Conflicting opinions on water and air quality in N.O.

US News Article | Reuters.com:

"'There was no toxic soup,' Mike McDaniel, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said at a New Orleans news conference. 'The water was unsanitary and contaminated with sewage, as is typical in floodwater situations. But we found no chemical contaminants that would cause a short-term or long-term threat of exposure.'

In fact, McDaniel said neighboring Lake Pontchartrain's water quality is now 'about as good as we've seen them,' and is fit for swimming and harvesting seafood.

Air quality actually is better than normal because of reduced industrial and vehicular activity, he said.

ARSENIC AND OLD DUST

Environmentalists, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, have released their own testing they said shows potentially dangerous levels of several contaminants in the dried sediment left behind by floodwaters."

I brought back a bit of N.O. mud from my last trip there, and Blaguerette is about to have it tested. I'll let you know what she finds.