The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will soon begin investigating three Superfund sites near New Orleans flooded by Hurricane Katrina.
EPA officials said that while their priority is to take water samples from the entire New Orleans area, they will soon start investigating whether hazardous materials are leaching into the environment from the Superfund sites, reported the Washington Post Saturday.
The Agriculture Street Landfill in New Orleans, which received municipal trash, is still underwater. The Bayou Bonfouca site in Slidell, La., and the Madisonville Creosote Works site also sustained flooding.
Environmentalists said two Superfund sites in Mississippi might have also sustained water damage.
Some scientists and environmentalists said the rush of water might have infiltrated the hazardous waste sites and absorbed a range of contaminants which were then spread by the floodwater.
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