Post by LSDeep on Sept 23, 2005 18:46:29 GMT -5
By CATHY ZOLLO
New York Times Regional Media Group
A massive plume of toxic water washed from New Orleans into the Gulf of Mexico is sliding south on its way to becoming a Florida problem.
Coastal managers are concerned that the runoff from Hurricane Katrina - rich in chemicals, pesticides, petroleum products, pathogens and a host of unknowns - could reach Florida shores or affect its coastal environment.
There's also some concern about Tropical Storm Rita hooking a right after it passes the Keys, which could have dire consequences for the Gulf Coast.
"If this other hurricane tracks up into that same area . . . it could provide the mechanism to push the water right into" the Florida coast, said Peter Ortner, director of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami. "That's what we're watching like hawks."
A preliminary research cruise took samples last week along the northern Gulf Coast from Pensacola to the Mississippi Sound. And officials with the NOAA and the Environmental Protection Agency say they are coordinating a sampling effort with boats from both agencies that will take in northern Gulf Coast areas and open water. Results from initial testing won't be back for about three weeks, Ortner said.
The noxious brew spewing from a flooded New Orleans is taking two paths to the state, oceanographers say.
One is heading east out of Lake Pontchartrain toward the Panhandle along the shore. Another that could threaten the Dry Tortugas and the Keys reef track got caught in the northern tip of the loop current that flows up between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula into the Gulf.
The current looks like a bent bobby pin, jutting north, then looping back south along the Florida coast roughly 150 to 300 miles offshore. It then moves past the Keys into the Atlantic.
"I'm more concerned for the Keys than I am for Sarasota," said Robert Weisberg, professor of physical oceanography at the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science. "Anything that may get into that strong permanent loop current flow will go to the vicinity of the Florida Keys, the vicinity of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and then off to North Carolina."
Coastal managers in the Keys already know that the water picked up by the current could become trapped in an eddy adjacent to the Dry Tortugas Ecological Reserve. It has happened with Mississippi River water in the past, though nothing as toxic as what's headed south now.
The reserve "is an area that has remained relatively pristine because it's isolated from major population areas," said Cheva Heck, spokeswoman for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. "We're concerned about the water coming down from the Mississippi area, and we are watching it."
Weisberg, who is part of the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System, or SEACOOS, began modeling what the water might do almost immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.
Using virtual drifters, Weisberg's modeling takes some of the water south to the Keys and out along the the Keys reef track, then up along the state's east coast. Some, possibly the most potent since it comes out of Lake Pontchartrain, heads east toward the Florida Panhandle.
Some observers say the federal government waited too long to begin monitoring the plume.
"There always should have been a plan for this," said Mitchell Roffer, a biological oceanographer from Miami. "Everyone should have been ready to do these kinds of things. ... It wasn't until the public started to complain that the agencies responded."
EPA officials say they're doing the best they can with a volume of pollution unlike anything seen before, and they vow to stay on top of it.
"We're taking it seriously," said EPA spokeswoman Laura Niles. "It's an unprecedented event. It's hard to compare it to anything else."
New York Times Regional Media Group
A massive plume of toxic water washed from New Orleans into the Gulf of Mexico is sliding south on its way to becoming a Florida problem.
Coastal managers are concerned that the runoff from Hurricane Katrina - rich in chemicals, pesticides, petroleum products, pathogens and a host of unknowns - could reach Florida shores or affect its coastal environment.
There's also some concern about Tropical Storm Rita hooking a right after it passes the Keys, which could have dire consequences for the Gulf Coast.
"If this other hurricane tracks up into that same area . . . it could provide the mechanism to push the water right into" the Florida coast, said Peter Ortner, director of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami. "That's what we're watching like hawks."
A preliminary research cruise took samples last week along the northern Gulf Coast from Pensacola to the Mississippi Sound. And officials with the NOAA and the Environmental Protection Agency say they are coordinating a sampling effort with boats from both agencies that will take in northern Gulf Coast areas and open water. Results from initial testing won't be back for about three weeks, Ortner said.
The noxious brew spewing from a flooded New Orleans is taking two paths to the state, oceanographers say.
One is heading east out of Lake Pontchartrain toward the Panhandle along the shore. Another that could threaten the Dry Tortugas and the Keys reef track got caught in the northern tip of the loop current that flows up between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula into the Gulf.
The current looks like a bent bobby pin, jutting north, then looping back south along the Florida coast roughly 150 to 300 miles offshore. It then moves past the Keys into the Atlantic.
"I'm more concerned for the Keys than I am for Sarasota," said Robert Weisberg, professor of physical oceanography at the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science. "Anything that may get into that strong permanent loop current flow will go to the vicinity of the Florida Keys, the vicinity of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and then off to North Carolina."
Coastal managers in the Keys already know that the water picked up by the current could become trapped in an eddy adjacent to the Dry Tortugas Ecological Reserve. It has happened with Mississippi River water in the past, though nothing as toxic as what's headed south now.
The reserve "is an area that has remained relatively pristine because it's isolated from major population areas," said Cheva Heck, spokeswoman for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. "We're concerned about the water coming down from the Mississippi area, and we are watching it."
Weisberg, who is part of the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System, or SEACOOS, began modeling what the water might do almost immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.
Using virtual drifters, Weisberg's modeling takes some of the water south to the Keys and out along the the Keys reef track, then up along the state's east coast. Some, possibly the most potent since it comes out of Lake Pontchartrain, heads east toward the Florida Panhandle.
Some observers say the federal government waited too long to begin monitoring the plume.
"There always should have been a plan for this," said Mitchell Roffer, a biological oceanographer from Miami. "Everyone should have been ready to do these kinds of things. ... It wasn't until the public started to complain that the agencies responded."
EPA officials say they're doing the best they can with a volume of pollution unlike anything seen before, and they vow to stay on top of it.
"We're taking it seriously," said EPA spokeswoman Laura Niles. "It's an unprecedented event. It's hard to compare it to anything else."