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Response to Hurricane Katrina
ALERT
Boil Drinking Water
If your water may not be safe, bring drinking water to a rolling boil for 1 minute to kill water-borne diseases.
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9/4/05
EPA continues to send personnel and resources to the affected areas in anticipation of upcoming needs when hurricane damage may begin to be addressed. Current activities are listed below.
MS Assessment Teams
Assessment Teams will continue to conduct assessments, removal
actions and cleanup oversight throughout MS, including
Biloxi, Gulfport, Pascagoula and Moss Point. An EPA team
conducted assessment of multiple facilities in the Port
Bienville Industrial Park in Hancock County, south of Stennis
Space Center. Another team conducted assessments of facilities
along the coast line west of Highway 49 to Long Beach.
The team assessed the Gulf Port Authority, the railroad
tracks and neighborhoods that sustained significant damage.
To date, a total of 128 Incident Responses have been conducted
by EPA and the Coast Guard.
AL Assessment Teams
Assessment Teams will continue to conduct assessments and
removal actions and oversee clean up efforts in Bayou Labatre,
City of Mobile, Mobile County and Baldwin County. In the
Mobile area, assessments are ongoing in Mobile Bay, Dog
River and the Fowl River. The US Coast Guard is conducting
some removal actions of drums and fuel tanks in Bayou Labatre.
Water Division Assistance Team
An EPA Water Division Assistance Team is continuing its assessment
of damage to local drinking water systems in MS and providing
technical assistance to help restore safe drinking water
to those systems. EPA Region 4 will deploy a mobile lab
to assist the MS Department of Public Health with analytical
support of drinking water systems at Camp Shelby, near
Hattiesburg. Another mobile lab provided by the Florida
Deparment of Health will be set up in Pascagoula. Due to
the possibility of extensive damage to their distribution
systems, many drinking water facilities will be conducting
long-term repairs. MS is currently assessing approximately
1367 public water systems across the state and has sent
out an assessment team to travel south nearer to the coast
to conduct site visits to systems that could not be contacted.
Boil water notices have been issued to 468 water systems
in MS, including the southernmost counties of Hancock,
Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, Stone and George. Samples
from all of these systems will be analyzed for total coliform
bacteria before the systems can restore safe drinking water
to the communities they serve.
Community water systems across AL have been disabled or impaired by loss of electrical power, though most are now operational, but waiting for test results to ensure the water is restored to standards safe for community consumption. 10 AL systems currently have boil water advisories.
Due to systems being impaired or disabled, EPA reminds citizens in affected areas to follow “boil water” advisories in place. For more information, please read the “Boil Drinking Water” Alert on the Region 4 hurricane web page at https://epa.gov/region4/Katrina/index.htm.
Many wastewater facilities are also without power or operating on partial power. 94 MS wastewater facilities were contacted to assess their status, but more than half of the facilities could not be reached or have no status. Efforts are ongoing to get these facilities on emergency power or fully operational, but like the drinking water facilities, some have sustained extensive damage and will be conducting long-term repairs before they can operate at regular capacity.
EPA will release information from the environmental assessments as it becomes available. Reporters should contact the EPA Press Office at (404) 562-8327 for interviews and additional information.
• Emergency Fuel Waiver for AL, FL, LA, MS