Filthy ass water is being pumped out of New Orleans into Lake Pontchartrain

[Little Texan]

I know that water has to be pumped out of N.O. somehow, but WTF? That filthy water with all that sewage, dead bodies, and toxic chemicals is being pumped straight into Lake Pontchartrain, which ultimately drains into the ocean? Am I the only one that thinks this is a really bad idea? You'd think they could at least filter the water somehow before pumping it into the lake.

[FORD]

You really expected the BCE to consider the environmental consequences first?

They might as well pump the shit out with Septic Tank trucks, since that's what they're dealing with.

[Warham]

And what are your bright ideas?

[Nickdfresh]

I dunno' much about this, but I think the "dilution principle" applies...

It's a drop in the ocean, literally (once it gets out of the lake).

[vheddyrmv8]

While it's not the best for the environment, there really is no other way that I see.

[Jesterstar]

They are hoping to pollute the lake also.

[classicdude]

They probably figure what the fuck, damn fish and ducks shit in it already. What the hell harm is a couple more turds gonna do...

[Little Texan]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4223426.stm

Lake faces aftermath of city catastrophe
By Patrick Jackson
BBC News


The filthy floodwaters which have engulfed much of New Orleans are posing a fresh challenge for the city - where should the toxic mess be deposited?

Fears are growing that the wrong choices now could spark environmental problems for decades to come.


The lake is long used to pollution but was getting cleaner
Lake Pontchartrain, the large water mass north of New Orleans, is the focus of many of these fears.

Engineers need to pump out the water which swept in when Hurricane Katrina's storm surges from the lake brought down sections of its floodwalls on 29 August.

But the last thing the lake and the delicate wetlands of Louisiana and Mississippi need is a tide of urban filth.

The areas have already suffered decades of seeping pollution and erosion.

The Mississippi River might seem a more obvious channel than the lake for the mess, carrying it out to sea.

Yet the lake is the city's traditional drain, and it is impractical to try to pump all the water out to the south.

Sewage and unknown amounts of industrial chemicals float in the stagnant water - along with the unrecovered bodies of the victims. Oil, diesel and petrol from vehicles are adding to the mix.


Map of Lake Pontchartrain
And the facilities to treat the contamination before pumping the water away are just not there in a city without power.


Scientists cannot yet say for sure how poisonous the water actually is, and city officials have described reports of a "toxic soup" as exaggerated.

On the Mississippi coast, the water went in and went out - in New Orleans, it went in and sat there

Professor John Day
Louisiana State University
New Orleans has no large industrial base, says John Day, a professor at Louisiana State University's (LUS'S) Department of Oceanology and Coastal Studies - but for now scientists "just don't know" what full analysis of the waters will show.

If no major new source of toxins emerges, the biggest areas of concern will remain sewage, decaying human and animal remains and oil slicks.

While they may have a short-term impact, these elements should largely break down in the lake water in a matter of months, says Professor Day.

Field trips

Scientists from LSU have already begun field trips to New Orleans to collect samples for monitoring the level of toxins in the water.

Aerial photographs are also helping them to establish the volume of floodwater.

These images suggest the quantity of floodwater in downtown New Orleans on 2 September was 95 billion litres (21bn gallons, 25bn US gallons), Hassan Mashriqui of the LSU Hurricane Center told the BBC News website.

That represents about 2% of the volume of the lake.

LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN

1,632 sq km (630 sq miles) - second-largest US saltwater lake
Home to 125 aquatic species including anchovies and sharks
Named in 1699 after a French minister

Covering 1,632 sq km (630 sq miles), Pontchartrain is home to more than 125 more species of aquatic life, from anchovies to alligators.

Wildlife in the wetlands of the lake's basin includes otters and wild boar, ducks and eagles.

The lake is no stranger to pollution from its big city neighbour, but it had actually been getting cleaner in recent years. Six decades of dredging its shell beds to make asphalt and cement came to an end in 1991.

Pontchartrain's ecosystem may have been hit directly by Katrina at the very beginning, when surges of seawater from the Gulf of Mexico arrived, dangerously increasing its salt content.

Certainly, the hurricane itself did serious ecological damage further north, along the Gulf Coast, where a tidal wave with a peak of nine metres (30 feet) was recorded.

"On the Mississippi coast, the water went in and went out - in New Orleans, it went in and sat there," said Professor Day.

Warnings 'ignored'

The wetlands, which act as a natural brake on hurricane surges, have been reduced by about 25% over the last century by development.

As a rule of thumb, for every mile of wetlands that a storm surge passes, it reduces the flooding by a foot, the professor says.

He argues that if the US federal authorities had heeded ecological warnings and spent $20-25bn on restoring wetlands in the Mississippi Delta, America would not now be facing a bill of $100bn.

Washington, Professor Day says, must finally take global climate change seriously as the rising sea level and more frequent hurricanes many associate with it impact directly on low-lying areas like New Orleans.

[Little Texan]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/08/MNG09EK6LU1.DTL

[Nitro Express]

Keeping New Orleans dry has destroyed the wetlands to the south of it by channeling the water. These wetlands not only provide habitat for native wildlife they also provide a natural hurricane barrier. If you want my two cents, I think rebuilding New Orleans is a stupid idea. Oh sure, we can build levys and flood walls higher and stronger but these are man made structures competing against a huge lake, the Mississippi river, and the Gulf of Mexico. What a stupid place to put a city that is below sea level. I say let New Orleans go back to being a swamp. Marshes are amazing at what they can filter out of water. Many industrial plants run their wastewater through man made marshes because the plants filter out some of the chemicals and toxins. In short, marshes and swamps are natural filters.

My main question about New Orleans is once the water is drained, the soil is still going to be contaminated. How in the hell are they going to clean this up? No, New Orleans was destroyed. I think it's time to move the port up stream. Rebuilding will cost a shit load of money and with global warming, the increase of hurricanes, the sinking level of southern Louisianna, and rising ocean levels, it's dumb as shit to rebuild the Big Sleazy.

[ashstralia]

Originally posted by classicdude
They probably figure what the fuck, damn fish and ducks shit in it already. What the hell harm is a couple more turds gonna do...

yeah, the dinosaurs of today are the oil of tomorrow!

[Nitro Express]

I don't think I'm going to be eating any shrimp, oysters, or crab from the New Orleans area for a long long time.

[Cathedral]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
I don't think I'm going to be eating any shrimp, oysters, or crab from the New Orleans area for a long long time.

We shouldn't be eating that shit anyway.
shell fish are nothing but vacume cleaners of the ocean floor and the scavengers were filthy from day one.

I am always hearing from my shell fish eating friends how they are sick from bad crab or something.

My only vice in that area are shrimp, I don't eat them often at all and have never gotten sick from them, but they are still scavengers and the risk is there.

I've just been lucky.

[The Scatologist]

Well if you wanna get technical about stuff, vegetables and fruits eat manure......

Not to mention what they feed cows pigs and chickens these days anyway.

[Nitro Express]

I have a 100 gallon saltwater aquarium in my house and I have some little fiddler crabs as garbage eater. Yeah, I watch these little guys shoving fish shit covered bottom crud into their mouths as fast as they can loving every minute of it and thinking. Yeah, we pay extra money to eat these motherfuckers in resturants but turn our noses up at carp.