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Hurricane Katrina: Louisiana - EPA Response Update

Release Date: 9/7/2005
Contact Information: For more information contact the Office of External Affairs at (214) 665-2200.

     Water sampling is a high priority.  EPA and the Centers for Disease Control released preliminary water sampling results (https://www.epa.gov/katrina/activities.html#sep7response) and continue to conduct flood water sampling for chemical and biological testing in and around the New Orleans area.

     EPA and Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (http://www.dhh.louisiana.gov/) completed inspections of 59 drinking waters systems yesterday.  About 43 systems are producing drinking water and are no longer on boil water notices. The EPA mobile laboratory is set up to test about 50 drinking water samples a day to help bring more systems back online.  

     EPA and the State of Louisiana Joint Incident Management Team is operating 24 hours a day at the emergency center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  The ASPECT aircraft continues to conduct over-flights of several large industrial facilities in the area and inspect for oil and chemical spills.  

     EPA's joint field operations with state officials are ongoing.  Teams from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (http://www.deq.state.la.us/) and the Louisiana State Police (http://www.lsp.org/index.html) used helicopters and the state's seaplane to inspect several industrial plants and search for spills along the Mississippi River.  Federal and state response managers are working with local industry officials to address oil spills noted in the aerial surveillance.