Where are they gonna put all the debis?

[Pebbles]

The thought just downed on me. Where are they gonna put all the debris/destroyed buildings. I mean what the heck are they going to do with all the garbage/destroyed buildings from a metro/suburbs and other area's effected. Thats just enough to fill landfill after landfill after landfill! Especially as I don't see recycling being an option as much of anything recyclable besides metels can't be because of contamination.

[GalvestonDuck]

The thought just downed on me. Where are they gonna put all the debris/destroyed buildings. I mean what the heck are they going to do with all the garbage/destroyed buildings from a metro/suburbs and other area's effected. Thats just enough to fill landfill after landfill after landfill! Especially as I don't see recycling being an option as much of anything recyclable besides metels can't be because of contamination.

Could they burn some of it?

[aumoore]

My guess is it may be used to fill in NO along with virgin material on top. That would take care of two problems. One the contamination will be encapsulated and two the city will now be above sea level.

I actually expect many of the high rise buildings will be saved along with the roads but a lot of things like wiring and plumbing may be destroyed. The residential areas need to be buldozed and covered up to prepare for new structures.

[Mattie]

My personal thinking is they can't dump it back into the city because of contamination. I would think that they will load it on barges and take to a designated area where it can be properly dealt with.

[aumoore]

The thought just downed on me. Where are they gonna put all the debris/destroyed buildings. I mean what the heck are they going to do with all the garbage/destroyed buildings from a metro/suburbs and other area's effected. Thats just enough to fill landfill after landfill after landfill! Especially as I don't see recycling being an option as much of anything recyclable besides metels can't be because of contamination.

Could they burn some of it?

After Ivan much of the debris was wood from trees and house framing. I thought the local paper mill could have used it but dirt, rocks, steel plastic etc contaminated it. There were a few power plants that bought some of it for generating electricity. Some was actually exported for the same use.

The Piles of ground up trees and debris was amazing. They turned youth sports parks into processing areas. One area was probably 400 acres and it was completely covered with ground up wood stacked about 40-50 feet high. I can only imagine NO will be its own city dump

[gtalum]

I would personally like to see it used as fill to help fill the lowest parts of the city. We have no hazardous waste site large enough to handle that much stuff, so I doubt it will leave New Orleans.

I'd also liek to se ethe lowest-elevation parts of the city razed and turned into park land.

[cancunkid]

My guess is it may be used to fill in NO along with virgin material on top. That would take care of two problems. One the contamination will be encapsulated and two the city will now be above sea level.

aumoore my mother said the same thing. we do build all the time on old landfills in this country and it would solve a problem although I posted almost the same thing on a topic on rebuilding NO. I haven't gone back to see logistically why it probably won't be done.

I don't know enough about building in the south but I know in the midwest they hate for anyone to burn debris because treated lumber is so nasty. Full of arsnic until about 2 years ago. Not something they like to have released into the air or water. Mostly here pressure treated lumber is used for decks but I would think there would be quite a bit of it there.

[gtalum]

The air pollution from burning that much tainted debris woul dbe staggering. With the prevailing winds, the entire southeast would likely be blanketed with toxic ash and soot. Yuck.

[alicia-w]

The whole place will be a huge Superfund site. I cant even begin to imagine the amount of clean-up required to make it habitable again.

[janswizard]

I can't imagine them using it to to raise the city. After Betsy, much of the debris was dumped in a central location and that spot later become one of the Superfund sites. Would they make that mistake a second time?

[x-y-no]

The trouble with using this kind of debris as fill is that it will settle a lot over the first decade or two. You'd have endless structural problems with any building you did on top of it.

[Cookiely]

They mentioned lead in the flood waters today. I imagine from all the old paint on homes. Doubt they would burn it. I was wondering the same thing today and thought of using it as landfill but its impossible.