Photo credit Jill Carlson, Flickr Creative CommonsHurricane Harvey left parts of the south flooded, ravaged and without power. It also left behind millions of pounds of industrial pollution.
According to cnn.com, since the storm made landfall August 25, “more than 5 million pounds of air pollutants have been released beyond the normally permitted emissions.” Unfortunately, the amount of pollution continues to increase as the oil and gas industries restart operations, a process that is pollution-intensive. Experts are warning that the true amount of pollutants could be significantly larger than what has been reported.
The site also reported that air quality has diminished significantly as a result of the Hurricane. Toxicologists in the area are seeing concentrations of pollutants higher than anything recorded in more than a decade.
Water and waste management also remains a mess in southeast Texas. As of Sunday, more than 800 wastewater treatment facilities in southeast Texas were still not fully operational as a result of the effects of Hurricane Harvey. Additionally, officials have become aware of the release of wastewater from sanitary sewers, according to the Washington Post.
At least 13 toxic waste sites were flooded or damaged by Hurricane Harvey, according to the EPA. The agency assessed 41 Superfund sites using aerial images, but EPA workers have not yet been able to safely access the sites directly, according to CNN. The affected sites have industrial waste from acid compounds, solvents, pesticides and petrochemical companies.
Wastewater treatment plants are facing “unprecedented challenges,” experts say. In addition to sewer overflows, system failure and private septic tank failure, the water infrastructure also faces potential contamination from spilled fuel, waste site runoff, lawn pesticides and pollutants from refineries, writes the Minneapolis Star Tribune. When wastewater utilities that remove contaminants from drinking water are inundated with floodwaters, they can become unstable. Additionally, power outages can keep them from running their pumps, said Kevin Morley, a federal relations manager with the American Water Works Association.
As the Financial Times reported earlier this week, the Houston area is the largest city in the US with no zoning laws restricting the siting of industrial and residential development, meaning that there are homes close to some plants. US regulations on the chemicals industry are less demanding than in the EU, and moves by the Obama administration to tighten them have been delayed under President Donald Trump.
