EPA Expert - Bush Covering Up Toxic Problem In New Orleans

According to an exclusive interview in today's Independent newspaper, the Bush administration have staffed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with "inept political hacks" who are covering up the danger of toxic waste in New Orleans floodwaters which could make the city uninhabitable for a decade.

Its rare to get such a charge from a serving official in any government department - usually fear of recriminations ensures that whistleblowers wait until they have left their posts which makes it far easier to soin their stories as "sour grapes". However, the EPA official, Hugh Kaufman, has impeccable credentials:

Mr Kaufman, who has been with the EPA since it was founded 35 years ago, helped to set up its hazardous waste programme. After serving as chief investigator to the EPA's ombudsman, he is now senior policy analyst in its Office of Solid Wastes and Emergency Response. He said the clean-up needed to be "the most massive public works exercise ever done", adding: "It will take 10 years to get everything up and running and safe."

The EPA has not been included in the core White House group tackling the crisis despite the huge number of chemical plants, storage tanks, refineries and petroleum storage depots which together churn out 600m lb of toxic waste each year and have made the area one of America's pollution hotspots, known as "Cancer Alley".

The pollution was far worse than had been admitted, he said, because his agency was failing to take enough samples and was refusing to make public the results of those it had analysed. "Inept political hacks" running the clean-up will imperil the health of low-income migrant workers by getting them to do the work.
...
Mr Kaufman claimed the Bush administration was playing down the need for a clean-up: the EPA has not been included in the core White House group tackling the crisis. "Its budget has been cut and inept political hacks have been put in key positions," Mr Kaufman said. "All the money for emergency response has gone to buy guns and cowboys - which don't do anything when a hurricane hits. We were less prepared for this than we would have been on 10 September 2001."

I wonder how they will spin this one, and which Bush favourites will make money from the clean-up?

Update Here is a reprint of the Indie's article because they hide their stuff behind a pay-to-read firewall after a few days. And here is a list of potential toxic chemical sites, along with which kinds of chemicals and quantities, in New Orleans iself - culled from EPA data.