Soil Contamination in New Orleans: Arsenic and Lead Before and After Katrina

New Orleans has long had a documented problem with lead contaminated soil. Small-scale remediation efforts in that city have historically been shown to reduce both soil lead and children's blood lead levels in highly-affected locations. The flooding after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita distributed a coating of sediment throughout many areas of the city. Testing of the sediment revealed markedly elevated concentrations of lead and arsenic throughout the flooded areas. Lead concentrations were not significantly changed from pre-Katrina values, but arsenic concentrations in New Orleans soils had not previously been assessed. We located and tested 65 archived soil samples taken from locations impacted by flooding throughout the city prior to August 2005. The samples were matched by location to sites where post-Katrina arsenic concentrations exceeded the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) remediation guidelines. The arsenic concentration in all 65 of the post-flooding samples significantly exceeds the matched pre-flooding soil samples, on average by 20 mg/kg. This presentation will discuss the public health implications of soil contamination in New Orleans pre- and post-Katrina, the potential origins of the new arsenic contamination, and the health policy issues involved in how to address the problem. The presentation also focuses on the environmental justice implications of the contamination and the clean-up response.