The EPA gave mayor Ray Nagin very good news orally. Happy happy joy. They are going to open areas in NO where the waters have subsided, as soon as the EPA can produce doctored results that say everything is wonderful… no toxic pollutants here.
This morning on CNN, Miles O’Brien interviewed a cameraman who suited up and joined a hazmat team and went into an area where some, but not all, water had receeded. Their report to Miles was horrific. Miles said that what they were telling him “…Flies in the face of what mayor Ray Nagin has been saying.” …about reopening the areas of the city where the water has receeded. No amount of happy talk from the EPA can change the fact that the mud itself is toxic. The local man who was part of that team remarked that perhaps Mayor Nagin should rethink his plan.
Kind of reminds me of the press conference on Thursday, Sept 1 with Chertoff and others. Here’s Chertoff’s description of evacuation efforts:
Alongside Skeletor on the split screen were evacuees chanting “help! help!” and an angry black man pointing to dead bodies in the street speaking truth to the monumental lies.
The lies and cover ups continue. The whole area is toxic; neighborhoods, industrial zones, marshes… toxic. The list of contaminants is incredible: PCB’s, household chemicals, raw sewage, gasoline, oil. The problem is not confided to New Orleans… all up and down the effected GulfCoast it’s the same story.
The poisonous stew is being pumped out of New Orleans and into the lake and the Mississippi, making life hazardous for those downstream.
Where does it all eventually go? The Gulf. There are horrified fisheries experts making dire warnings about how much damage heavy metals and other pollutants can have on shellfish and other fisheries in the Gulf. Maybe as far away as Florida. For the first time ever, the Society for Enviromental Journalists has released a statement against the official stonewalling of the EPA.
The EPA is just as rife with cronyism and corruption and incompetence as FEMA. This is going to be the all time worst economic and environmental disaster for the US. What is the government doing about it? Are they gathering the best and brightest minds to try to come up with a plan? Nah. They’re covering it up. They’re trying to save what they can politically and throw the rest into the toxic sludge, hoping no one will notice.
Next on my agenda: Gee, they lied about relief, lied about pollution, but I’m sure they’re going to be straight with the American people about the body counts. Um-hmmmm. And I’m the Queen of France.
[UPDATE by Nag at 4pm, 9/14/05: more evidence of EPA coverup]
Kauffman, a 35-year EPA veteran who has served in Republican and Democratic administrations, says that the Bush administration is preventing the EPA from releasing information that oil and chemical companies are mandated by law to provide.
Kauffman says the Bush administration’s cover-up is endangering residents and relief workers throughout the Gulf Coast region, who are being exposed to dangerous levels of toxins, some of which have been proven to cause cancer and birth defects.
Here’s a portion of the transcript:
HUGH: No, they’re not. All of the oil and chemical companies that own storage tanks, facilities in that area that were flooded or impacted are required to publish with our regional office in Dallas instantly—whenever there’s a release; whenever there’s a breakage from pipelines, from storage tanks, refineries. The regional office, under orders, is not releasing that information to the public, and the Society of Environmental Journalists has sued EPA and the Federal Government to try and get that information released, so the public will see the full magnitude of how much toxic material they are being exposed to in that region of the country.
MARC: So, Hugh Kauffman, Senior Policy Analyst from the EPA, you’re telling me they have that information. The EPA office in Louisiana has that information, and you are absolutely sure that that information is horrendous, but they are keeping it under lock and key, because they don’t want the people to know the truth of what’s really going on down there on a toxic level?
HUGH: That’s correct. And that’s why the Society of Environmental Journalists are suing under the Freedom of Information act to try and get that information.
Just like after 9/11. Here’s the link from Buzzflash