WP: Not enough money in U.S. GNP to dispose of hazardous material in N.O.

New Orleans faces bleak future
City will encounter extraordinary problems in rebuilding

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9150429/

First they have to pump the flooded city dry, and that will take a minimum of 30 days. Then they will have to flush the drinking water system, making sure they don't recycle the contaminants. Figure another month for that.

The electricians will have to watch out for snakes in the water, wild animals and feral dogs. It will be a good idea to wear hip boots and take care of cuts and scrapes before the toxic slush turns them into festering sores. The power grid might be up in a few weeks, but many months will elapse before everybody's lights come back on. By that time, a lot of people won't care because they will have taken the insurance money and moved away -- forever. Home rebuilding, as opposed to repairs, won't start for a year and will last for years after that.

Even then, there may be nothing normal about New Orleans, because the floodwater, spiked with tons of contaminants ranging from heavy metals and hydrocarbons to industrial waste, human feces and the decayed remains of humans and animals, will linger nearby in the Gulf of Mexico for a decade.

"This is the worst case," Hugh B. Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the Environmental Protection Agency, said of the toxic stew that contaminates New Orleans. "There is not enough money in the gross national product of the United States to dispose of the amount of hazardous material in the area."

nt

He's telling us in that last quote. It will be one huge Superfund site, with no superfunds to clean it up.

This should nail the coffin shut on the Bush administration.

...of KNOWING that he CUT flood control funds to New Orleans by FORTY FOUR PERCENT to pay for the war in Iraq.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2049007&mesg_id=2049007

I have no words. ;(