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NY Times, Sept. 12 2017
Houston’s Floodwaters Are Tainted With Toxins, Testing Shows
By SHEILA KAPLAN and JACK HEALY017
HOUSTON — Floodwaters in two Houston neighborhoods have been
contaminated with bacteria and toxins that can make people sick, testing
organized by The New York Times has found. Residents will need to take
precautions to return safely to their homes, public health experts said.
It is not clear how far the toxic waters have spread. But Fire Chief
Samuel Peña of Houston said over the weekend that there had been
breaches at numerous waste treatment plants. The Environmental
Protection Agency said on Monday that 40 of 1,219 such plants in the
area were not working.
The results of The Times’s testing were troubling. Water flowing down
Briarhills Parkway in the Houston Energy Corridor contained Escherichia
coli, a measure of fecal contamination, at a level more than four times
that considered safe.
In the Clayton Homes public housing development downtown, along the
Buffalo Bayou, scientists found what they considered astonishingly high
levels of E. coli in standing water in one family’s living room — levels
135 times those considered safe — as well as elevated levels of lead,
arsenic and other heavy metals in sediment from the floodwaters in the
kitchen.
“It suggests to me that conditions inside the home are more ideal for
bacteria to grow and concentrate. It’s warmer and the water has
stagnated for days and days. I know some kids were playing in the
floodwater outside those places. That’s concerning to me.”
The Associated Press and CNN last week reported high levels of E. coli
contamination, but did not specify where the samples were taken.
The E.P.A. and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality have
expressed concern about toxic floodwaters, but have not made public the
results of sampling they may have done.
Residents and medical professionals said they are seeing infections that
likely resulted from exposure to the dirty floodwaters.
Dr. Beau Briese, an emergency room physician at Houston Methodist
Hospital, said he had seen a doubling in the number of cases of
cellulitis — reddened skin infections — since the storm. He said it was
a more modest increase than he had expected, and that the infections had
been successfully treated with antibiotics.
Dr. David Persse, the chief medical officer of Houston, said residents
caring for children, the elderly and those with immune disorders should
try to keep them out of homes until they have been cleaned.
“Everybody has to consider the floodwater contaminated,” Dr. Persse
said. He also warned residents to avoid letting cuts and scrapes come
into contact with the floodwaters, which can cause infection.
Brad Greer, 49, developed two scabby infections on each of his legs
where rain boots had irritated his skin. He took antibiotics, but on
Saturday, he said, he started feeling lightheaded and weak as he and his
brother-in-law tried to move possessions from Mr. Greer’s flooded home.
He went to the emergency room at Houston Methodist, where he was put on
an intravenous drip and given another antibiotic prescription. Mr. Greer
said swimming pools around his neighborhood are rank.
“All the pools are just giant toilets you’re unable to flush,” he said.
The lab analysis was paid for by The Times. The sampling was conducted
by a team from Baylor Medical College and Rice University, working with
the Houston health department’s Bureau of Pollution Control and Prevention.
The group, accompanied by Times reporters, took water and sediment
samples last week by boat, truck and on foot. The samples were analyzed
by A & B Labs, a state-certified service that often works with federal
agencies.
The dearth of information about the safety of the water has upset many
residents, including Maria Sotolongo, who lives with her husband and
three children on Briarhills Parkway, an upscale development in
Houston’s West Oaks/Eldridge neighborhood.
“Nobody has told us not to come,” Mrs. Sotolongo said on Sunday, the
first day she was able to get back into her house.
Earlier in the week, she had helped The Times’s team reach her home by
boat in order to take water and sediment samples on what had been her
front lawn.
“It’s a horrific smell and full of gunk,” she said. “We’ve seen fish in
parts of the kitchen.”
Mrs. Sotolongo was well outfitted in rubber boots, gloves and a mask.
But some families in inundated neighborhoods in west Houston said they
had developed staph infections and other health problems after wading
through waters released from reservoirs that swamped their homes long
after other parts of the city had dried out.
“It scared us to death,” said John Denson, 40, who lives in the
Nottingham Forest neighborhood. He had waded through the murky waters
with his wife and two sons to try to salvage things from their home.
Mr. Denson said infections had festered on a cut to his hand and small
scratches where the waterproof waders his family wore had rubbed skin
raw. In addition, Mr. Denson said that his 14-year-old son, who has
asthma, started coughing and had difficulty breathing after being inside
their home.
“Coughing up a lung,” Mr. Denson said.
Roderick Francis, 47, who has been living with his wife, Kimberly, and
four of their children in Clayton Homes, was also unaware of the health
risks.
“I know the houses all flooded like mine,” he said. “I didn’t know of
any contamination.”
Mrs. Francis said the couple came back to salvage their belongings from
the house, but found it too putrid to stay for long. She was troubled by
the yellow, green and black mold already appearing on the couch — as
well as by the information that testers had found elevated levels of
lead and arsenic, which are neurotoxins, in the floodwater.
The family will not go back to live in their house, and will likely move
to Dallas.
Winifred Hamilton, director of the Environmental Health Service at
Baylor College of Medicine and a member of the testing group, said she
is especially worried about exposure to mold among people who are moving
back or who bring along their children as they try to clean and repair
their houses.
“I’d be wearing a mask with a filter,’’ she said, “and goggles and
gloves, with rubber boots. I would change my clothes immediately after
leaving the house, and put them in the wash with nothing else.”
“Mold is taking off all over the city,” Ms. Hamilton added. “People with
allergies or asthma are particularly sensitive to it. If people have bad
headaches, respiratory problems, swelling of a limb or a bad rash, go
see a doctor right away. Don’t assume it will go away on its own.’’
Ms. Hamilton also encouraged people to keep an eye on their kids.
“We have a lot of what looks like sand, like something you might want to
make a castle of,” she said. “But this is not clean sand, this is sludge
sediment.”
“Don’t let your children play in sediment from the flood. We don’t want
children playing in lead.”
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