Mark's Notebook


	And this is the simple truth - that to live is to feel oneself lost. He who accepts it has already begun to find himself, to be on firm ground. Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look around for something to which to cling, and that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order to the chaos of his life. These are the only genuine ideas; the ideas of the shipwrecked. All the rest is rhetoric, posturing, farce. - Soren Kierkegaard

Amid Devastation, Mounds of Toxic Waste

New York Times

Tuesday 20 December 2005, 5:54 pm
Keywords: Katrina Hurricane Relief , News Articles

by John Schwartz

There is so much storm debris in Louisiana that some of it has to be destroyed again.

Bulldozers feed tree limbs and the jagged shards of homes into a trailer-size grinder. The manufacturer calls this machine the annihilator. It can chew iron sewer covers as if they were Necco wafers, and it transforms the chaotic mixture to something resembling mulch. It can reduce the volume of debris by two-thirds. It is part of an effort by the Army Corps of Engineers to make the most of landfills that have to accommodate an unprecedented onslaught of debris.

Dump trucks will be feeding the annihilator for some time to come. The pile so far is made up of debris cleared from roads, ditches and levees. Demolition of ruined homes here in Plaquemines Parish will not start until next month.

There have been 222,000 refrigerators, washers and dryers gathered, and more than a million containers of hazardous waste have been plucked from land and sea. There are fuel and lubricants, pesticides and solvents, medical waste, paint cans and more, and mystery fluids that must be categorized before disposal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/20/science/20clea.html