What about the levees, toxic soup and 645,000 mold spores per cubic meter?

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http://www.sfbayview.com/021506/criticalofkatrina021506.shtml

Congressmen critical of Katrina report

by CC -Rock

Rep. Jefferson of Louisiana, left, watches skeptically as

Rep. Tom , R-Va., chair of the House Select Committee on Hurricane Katrina,

discusses the committee's final report during a news conference on Capitol Hill,

Wednesday. Photo: Dennis Cook, AP

Before the Wednesday release of the final report from the House Select

Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to

Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana Congressmen Jefferson and Charlie Melancon

issued their own 59-page report entitled " Additional Views Presented by the

Select Committee on Behalf of Rep. Charlie Melancon and Rep. J.

Jefferson. "

The scathing report offers objective criticism of the so-called bipartisan

committee. Interestingly, there are no Democrats in the committee. Nor is

Louisiana represented on the bipartisan committee. Congressman W. " Chip "

Pickering, from Mississippi, is the only legislator on the committee whose state

was affected by Hurricane Katrina.

However, at least a quarter of the committee's 11 members hail from Texas. So

it is not hard to imagine why, as Melancon and Jefferson charge, the committee

lacked the will to hold the White House accountable or to use its subpoena

powers to demand documents that could shed light on FEMA, the Department of

Homeland Security and the Department of Defense's failures to respond to an

American city underwater and the approximately 1,200 deaths that resulted from

levees that were breached in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Essentially, the congressmen charged the committee with being too soft on the

Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, DOD and the White House, by not insisting

on answers to the botched federal response and poor management of resources

after Hurricane Katrina wrecked the Gulf Coast.

The Democrats' report also took the Bush administration to task for refusing

to turn over documents relative to the administration's response to the biggest

domestic disaster in U.S. history.

" House Resolution 437 directed the Select Committee 'to conduct a full and

complete investigation' into the government response to Hurricane Katrina. The

Select Committee worked diligently to meet this mandate, and the committee's

final report makes an important contribution toward understanding what went

wrong.

" But due to the committee's short deadline and the refusal of the White House

to provide access to essential documents, key questions remain unanswered. We

therefore renew our call for an independent commission to examine the disastrous

response to Hurricane Katrina. "

The legislators were also critical of the committee's failure to find out why

the New Orleans levees failed.

" The Select Committee's report does not resolve critical questions about levee

failures, noting instead that 'the ultimate cause of the levee failures is under

investigation and results to be determined.' Questions about why the levees

failed are important not only to establish accountability, but to help determine

how to rebuild them. The reconstruction process will not be effective unless

residents and businesses are confident that they will be protected from

catastrophic flooding.

" Until Congress addresses this critical failure in a comprehensive and

detailed manner, the rebuilding effort will be impeded, " the Minority View

Report continued.

Among the glaring discrepancies which arose from the Select Committee's

investigation is the continuing controversy over when the White House and the

Department of Homeland Security knew about the levee breaches.

Taking a potshot at conflicting statements, as to when the administration

learned about the levee failures, the report stated, " FEMA and Coast Guard

officials who were in New Orleans on Monday, Aug. 29, the day the hurricane

struck, personally observed levee failures and warned that two-thirds to

three-fourths of the city had flooded.

" The White House was informed of these crucial facts, but for days and weeks

after the hurricane, President Bush and other top administration officials

deflected criticism by insisting they were caught by surprise when the levees

failed on Tuesday, Aug. 30, the day after Hurricane Katrina.

" An important unanswered question is why these top officials persisted in

making these misleading assertions. The first official government report of the

levee failure appears to have come at 8:14 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, the

morning Hurricane Katrina struck, " the representatives asserted.

The lawmakers also chided government for not delving deeply into allegations

of the " toxic soup " that existed post-Katrina and which still exists, if you ask

some New Orleanians.

Many who have visited New Orleans can attest to the poor air quality that

persists in the city. " I knew a guy who went down to New Orleans to work on his

house and now he is in the hospital with mold spores on his lungs, " said New

Orleans community activist, Assata Olugbala. A well-recognized crusader for

justice in education and prison reform, Olugbala evacuated to Detroit, Michigan.

Additionally, in an earlier interview, Malik Rahim, founder of the Common

Ground Collective commented, " People are saying they have the 'Katrina cough' or

the 'Katrina sniffles,' " he said of common symptoms experienced by city

residents.

Environmental contamination still present

According to the congressmen, " in the immediate aftermath of the storm,

independent test data showed dangerously high mold counts and areas of toxic

sediments, which pose a serious health risk to returning residents and workers. "

For example, indoor sites had spore counts of up to 645,000 spores per cubic

meter, rendering homes uninhabitable. In addition, sediment testing " found

pervasively high levels of arsenic, as well as high levels of other

contaminants, including lead, banned pesticides and cancer-causing polycyclic

aromatic hydrocarbons at three specific sites. "

" Contamination caused by the hurricane could also be exacerbated by recovery

efforts. For example, much of the debris is being disposed of by burning, which

has the potential to release toxic air pollutants such as mercury or disposal

into unlined landfills, which can allow groundwater contamination. "

However, the legislators leveled their harshest criticism at the White House

and the Republican-stacked Select Committee for the White House's refusal to

cooperate with the investigation and for the Select Committee's refusal to hold

the White House accountable.

Jefferson and Melancon confirmed repeated attempts to get the documents and

testimony necessary to get answers as to the White House role in the emergency

management effort.

" But we were consistently frustrated. With the exception of Mr. Rapuano,

President Bush refused to allow any White House officials to testify or be

interviewed by the Select Committee. In addition, multiple efforts were made

during the course of the Select Committee's investigation to obtain White House

documents that would address these unanswered questions.

" In the end, these efforts were frustrated by the refusal of the White House

to cooperate and the reluctance of the majority (on the Select Committee) to

exercise its authority under House Resolution 437. "

The lawmakers explained how Select Committee Chairman and Rep. Melancon

sent letters in September 2005 and November 2005 requesting information. And

while threatened to use the committee's subpoena power, the committee

voted against using subpoenas, in favor of meeting with members of the Bush

administration.

" When the White House again failed to produce the documents by the deadline,

no subpoena was issued. Instead, representatives from the White House Counsel's

office met with Select Committee staff on Dec. 1, 2005. At that meeting, the

White House officials asserted that compliance would be impossible.

" They said responding to the document request would require the review of 71

million email messages and take over one year. They could not explain, however,

why other agencies had managed to comply or why they had not begun producing

communications from at least the key individuals identified in the Sept. 30

request letter.

" During this meeting, the White House officials raised vague concerns about

'separation of powers,' claiming that it would be inappropriate and

unprecedented for Congress to obtain the documents the committee was seeking.

When asked whether they were asserting a legal claim of executive privilege,

they said they were not.

" When staff provided multiple examples of past precedents for this type of

request -including testimony provided by White House chiefs of staff during the

Clinton administration - an official from the White House responded bluntly:

'You're not getting Card's emails.' "

" When Rep. Melancon offered his subpoena motion on Dec. 14, 2005, Chairman

opposed the motion, reversing the position he had declared publicly on

three previous occasions. In explaining his reversal, Chairman stated: 'I

don't think that Andy Card's emails are appropriate. We've researched this, in

terms of executive privilege and the like. The president doesn't carry a

Blackberry with him. For all intents and purposes, the chief of staff is the

president. For these reasons, I think that's too inclusive.

" Chairman , " the report continued, " also opposed obtaining emails from

Joe Hagin, Frances Townsend and Ken Rapuano, but he offered no explanation for

his position on these officials. "

The report went on to outline more refusals for documents from Defense

Secretary Rumsfeld and other White House staffers.

" Given the key gaps that remain in the Select Committee's work, we recommend

the creation of an independent commission based on the model of the 9-11

Commission. The Select Committee has significantly advanced public understanding

of the response to Hurricane Katrina, but it failed to surmount White House

intransigence and rarely assigned accountability for mistakes.

" These shortcomings can only be addressed by the appointment of a truly

independent commission, " Jefferson and Melancon concluded.

CC -Rock, a native New Orleanian, veteran journalist and Katrina

evacuee, is the new editor of the Bay View. Email her at

campbellrock@....

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