EPA’s Current and Future Environmental Protection Efforts Could Be Enhanced by Addressing Issues and Challenges Faced on the Gulf Coast

U.S. Government Accountability Office Highlights of GAO-07-651, a report to congressional committees June 2007

Under challenging circumstances, EPA worked with federal and state partners to respond to chemical and oil spills, collect abandoned chemical containers, coordinate recycling of damaged appliances, and collect and recycle electronic waste.

EPA also conducted air, water, sediment, and soil sampling; helped assess drinking water and wastewater infrastructures; and issued timely information to the public on a variety of environmental health risks, such asbestos exposure.

However, as cleanup continues, EPA’s assurance that public health is protected from risks associated with inhalation of asbestos fibers is limited because the agency has not deployed air monitors in and around New Orleans neighborhoods where demolition and renovation activities are concentrated.

While EPA took steps to monitor asbestos after the Hurricane Katrina—for example, more than doubling the number of ambient (outdoor) air monitors and monitoring emissions at debris reduction sites—monitors were not placed in areas undergoing substantial demolition and renovation, such as the Ninth Ward.

This is problematic because monitors effectively detect releases of asbestos from demolition activities only if they are located immediately adjacent to demolition sites. Further, many thousands of homes being demolished and renovated by or for individual homeowners are generally not subject to EPA’s asbestos emissions standards aimed at limiting releases of fibers into the air.