scientists who monitored the EPA's handling of the disaster say a
chance has been missed to deal with problems not related to the storm,
particularly lead contamination. 

"My disappointment is they wouldn't address that while they had
opportunities," said John Pardue, an environmental engineer from Louisiana
State University. "There are certainly opportunities now in many of the
neighborhoods to do something on a larger scale that would be a minimal
disruption to people while they are out of their homes. You'll never have an
opportunity like that again, to address an urban problem on that kind of
scale." 


Widespread lead 

Lead contamination, found by the EPA in 14 neighborhoods scattered across
the city, was referred to the New Orleans Health Department. Stephens said
there are no plans to remove the soil or cap it with untainted soil to
shield people from contact. 

Lead is a potent neurotoxin most likely to affect children. It impairs
learning and in heavy doses can lead to severe sickness or death. 

Regarding Press Park, Sam Coleman, director of the EPA's regional Superfund
division, said the contamination was not considered critical because no one
is yet living there. The New Orleans Housing Authority has erected a fence
around the complex. 

Spokesman Adonis Expose said HANO has given priority to its larger public
housing complexes and will address Press Park later. 

On an adjacent lot, renovations already have begun on Gordon Plaza, a
subsidized housing complex for seniors and the disabled. EPA officials on
Friday were unable to say if the benzo(a)pyrene contamination included
Gordon Plaza. 


Critics weigh in 

Meanwhile, across the region much of the sediment left by Katrina has been
washed away by rain or removed by Army Corps of Engineers debris- cleanup
contractors. Slicks of diesel and oil that marred some areas have been
degrading naturally. And more than two million hazardous waste containers,
from propane tanks to drums of dangerous benzene, have been collected and
disposed of by EPA teams. 

Despite the activity, environmental groups have kept up a steady drumbeat of
criticism of the agency. They say the EPA intentionally dragged its feet on
a cleanup, waiting for time and the elements to take care of a problem that
posed a serious health threat. They also say the EPA's promise to keep tabs
on a limited number of sites is insufficient given the scale of the region's
problems. 

"I think they have written off what is still a very significant problem,"
said Gina Solomon, a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
"Their first round of sampling identified some real problems. Their second
round was mostly a major effort to sweep the problem under the rug. . . .
Just monitoring the diesel pollution and oil spill and assuming the levels
will continue to go down over time is totally inadequate." 

And with some people only now returning to gut out their houses to beat New
Orleans' demolition deadline, the prospect of encountering contaminated
sediments remains real, said Marylee Orr of the Louisiana Environmental
Action Network. 

Representatives of the EPA and state Department of Environmental Quality
characterize the agency's efforts in the New Orleans region as
"unprecedented." More than 1,800 soil and sediment samples were taken in
Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, with most of those
samples analyzed for about 200 different compounds. 

Although hundreds of the tests turned up dangerous and cancer-causing
chemicals -- from arsenic, to lead, to petroleum constituents -- in the
overwhelming majority of instances the contamination was isolated, according
to DEQ and EPA officials. That lack of extensive contamination rendered the
long-term public health threats minimal, according to the EPA and DEQ. 

"There really is no widespread issues New Orleans is facing," said Tom
Harris, a DEQ toxicologist. "I think we're pretty well wrapped up at this
point." 


Limited follow-up 

Rauscher said the EPA will conduct follow-up tests on a limited number of
sites contaminated with diesel or oil to ensure that they are continuing to
degrade. 

Regarding lead contamination, Rauscher said the issue was outside of the
EPA's scope. "It's not in our regulatory arena," he said. 

Stephens, the health director, said the decision not to endorse a sweeping
lead cleanup means the issue now must be addressed by private homeowners. 

As recently as 2000, 14 percent of children in New Orleans had elevated
levels of lead in their blood. Stephens urged residents citywide to seek
annual lead tests for children ages 6 months to 6 years, and to take
precautions when rebuilding or sandblasting houses built prior to 1978, when
lead was banned as an ingredient in paint. 

"Based on the testing, the weight of the evidence certainly doesn't warrant
any kind of major excavation or anything like that," he said. "The biggest
problem now is not the soil as much as it is the houses on the property. You
need to have proper abatement for houses built prior to 1978, so that if
they have lead, it's properly managed." 

. . . . . . . 

The EPA's final report on New Orleans area sediment can be found at
www.epa.gov/katrina/testresults/sediments/summary.html 

Matthew Brown can be reached at mbrown at timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3784.