There is a waste management crisis in the aftermath of a vicious storm season. In the six Mississippi counties that were hit the hardest, there is more trash than the state would produce in a year. FEMA estimates a range from 35 million to 50 million cubct yards. To get a handle on the situation, there may be some bending of the rules such as allowing chemicals and raw sewage to go to landfills. Experts, however, say that this should not be a hazard as modern landfills are up to the task.

Hurricane Katrina, rated as a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, made landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast near New Orleans on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005. The storm brought heavy winds and rain to the city, and several levees intended to protect New Orleans from the water of Lake Pontchartrain were breached. Consequently, up to 80 percent of the city was flooded, with water reaching depths in excess of three meters in some locations. Research described in this paper was conducted to provide an initial assessment of contaminants present in floodwaters shortly after the storm and to characterize water pumped out of the city into Lake Pontchartrain once dewatering operations began several days after the storm. Data are presented demonstrating that during the weeks following the storm, floodwater was brackish and well-buffered with very low concentrations of volatile and semivolatile organic pollutants. Dissolved oxygen was depleted in surface floodwater, averaging 1.6 mg/L in the Lakeview district and 4.8 mg/L in the Mid-City district. Dissolved oxygen was absent (<0.02 mg/L) at the bottom of the floodwater column in the Mid-City district 9 days after the storm. Chemical oxygen demand (Mid-City average 79.9 mg/L) and fecal coliform bacteria (Mid-City average ) 1.4 _ 105 MPN/100 mL) were elevated in surface floodwater but typical of storm water runoff in the region. Lead, arsenic and in some cases, chromium, exceeded drinking water standards but with the exception of some elevated Pb concentrations generally were typical of storm water. Data suggest that what distinguishes Hurricane Katrina floodwater is the large volume and the human exposure to these pollutants that accompanied the flood rather than very elevated concentrations of toxic pollutants.

There were proposals to Congress to repair the coastal wetlands in 1998. These were rejected then and are being reconsidered now after massive storm damage has afflicted the area. However, the wetlands have deteriorated significantly since then, and the project may not be feasible anymore. Comparative models include superlevees in Osaka (Japan), a giant sluice network in the Netherlands and floodgates in Venice that lie flat when not needed. *As a side note, major cities such as New York and San Francisco are sinking due to the extraction of water, natural gas, etc. from beneath them.