Pumping the Toxic Water

[DisneyAunt]

I have been thinking about all the water that is being drained from New Orleans.

It is defiantely toxic, it is being pumped to Lake Ponchatrain. From my understanding it is a saltwater Lake and it feeds off to the Ocean. I wonder what the enviornmental effects are. Talk about contamination.

What will happen to that crystal clear water of the gulf? How about the pristine beaches?

Would like to know if anyone knows anything first hand about it? Any thoughts or comments?

 

[Bunch24]

I have been thinking about all the water that is being drained from New Orleans.

It is defiantely toxic, it is being pumped to Lake Ponchatrain. From my understanding it is a saltwater Lake and it feeds off to the Ocean. I wonder what the enviornmental effects are. Talk about contamination.

What will happen to that crystal clear water of the gulf? How about the pristine beaches?

Would like to know if anyone knows anything first hand about it? Any thoughts or comments?

No such thing as pristine beaches around Louisiana. From Galveston to probably Gulf Shores, the beaches aren't very clean. Biloxi has pretty nice beaches, but the water from Lake Pontchartrain won't affect that area much.

Lake Pontchartrain was already nasty to begin with, so this is nothing new to the environment in that area. Eventually, the water that's being pumped back into Lake Pontchartain will clean itself to the level in which the lake was prior to the hurricane.

Of course, nobody, not even the EPA knows the true effects of this. They just know that of the two options they had - Mississippi River or Lake Pontchartrain -- the lake was the obvious choice.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Also--they had some experts on various media that have now blended in my mind so don't know where I saw it or who said it...

But the pumping of toxic water is a one time deal....the water will heal itself from it. It is the repetitous dumping of sewage into water bodies that poses a long term hazard and makes it more difficult for the habitat to heal itself.

 

[Tigger_Magic]

IWhat will happen to that crystal clear water of the gulf? How about the pristine beaches?

When was the last time you were at or in the Gulf of Mexico? The water there is hardly "crystal clear." A lot of the beaches are far from pristine. They may have been that way a few million years ago, but not today.

I suppose NOLA could opt for an alternative method of getting rid of the flood water, such as evaporation. But given the amount of water there, there's no option but to pump it out into the Gulf.

 

[DisneyAunt]

When was the last time you were at or in the Gulf of Mexico? The water there is hardly "crystal clear." A lot of the beaches are far from pristine. They may have been that way a few million years ago, but not today.

I suppose NOLA could opt for an alternative method of getting rid of the flood water, such as evaporation. But given the amount of water there, there's no option but to pump it out into the Gulf.

I must clarify....I was thinking more towards Alabama and what will happen to the Gulf Shores as debris will be floating down that way. As I was told by someone from Perdido Resort in Orange Beach they are cleaning up debris on the beaches everyday.

 

[brerrabbit]

The resort areas will clean uo their beaches and as far as the quality of the water at the resort areas I think it will clean up. The perdominant wind in my part of Texas on the Gulf Coast is out of the Southeast which will tend to drive a lot of the debris in our direction. As I understand the Gulf flow a lot of the water will wind up coming our way as well. While the waters in Alabama and Florida are "cleaner" than the waters to the west that is not just a result of toxins in the water. from the Mississippi river going west there are a lot of rivers dumping into the Gulf. Theses rivers deliver a lot of silt and soil to the Gulf. As a result the Gulf in Texas is shallow and almost always a little off color. So many people come to Texas beaches and say how terrible and dirty they are when in reality its just a lot of silt (translated, dirt) in the water and and sand on the beach. I am concerned about the toxins going into the water and the effects it will have on the wetlands and the fisheries but only time will tell what the lasting effects will be. There was a thread on this subject last week and the whole issue was pretty well covered.

 

[DisneyAunt]

The resort areas will clean uo their beaches and as far as the quality of the water at the resort areas I think it will clean up. The perdominant wind in my part of Texas on the Gulf Coast is out of the Southeast which will tend to drive a lot of the debris in our direction. As I understand the Gulf flow a lot of the water will wind up coming our way as well. While the waters in Alabama and Florida are "cleaner" than the waters to the west that is not just a result of toxins in the water. from the Mississippi river going west there are a lot of rivers dumping into the Gulf. Theses rivers deliver a lot of silt and soil to the Gulf. As a result the Gulf in Texas is shallow and almost always a little off color. So many people come to Texas beaches and say how terrible and dirty they are when in reality its just a lot of silt (translated, dirt) in the water and and sand on the beach. I am concerned about the toxins going into the water and the effects it will have on the wetlands and the fisheries but only time will tell what the lasting effects will be. There was a thread on this subject last week and the whole issue was pretty well covered.

Thanks for the info...I too am concerned about the toxic effects on wetland and fisheries. I will search for the other thread to get more info.

 

[dixipixi]

Lake Pontchartrain is more like an inlet of the Gulf. The water is actually brackish. The Lake is fed by lots of fresh water from the rivers to the north of it.

Lake Pontchartrain has been terribly polluted for many years now. We are told not to swim in it and I would not eat anything that I knew came out of there (probably eat lots that I don't know about).

Hopefully, the fresh water runoff from the northshore will help to dilute some of the bad stuff coming out of NO right now. I know, nothing will completely get rid of it, but any help is better than none.