Sometimes the dirt just has a lot of radiation in it

There still isn't a definitive explanation for how the radioactive whatever got under the street. Wilma Subra's explanation sounds pretty solid, though.

Another possibility, according to Wilma Subra, a chemist and lead technical adviser for the advocacy group Louisiana Environmental Action Network, is that road fill may have contained some source of radioactivity.

“That entire area, including the university, is a (former) low-lying swampy area,” said Subra, referring to Xavier, which is just a few blocks from the site of the radiation. “That whole area is nothing but fill. That could have been a load someone brought in there and dumped in that spot."

Another theory is that someone lost a "tool" near the site with has leaked radiation since.  So maybe Thor's hammer is buried around there somewhere.

Another point to gather from this is that the radioactive hot spot is not actually on the site of the Thompson-Hayward plant but a few blocks away. It's still possible the two are related, or at least it's possible that the radiation is related to the industrial activity and/or subsequent remediation of hazardous materials in the area.  But it may be a separate matter altogether. 

Either way, a lot of people got cancer.

In testimony from a class-action lawsuit filed in 1989 against corporations that owned the plant over the years, residents said the vats overflowed and produced noxious-smelling fumes and dust. 

The suit was settled in 1996 for $51.6 million, with the money distributed among 3,800 residents and their lawyers. The money was divided based on how close a plaintiff lived to the plant and how sick they were. Cancer patients got the most money. Liver and kidney disease came next. People with afflictions like allergies and immune system issues were awarded the least.

Dorothy Travis was part of that lawsuit, as was her neighbor, Patricia Lassair, 55, who was born and raised on Lowerline Street. Lassair’s brother developed leukemia. A neighbor who she said is like a sister to her had four miscarriages. “Almost everyone around here died of cancer,” said Travis, looking out at her neighborhood from her front porch.

Is that a lot?

I don't know, really. But it sounds like a lot.

NEW ORLEANS, La. (WVUE) - Gert Town residents faced exposure to high levels of radiation due to material lying underneath their street, according to an EPA memo uncovered by FOX 8.

The memo, dated May 17, 2019 -- just 11 days before crews dug up radioactive material from beneath a Gert Town road and placed it into bins. In it, the federal government stated the site on Lowerline Street was a threat to public health, welfare and the environment, and removal would be the appropriate action, due to the actual or potential exposure to humans, animals and the food chain from hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants

.......

The memo also states the Radium-226 exposure rate was several times higher than the EPA acceptable exposure limit, reporting:

“In fact, the annual dose allowable for the general public can be exceeded at levels at the street or adjacent areas in less than one hour per day.”

It says that memo was issued in May but, remember, also, the city was made aware of the problem (by federal security inspectors) at least six years before. How long was the stuff there before then? Nobody knows.

So, then what was the source of it?

You would think a story where we learn about a Powerpoint that tells us about what "may be the source of this radiation" would tell us what that is.  It doesn't, though. In fact, it's just a bunch of blurbs about communications between the city and EPA that raise more disturbing questions than they answer.

The Powerpoint presentation was presented to city leaders by the Group CHP. The presentation talked about the history of the area and what they believe may be the source of this radiation.

On May 20, 2019, the city’s community outreach manager told leaders that they canvassed the area and found six people home. They said they attached flyers to each house, letting people know they’d be working in the area.

Also what is "the Group CHP"? The story doesn't really tell us that either.

About a month ago this Advocate report told us the most complete and coherent story about the history of the site. It's intriguing but it still doesn't tell us exactly why there was radioactive material buried there.

The Thompson-Hayward factory, which opened in 1941, produced a variety of pesticides and herbicides, including one of the main components in Agent Orange, before being converted to a chemical warehouse in the late 1970s.

Even after the plant closed, those in nearby areas complained of noxious odors, and by the late 1980s, Harcos Chemicals, which had purchased the site at the beginning of the decade, was ordered to remediate chemicals on the site and in the nearby sewer system. That contamination eventually led to a nearly $51.6 million settlement with residents of the neighborhood.

However, news articles about that suit did not mention radioactive contamination on the site, and it was not immediately clear why radium would have been used at the factory. Radium has been used for a number of products, including luminescent dials and watch hands, but the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not list pesticides or other chemicals as one of its common uses.

Channel 4 says something called "Group CHP" has some ideas that it presented to the city in a Powerpoint.  What were they?

Yesterday the city put out a press release assuring us the remediation work is now complete.  However, this being a Cantrell Administration document it is more defensive than it is informative. The main point it wants to get across is the Cantrell people definitely just learned about the hazard. The second thing it wants us to know is that they only dug it up out of "an abundance of caution" and we probably shouldn't worry about it anyway.

Today, the City announced that the final four of six total containers with underground material from the work site in the Lowerline and Coolidge area have been removed for transport to Anders, Texas. In May 2018, the Cantrell Administration learned about the presence of underground material producing radiation below the road surface at the intersection of Lowerline Street and Coolidge Court. While the origin of the material is unknown, it was removed out of an abundance of caution.
 
“I have been clear about how my administration would approach this issue from the time we learned about it,” said Mayor LaToya Cantrell. “Our goal is always to protect the health and safety of residents. Throughout the process, my team has been in constant communication with our federal and state partners who have been monitoring the removal process and have not reported any increased risk to the public.” 

But as WVUE and WWL have reported, that "constant communication" between the city, state, and EPA has been a confusing mess with little agreement as to the severity of the threat or the best means of removing it.  The mayor's press release says that in May, "the City’s Health Department and the Department of Public Works canvassed within a two block radius of the location to talk with residents and distribute information about the existing hazards and what to expect during the removal process." But since there doesn't seem to have been much agreement about the nature of those hazards, well that does cause one to wonder what the fliers they distributed actually said. 


The mayor also says the city still doesn't know where the Gert Town glow goo came from.  But they apparently did see a Powerpoint that at least had some ideas, right?  Why can't we know what those are?  Also, what happened between the time in 2013 when the Landrieu Administration was apparently informed of the issue, and late 2018 when the Cantrell people claim they first learned about it?  There's a lot of stuff here that still doesn't make sense.

Mitch knew

I'm chuckling a little remembering all the ridiculous prep Mitch's people did just to host a Superbowl. They moved the Mardi Gras parade schedule around. They spent a bunch of money they didn't have to rushing the new streetcar into service.   There was a "clean zone" and a city mission command center. You would have thought they were trying to send someone to the moon.

Mitch Landrieu took all of  it extremely seriously. His entire term in office was built around setting artificial deadlines so he could rush through a bunch of projects and patronage ahead of  Katrina 10 or the Superbowl or the Tricentennial and make it all sound like some sort of emergency requiring everyone to definitely not complain or ask too many questions.   He even gave us all a lecture about being nice to Roger Goodell. That's why, after all of this hysteria, the power failure the night of the game was such a deliciously fun moment. We couldn't have asked for a more appropriate send-up of Mitch's arrogance. 

Of course, as usual, the joke was on us. As it turned out, the seemingly absurd "anti-terrorism" preparations in the weeks leading up to the game did yield some important information. Naturally, Mitch chose not to share that information with the public.

NEW ORLEANS — The attorneys representing residents in Gert Town claim the City of New Orleans not only knew about radioactive material in the area, but also knew the risk that it posed to the public and tried to keep it out of the public eye.

In 2013, when the city hosted Super Bowl XLVII, the federal government discovered radioactive material two miles away from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome while conducting sweeps of the area for the event.

But then they didn't tell anyone.

It's not clear exactly what took so long after that for anyone to get started with the remediation but it looks like that didn't begin until after the new mayor took over. And at that point, it doesn't look like there was a solid consensus among state, local, and federal officials as to how to proceed safely.

In May, Dr. Jennifer Avegno -- the city’s health department director -- emailed Tulane toxicology consultant, Dr. Luann White, asking her opinion on possible dust or particle containment during excavation. In her email, Avengo pointed out a particular recommendation to spray water on the site, stating it did not “seem adequate,” to her. She also said she was not comfortable with the information provided if homes in the area should be evacuated or if there were any possible risks to pregnant women.

White’s responded with:

“Misting water can control dust. They have to be careful to get enough to keep dust down, but not so much as to have waste water runoff they need to contain.”

White went on to say the following:

"Radiation seems to be only in the immediate vicinity of the source and does not extend as far away as homes or the sidewalk. The goal is to keep it that way during the remediation. This can be done as they describe, but they need to take care to contain the radiation.”

State epidemiologist Raoult Ratard also weighed in with his opinion during another correspondence this past May. When asked if residents need to evacuate their homes during the work, Ratard said no, so long as the dust was appropriately controlled.

Ratard was also asked if special instructions need to be given to pregnant women, women of child bearing age or children.

“None if they stay away from the site and dust is controlled," he replied.

And, to the question of: “How would the EPA best characterize the level of risk for individuals who have lived on the block and received cumulative exposure?”

Ratard said he did not know

Apparently what they ended up doing was digging into the ground, removing the radioactive goop or whatever while neighbors stood nearby and watched, before throwing it into some dumpsters which remained on site for several weeks.  It doesn't say in that report whether or not anybody misted the dust.

Anyway, according to one of the lawyers handling the residents' lawsuit, the Cantrell administration wanted all of this handled "discreetly." And maybe that's a step better than just never having told anyone at all. But there sure are a lot of questions left to answer now.