Safety of Post-Hurricane Sludge Is Disputed

The two new reports intensify a simmering debate over Katrina and Rita's environmental legacy and what was left in the soil once the waters receded. With at least 8 million gallons, Katrina produced the second-largest oil spill in U.S. history, after the 11 million-gallon Exxon Valdez tanker spill off Alaska in 1989. Unlike raw crude oil in the Alaska spill, however, the storm released more refined fuel, which evaporated, dissolved or was diluted more readily.

Rita was not as fierce a storm, but it devastated wildlife refuges in southwestern Louisiana. The report on Sabine, which was commissioned by Fish and Wildlife but has not been publicly released, found that more than 1,400 barrels of toxic liquids and gases blown in by the hurricane are sinking into the low-lying marsh that is home to hundreds of thousands of migrating waterfowl each winter.

Don Voros, who oversees four national wildlife refuges in southwestern Louisiana, said a stretch of debris spanning six miles across Sabine reflects a mix of industrial and household waste from areas flattened by Rita.

"Hurricane Rita has dealt all of southwestern Louisiana a pretty bad hand, and we're trying to recover from that," he said. "There are some unpleasant things in the refuge we've never had to deal with. . . . More and more of it is sinking into the marsh, and it's going to be harder and more expensive to clean it up."

Asked whether agency officials have enough money to clean up the refuges, Voros responded, "We don't. There's just not enough resources to go around."

Government officials estimate the two hurricanes took a toll of up to $250 million on national wildlife refuges. Congress has appropriated $30 million for cleanup and repair so far and is considering whether to grant the Bush administration's recent request for an additional $132 million in emergency funding.

"There is a critical need to get that money on the ground and start moving," said Evan Hirsch, who chairs the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement, a nonprofit coalition. "We're going to have a national wildlife refuge looking like a Superfund site."

All four wildlife refuges in southwestern Louisiana are now closed to the public, but federal officials hope to reopen Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge by March 15. Sabine, which may experience a widespread fish kill this summer because of the dead vegetation in its waters, was especially vulnerable to Rita because it lies near oil and gas platforms that were damaged by the hurricane.

Voros -- who gave a tour of refuge damage this week to aides from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the House Resources Committee -- is considering appealing for Superfund money, but first he is seeking state and federal money that would not have to be repaid.

"It's not like we're here sitting on our hands," he said. "There are a lot of people trying to figure out how to make this [cleanup] happen."