Impact of pumping out after the hurricane
It looks like they are just starting to pump the water out of the New Orleans. That sounds great after they have talked about the 'cess pool' and 'toxic sludge' that is in the city. However, they are pumping this water back into Lake Ponchitrain (sp). Holly crap, what is that going to do the lake? I can't imagine it would be any better to pump it into the river to send it down to the gulf.
Don't get me wrong, if I lived there I would sure as hell want the water pumped out of my street, yard, and living room. But shit, putting all of that water that is tainted with sewage, trash, oil, and chemicals back into the lake is just another environmental catastrophe in the making.
My prayers are with all of them.
posted by karrlot @ 9/06/2005 04:15:00 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
What alternative is there? This is a holy mess.
BTW Can you tell hcm to turn on comment verification on our writing blog? we are getting spammed.
thanks.
I don't know what alternative there is. But that shit going back into the lake is going to kill the lake for who knows how many decades to come. God forbid it all goes down the river and does the same thing to Gulf - but thats going to be on a much grander scale.
At first I thought "there is nothing else you can do". But there is something else you can do - you can leave the water right where it is. Its not going anywhere.
Leave it there until you can do the right thing. The right thing is to make it as safe as possible befor you put it back in the river or the lake.
I wonder how the EPA would classify that area. Full of oil, gasoline, raw sewage, chemicals, and who knows what else. If the EPA found out that some huge corporation was dumping all that crap into a lake, would it be treated as a super-fund cleanup sight? Would they allow the company to drain the lake into a river to kill everything down stream?
They ought to leave it where it is until they are able to get a treatment facility built, and then you pump the water out after it has been processed.
Yes, I know its impractical and probably impossible. But this is just another example of us sacrificing the environment for our needs right now. I don't mean to sound like I'm pointing fingers. I do it too. I still drive to work everyday because I don't want to be inconvienienced having to wait on a corner downtown for a bus transfer.
I just think about this alot: In 500 years, what is going to matter?
The US foreign policy with China? The confirmation of a particular judge to the supreme court? How much of a tax credit you can get for child care expenses? If the Taliban was removed from power in Afghanastan?
The only thing that I can think of that is going to matter in 500 years will be the impact we have had on the environment right now. That will decide the conditions our decedents are living in, or even if they are living at all.
AMEN! awesome post joel!
Okay, now they are saying that humans should not even touch the water. That humans can be infected through the skin. That about puts a damper on my appatite for shrimp.
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