Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Razing the neighborhoods in New Orleans

Washington Times:

Environmental Protection Agency officials and environmental specialists said yesterday that the cleanup of flood-soaked New Orleans will require razing neighborhoods, comprehensive disinfection, and extensive removal of soil and sediment infused with chemicals and bacteria.
"The whole city of New Orleans has the potential for being a giant Superfund [toxic dump] site," said Robert D. Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University in Georgia.
EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said tests continue to show high, unsafe levels of sewage and lead in New Orleans' water and evidence of other chemicals, such as chromium, copper, iron and sodium.
He characterized Hurricane Katrina as the "largest natural disaster the EPA and the nation have ever faced."
"Until we have a better handle on the magnitude of the problems, it is impossible to speculate on how long it will take" to resolve the environmental threats, said Mr. Johnson, who cited concern about the contaminated floodwaters' effect on the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico.
Several people familiar with the subject predicted that once the floodwaters are flushed out, possibly by next month, there will be extensive debate about the safety of certain neighborhoods, schoolyards and parks because of the presence of chemicals and bacteria.
"They are now part of the ecosystem, part of the water, part of the soil. Those chemicals will be absorbed on any surface, organic and inorganic," said Mirat Gurol, professor of environmental engineering at San Diego State University.
Ms. Gurol said many of the organisms will survive in spores and cysts, becoming dangerous again once they get in contact with water or humidity. She also expressed concerns about health risks from long-term exposure to chemicals and to heavy metals, such as lead, which do not decay in the soil.
The EPA also has found carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in New Orleans' floodwaters.

So why would anyone want to go back and live with that?