Lake Ponchatrain Clean-Up Possibilities?

[Peaser01]

A sad article that reflects some of the sufferring in regards to the pollution:

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/katrina/pdf/091105/4.pdf


BUGS Offers Patented Technology to Katrina-Impacted State Agencies; Technology Could Help Clean Up Soil and Groundwater Contamination

September 12, 2005 09:15:03 (ET)


CARLSBAD, Calif., Sep 12, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- U.S. Microbics, Inc. (BUGS, Trade) today announced its subsidiary, Sub Surface Waste Management of Delaware, Inc. (SSWM, Trade), has contacted the environmental State agencies for Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi offering to donate the use of its patented water treatment technology, Bio-GAC(TM) (Patent No: US 6,905,603 B2) for the treatment of toxic waste streams such as those caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Robert Brehm, CEO of U.S. Microbics, stated, "These State agencies will be faced with an enormous number of sites requiring cleanup of both surface water and groundwater resources impacted by toxics released during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Our companies are prepared to help the state agencies by providing this cost-effective, state-of-the-art treatment solution immediately under a royalty free technology license together with discounted engineering technical support and microbial products for use at critical contaminated sites. We will inform our shareholders on any and all interest response received from these State agencies on this treatment technology offer."

Bio-GAC(TM) is a patented water and air vapor waste stream treatment process that uses granular activated charcoal (GAC) as a filtration medium in a specially engineered process container to support live microbial products (bugs) specifically selected to degrade toxic pollutants such as those encountered in the Katrina disaster. The resulting treated effluent can in most cases be safely discharged to rivers, lakes and streams under both Federal and State regulations. The process can be used on a continual basis without replacing the GAC, thereby saving time, money and treating more toxics quickly, a key consideration for cleaning up contaminated water and soil caused by hurricane disasters.

For further information about U.S. Microbics and its technology companies, contact Bob Brehm at 760-918-1860 x102 or email at bob@bugsatwork.com or visit the website at http://bugsatwork.com.
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.asp?Symbol=US:BUGS&Feed=BW&Date=20050912&ID=5103810

[Peaser01]

I contacted the EPA the other day about cleaning up Lake Ponchatrain. This is the response that I got from Gerald J. Filbin, Ph.D., Director:

http://www.epa.gov/ecocommunity/contactus.htm


Mr. ........:

Thank you very much for your email note regarding the situation
on the
Gulf Coast and in particular in New Orleans and Lake
Ponchatrain. I
share your concerns that the impact on Lake Ponchatrain will be
severe
and that its recovery may take a considerable amount of time
and
effort. As you've probably seen on the news over the weekend,
the EPA
Regional Office (Region 6) and the Office of Water national
program
office have a number of people in New Orleans and the other
coastal
parishes who are there to assess the impacts. Preliminary
information
indicates that there may be substantial problems with coliform
bacteria, petroleum and other chemical residues and lead. EPA
is
monitoring the water for over 100 priority pollutants.

Because the need to remove the hazard from the city and
surrounding
parishes to protect human health is so dire, EPA has allowed the
contaminated water to be pumped back into the lake. There
appear to be
no other alternatives for removing this volume of water. I
think the
hope is that natural processes in the Lake will break down
some of
the chemical contaminants before they are released into the
gulf, but I
think everyone acknowledges that at least for the present time
there
will be serious problems and hazards in Lake Ponchatrain. The
EPA
Regional office is working very hard to assess those conditions
and
advise the public about the hazards
http://www.epa.gov/katrina/testresults/chem/090305/chem2005_09_03.html

I'm not sure what may be under discussion with regard to
treating the
water in Lake Ponchatrain before it is released to the gulf.
I expect
that it would be costly and logistically difficult. Lake
Ponchatrain
water is already discharging into the gulf and some of the
contamination, no doubt is moving with it. It seems at the
moment
that the hope is that natural ecological processes and dilution
of the
pumped water, both in Lake Ponchatrain and out in the gulf will
adequately mitigate the problem over time. I think that as
the
assessments continue we may have additional information to
guide us
toward any additional steps. The driver at the moment is
restoring
safe conditions as quickly as possible for the people of New
Orleans
and the surrounding area. One of the priority steps for that
will be to
restore sanitary and drinking water treatment as quickly as
possible. I
suspect that building new infrastructure to treat the lake
water before
it discharges into the gulf might severely challenge the
resources
available to get sanitary and drinking water treatment back on
line.

I wish I had a better answer.

Jerry Filbin

---------------------------------------------------
Gerald J. Filbin, Ph.D., Director
Innovative Pilots Division (1807T)
Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation
US Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania, Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20460

202-566-2182
202-566-2211 FAX
----- Forwarded by Gerald Filbin/DC/USEPA/US on 09/12/2005 12:41
PM
-----


COMMENTS_OF_REQUESTOR

Lake Ponchatrain Clean Up


My question is, How is Lake Ponchatrain going to get cleaned up
after
they finish pumping all of this toxic materials in it? Has
anyone
thought of who is going to clean it up?







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The response that I received was somewhat disturbing to me. Hoping a problem will dissappear on it's own is negligence to me.

[Peaser01]

As of Monday Sept 12th:

FEMA already is sending more than $100 million to reimburse the city for recovery expenses, and the city is close to signing a number of contracts for the work, Nagin said. The city

[Creeker]

Well at least they are not stopping the recovery attempt and water pumping due to some silly marsh mosquito, barn owl, or tit-mouse breeding ground. Mother Nature takes care of itself and adjusts quite well on her own and has for several years now.

How pompous is it that man thinks he can AND SHOULD stop Mother Nature from doing what she does naturally?