Safety of Soil Is Disputed

Environmental advocates charged Thursday that government regulators were failing to warn the public about contaminants, including heavy metals and banned pesticides, left behind in the soil by Hurricane Katrina’s flood.

Some of the most contaminated sites, the Natural Resources Defense Council said after reviewing government tests and conducting their own, are in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, which was opened to the public for the first time Thursday so residents could try to salvage their belongings.

The soil there and elsewhere must be cleaned, the group said.

“We feel they are grossly misleading the public,” said the organization’s senior attorney, Erik Olson.

The allegations marked the latest effort by environmental groups to raise awareness about what they say are serious health risks in the wake of the storm.

This week, two organizations accused regulators of ignoring high levels of benzene cast into the air by a large oil spill in St. Bernard Parish, southeast of the city. The Natural Resources Defense Council previously had accused officials of failing to protect residents from high levels of mold spores in the air, which can cause respiratory illnesses.

Authorities at the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency dispute the allegations.

They said although they were not prepared to give New Orleans a clean bill of health, they had been surprised that the pollution left behind by Katrina hadn’t been worse than expected. And, they said, the resource council’s methodology was faulty.

“We are all becoming more comfortable with what we are seeing as the data comes in,” said Tom Harris, administrator of the state agency’s environmental technology division.

Regulators have tested more than 400 sites, and say they remain concerned about toxins found at 14 of them -- including 12 scattered throughout New Orleans and two in nearby pockets of St. Bernard Parish.

But those sites, said EPA spokeswoman Lisa Fasano, are not areas where people are now living, but where they are working on their homes and then leaving at night. Such sporadic exposure seems safe, she said.

“What you are talking about is the difference between short-term and long-term risk,” she said.

But Gina Solomon, who led the research team, said residents could become ill by inhaling or touching contaminated sediment. Long-term risks could include cancer, neurological disease and reproductive-system ailments, she said.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said its tests revealed traces -- and high levels, in some cases -- of a slew of toxins, including arsenic, lead, banned pesticides and mercury.

“This isn’t an isolated problem,” Solomon said. “It spans the entire city, every area where the floodwaters touched.... These all will require action in order to protect health, especially as families contemplate moving back into these areas. We want to make sure they’re safe.”

Times researcher Lianne Hart contributed to this report.