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Environmental Health Needs and
Habitability Assessment

Joint Taskforce
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention &
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
September 17, 2005

View entire report (PDF) (841K, 38 pp, About PDF)

Preamble
Executive Summary
  Initial Conclusions
  Initial Recommendations


PREAMBLE

We are committed to working with the mayor and city officials and other federal, state, and local agencies and relief organizations to bringing back the great city of New Orleans. The Mayor of New Orleans has announced plans to reopen parts of the City to businesses and residents. While decisions regarding when and how to lift the mandatory evacuation order generally are within the authority of State and local officials, the Federal government has a responsibility to inform these decision makers and the public of the potential health and environmental risks associated with returning to the City.

This report provides an initial assessment of the overarching environmental health and infrastructure issues faced by New Orleans to reinhabit the city. It was prepared by a joint taskforce of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). EPA and CDC are collaborating with state and local public health and environmental officials, including the New Orleans City Public Health Department, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

Officials will need to attend to the environmental health and infrastructure issues identified in the report. EPA and CDC are committed to collecting and providing scientific data to decision makers and the public. However, the data are limited and conditions in the storm-damaged areas of the City are constantly changing. Consequently, significant additional risks may arise that do not exist currently. A wide variety of factors are driving the decision to reopen portions of the City, and many precautions beyond those mentioned in this report need to be taken. State and local leaders are advised to consider the potential hazards, caution returning inhabitants of the health risks, and provide for sufficient medical and other resources to address the returning population in light of existing conditions.

CDC and EPA are neither responsible for addressing all of the environmental health and infrastructure issues identified in the report nor for coordinating resources to attend to them. Furthermore, the report is neither a step-by-step guide nor a guidance document with criteria for reinhabiting the city.

The report identifies a number of barriers to overcome and critical decisions to make prior to reinhabiting New Orleans. CDC and EPA are not implying that it is our role to wholly attend to these barriers or make these decisions. These decisions will be made by the mayor and city officials in consultation with the authorities involved in the coordinated response.

The report is focused broadly at the city of New Orleans. Some of the environmental health and infrastructure issues discussed in the report may not apply to the less flooded and damaged neighborhoods in New Orleans. As a result, the decision to reinhabit New Orleans must be made neighborhood-by-neighborhood and requires a deliberate neighborhood-level analysis. Also, the decision to reopen a neighborhood must consider the impact of returning residents on the broader recovery and redevelopment activities for the whole city.

Everyone is eager to restore the vibrant and unique city of New Orleans. It is our hope this report will highlight some of the cross-cutting environmental health and infrastructure issues requiring attention to reinhabit New Orleans. However, this report should not be relied upon as a comprehensive assessment of the environmental conditions of the City of New Orleans, or of the human health risks associated with returning to reopened portions of the City.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Monday, August 29, 2005, as a category 4 hurricane and passed within 10 to 15 miles of New Orleans, Louisiana. The storm brought heavy winds and rain to the city, and the damage breached several levees protecting New Orleans from the water of Lake Pontchartrain. The levee breaches flooded up to 80% of the city with water reaching a depth of 25 feet in some places.

Among the wide-scale impacts of Hurricane Katrina, the storm caused significant loss of life and disrupted power, natural gas, water, and sewage treatment, road safety, and other essential services to the city.

Early in the disaster response and recovery, federal, state, and local elected officials and public health and environmental leaders recognized the significant role of environmental health in the post-hurricane rebuilding of New Orleans.

At the request of the Secretary Michael Leavitt of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Administrator Steve Johnson of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, created the Environmental Health Needs Assessment and Habitability Taskforce (EH-NAHT). The taskforce was charged with identifying the overarching environmental health issues faced by New Orleans to reinhabit the city.

The EH-NAHT collaborated extensively with a diverse group of federal, state, and local partners, including the New Orleans City Public Health Department, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (LADHH), and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

The team was guided by the following questions:

  1. What are the core or fundamental environmental health issues to be addressed;
  2. Which agencies and organizations at the federal, state, or local level are responsible for, or involved in, the various environmental health issues;
  3. What progress has been made and what challenges exist;
  4. What is the timetable to address these environmental health issues;
  5. What resources exist or need to be brought to bear to address these environmental health issues; andWhat are the key milestones and endpoints that define success.

The team identified 13 environmental health issues and supporting infrastructure to address. This initial assessment included drinking water, wastewater, solid waste/debris, sediments/soil contamination (toxic chemicals), power, natural gas, housing, unwatering/flood water, occupational safety and health/public security, vector/rodent/animal control, road conditions, underground storage tanks (e.g., gasoline), and food safety.

After the initial assessment, the EH-NAHT categorized these issues by increasing time and complexity to full restoration of services (Level 4, most complex and requiring the most time to restoration). Part of the complexity relates to how specific and explicit the criteria for the end points are for each function.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

  • Unwatering
  • Power
  • Natural Gas
  • Vector/Rodent/Animal
    Control
  • Underground storage
    tanks (e.g., gasoline)
  • Food Safety
  • Drinking Water
  • Wastewater
  • Road Conditions
  • Solid
    Waste/Debris
  • Sediments/Soil Contamination (Toxic Chemicals)
  • Housing

Occupational safety and health as well as public security was identified as cross-cutting all the other areas.

Long-term solutions to these many issues are critical to allow resumption of normal life in New Orleans and to prevent reoccurrence of such an event in this area.

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The EH-NAHT has the following conclusions based upon our initial assessment:

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The EH-NAHT has the following recommendations based on our initial assessment:

Federal, state, and local agencies and relief organizations are responding heroically to the disaster. All organizations, including the agencies represented on this task force, should be doing their utmost to assist in recovery and rebuilding.

These conclusions and recommendations are current at the time of writing. Because the situation is dynamic and changing daily, updates on various topics will be given periodically by various organizations.

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