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Hurricane Katrina Response Activities Daily Update

Release Date: 10/6/2005
Contact Information: For more information contact the Office of External Affairs at (214) 665-2200.

     EPA continued to delineate the contaminated residential homes in the area affected by the Murphy Oil spill.  Other activities at the Murphy Oil site included oversight of air sampling, overflight of the Murphy Oil site and the St. Bernard sewage treatment plant to determine if containers of waste had migrated from the site.  Drums and plastic totes were noted in the surrounding woods and in the fringe of the residential community.

     In Slidell, EPA completed removal of contaminated sludge at the Community Feed and Garden Supply.

     EPA has continued its major emphasis of addressing household hazardous waste issues.  On Oct. 5, over 4,800 hazardous debris and orphaned containers were collected (cumulative total now exceeds 50,000 containers collected to date). HHW activities are ongoing in Jefferson, Plaquemines, Orleans and Lafourche parishes and being planned in others. EPA Community Involvement Coordinators are actively developing a comprehensive community outreach plan to provide accurate and timely information to evacuees and displaced individuals regarding exposure concerns to hazardous materials and safe disposal methods.

     EPA is continuing to sample standing flood water and sediments, and will move into general storm water management as appropriate.  No sediment samples were collected from the lower 9th Ward since designated sampling locations remained underwater.  The remaining sediment samples from the lower 9th Ward will be collected when the flood water recedes.

     The New Orleans Sewage and Water Board lifted the boil order for the Carrollton Drinking Water Treatment Plant which delivers water to the city's Central Business District and French Quarter.

     EPA continues to perform water truck tank inspections and chlorine residual analyses at the  East Jefferson, West Jefferson, and Algiers tank truck filling locations. Bacteriological analyses of both individual private well water supplies in Livingston Parish of public water systems in Kinder Parish was performed and will continue for several weeks.  Surface water samples were collected from the Peoples Canal in Orleans Parish.  A team assisted the LDEQ with the collection and documentation of water quality samples from the Tchefuncte and Bogue Falaya Rivers in St. Tammany Parish.

     Air monitoring was conducted near petrochemical facilities located in St. John and St. James Parishes.  Samples were collected both upwind and downwind during vegetative debris burning at the Walker Landfill in Plaquemines Parish.  Samples were collected in Kenner, City Park, Marrero and in Orleans Parish.

     Reconnaissance teams continued to assess impacted areas in Cameron, Calcasieu, Beauregard, and Jefferson Davis Parishes.

     Finally, teams conducted reconnaissance of underground storage tank facilities. Fifty sites were visited and four sites were identified as requiring additional follow-up:

  • U.S. Filters Recovery Service - Mid Atlantic New Orleans Plant. Facility is an oil recycling plant and is flooded with eight feet of water. Tankers and drums, visible oil in ditch and an above ground storage tank labeled CAUSTIC has toppled over.  The site is receiving immediate attention.

  • A 500-gallon diesel fuel tank was observed leaking profusely at Bo Brothers Construction.

  • Two sites, Waste Management of New Orleans and Pearl River Navigation, both have leaking drums. Water lines indicate three or four feet of water, with power not yet reconnected.