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In This Section
Katrina, Two Years Later
FEMA Trailer Testing
Focus On Solutions
Notes from the Gulf Coast: Stories from Our Personnel
Wetlands
Toxics
Environmental Justice

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Gulf Coast Environmental Restoration Project.


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Gulf Coast Update

Updated April, 2008
Sierra Club Factsheet: Toxic Trailers?
Tests Reveal High Formaldehyde Levels In FEMA Trailers

Sierra Club testing has shown that 88 percent of FEMA trailers tested in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama have levels of formaldehyde above the recommended limit of 0.10ppm for short term exposure. Using limits recommended for long term exposure, none of the trailers were safe.

This exposes tens of thousands of occupants to the potential for health impacts including watery eyes, burning sensations of the eyes, nose, and throat, coughing, wheezing, nausea, and skin rashes. Especially vulnerable are mothers, children and the elderly, who tend to spend more time in the trailers.
Download the factsheet.

Sierra Club Chronicles: "Storm in the Gulf"

The Sierra Club Chronicles TV series captures the extraordinary efforts of ordinary people across America.

When a powerful politician paved the way for the drilling of oil and gas in the Gulf Islands National Seashore, he did not expect opposition from a coalition of unlikely environmentalists who prefer a lasting tourist trade and pristine beach to temporary gain.

The Gulf Islands National Seashore is a thin necklace of pristine barrier islands off the coast of Mississippi. But through a manipulation of the recently passed Energy Bill, a clandestine clause in the Patriot act, and old fashion quid pro quo money politics, Republican Governor (and former RNC Chairman) Haley Barbour has paved the way for oil and to start drilling under this national park. Read more and watch clips.

Notes from the Gulf Coast
First-hand stories from Sierra Club folks in the Gulf Coast about how their lives were affected by the 2005 hurricanes -- and the ensuing cleanup.

By the Numbers
Did you know that Louisiana has been losing its wetlands at a rate of 16,000 acres per year? Or that 8 million gallons of oil were spilled as a result of Katrina?
>> More by the Numbers.

Rebuild Gulf Coast, Don't Waste Billions on Pork
Citizens are ahead of their representatives, urging that funds should go toward rebuilding the Gulf Coast rather than wasting billions on unnecessary pork projects.
>> Read more and contact your representative.

Factsheets
The School of Big Storms
The High Cost of Compromising our Natural Defenses and the Benefits of Protecting Them (pdf file)
Build Back Green, Clean and Safe
A Sierra Club Guide To Green Building Principles, Practices And Materials (pdf file)
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
A briefing paper on garbage, debris and recycling policies and options in use in Louisiana and around the United States (pdf file)
GreenZone Fact Sheet
Recommendations for resourceful management of destruction debris (pdf file)
Holy Cross Green Zone Demo Project and GreenZone Task Force Update
VISION: An eco-industrial green zone that practices and demonstrates integrated waste management for
terminated building stock, using deconstruction, reuse, and recycling, to create jobs, improve the environment, and greatly reduce material sent to landfills (pdf file--be patient with download!)

Read more
Focus on solutions
Chevron And Dupont Post-Katrina Expansions Show Corporate Opportunism At Worst
Environmental Health Sciences' Katrina news portal.
Sierra Club Environmental Justice Projects: Louisiana
Sierra Magazine: January/February 2006
Ways & Means: Disaster Denial
What Hurricane Katrina has in common with September 11
Report: Environmental Stewardship Concepts
EPA and Mississippi MDEQ sediment sampling post Katrina woefully inadequate
Katrina: One Year Later
Local Industry: Pouring Toxins into Already Cancerous Wounds


Photo: Mary Jo Singleton

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