JOPLIN, Mo. -as residents face a massive cleanup after the tornado that destroyed Joplin, environmental hazards experts say could hide in the mountains of debris in the city of the southwest of the Missouri and even in the air and water.
Damage caused by tornadoes, as floods and hurricanes, often goes beyond what is visible. Chemical and combustible liquid can containers rupture flight and contaminate groundwater. Ruins of buildings may contain asbestos. The lights can generate smoke containing soot, dioxin and other pollutants. Household, industrial and medical wastes are dispersed.
In the first hours after the tornado on May 22, the smell of gasoline was evident on several service stations flattened. A great fire burned for hours about Regional Medical Center, John devastated St.. Heavy rains caused floods flash, possibly fouling of streams of.
Yet the teams U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent to inspect the damage retroussée no problem of serious pollution in the first week, although the search continues, said spokesman Chris Whitley.
"Until that the systematic evaluation of the impact of the tornado zone is complete, it is not possible to fairly assess the levels of risk or environmental intervention priorities," he said in an e-mail.
Deadliest single tornado in the nation for more than six decades packed winds of more than 200 and measured half a mile across. It killed at least 132 people and injured over 900 severely damaging or upgrade of many buildings in the industrial corridor of the city, which includes suppliers of chemical products, natural gas companies and manufacturers of paint. An estimated 8 000 structures have been destroyed.
A leak of ammonia anhydrous brief a valve products of Jasper, trucking company was sealed by the crew of hazardous materials from the company. Otherwise, an EPA emergency response team to comb the area last week found that no important toxic only disclosed after verification of the 40 sites, Coordinator Eric Nold said.
"If there was a release screaming was to be found, it would have been now," he said. His team of two people watched underground storage tanks, waste water treatment plants and other sources of potential pollution.
"In view of this tornado of size, could it be worse from the point of view of chemical release," Nold said on the sound of crunching metal as bulldozers worked nearby.
Many businesses sent their own teams of environmental response to the disaster zone.
Among the other examined places were destroyed hospital and a Superfund site in the County of Jasper West tainted by years of lead and zinc mining. The tornado missed the mine waste heaps, but landed in the nearby neighborhoods where own layers of topsoil were placed at the top of soil between 1995 and 2002, Whitley said.
Owners and emergency workers were advised to use caution when removing debris from the region, he said. Lead exposure mostly occurs by ingestion of contaminated soil on dirty hands - a particular danger for children – and to breathe the contaminated dust.
Another likely danger is oil spilled in electrical transformers fell, some which contain highly toxic polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. It is not immediately of this clearly how many have been blown during the storm.
But a spokesman for the Alabama Power, more great service of electricity in this State, said that more than 4,000 transformers had recovered it following a series of tornadoes last month. Among the oldest contained traces of PCBs, spokesman Michael Sznajderman. All were bagged and sent to a recycler under license, while the oil and dirt around fallen transformers were transported to a landfill of hazardous waste.
Some of the greatest environmental risks long-term tornadoes come during the cleanup, said experts.
The Ministry of natural resources of the Missouri last week, announced a temporary waiver of certain solid wastes pollution regulations and air for the counties of Jasper and Newton, where the tornado struck. The move allows landfills to accept brush, building waste, equipment and other materials that would not normally be allowed, although recycling of appliances is encouraged. It allows the burning of tree and brush waste under certain conditions.
Also waived was a requirement that supervisors certified by the State be involved in the removal of materials containing asbestos, a fiber which can cause pulmonary diseases, including cancer. Federal asbestos regulations remain in place.
Relax the rules during an emergency is understandable, but poor handling or disposal of waste could make a bad situation worse, said David Carpenter, Director of the Institute of health and the environment at the University of SUNY Albany.
If plastics, asbestos or treated wood materials find their way in the brush fires, they could produce particularly dangerous programs for people with asthma or respiratory diseases, he said.
"I know there is a huge amount of debris, but find a landfill site in a Valley somewhere where you can put it and cover it above is much wiser than combustion it", said Carpenter. "There are health risks associated with the combustion of the debris of all kinds."
Some products of storms such as overwhelming volumes of waste which limited combustion should be allowed, said John Mitchell, Director of the division with the Kansas Department of health and the environment. The fires have been allowed after the 2007 tornado which devastated Greensburg, Kan, he said, although the State prefers other disposal methods.
It is important to separate the different types of waste so that they can be disposed of properly, some landfills are not suitable for materials such as household chemicals, paints and treated wood, said Mitchell. The Ministry of natural resources of the Missouri urges people to recycle equipment and vegetation of compost.
Environmentalists were not oppose rules of bending for some time.
"The last thing you want to do when the community dealing with a situation as it is require permits and paperwork,", said Kathleen Logan Smith, Executive Director of the Missouri Coalition for the environment.
People in the Joplin area are not the only ones who should be looking for contaminated materials, said John Snow, an expert in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma. Research has shown that tornadoes may suck debris and drop the 200 kilometres, he said.
"This is the type of a popular danger which deserves attention far more careful that it's been given," said snow.
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Flesher Traverse City, Mich. has reported. Associated Press writer Jim Salter has contributed to this story of Joplin.
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