Katrina: "Love Canal-type landfill" submerged in floodwaters

Snip from a story in Solid Waste Magazine:

Overlooked in many news reports about the unfolding storm disaster in the southern United States, especially in the City of New Orleans, in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, is a potentially dramatic pollution issue related to a toxic landfill that sits under the flood waters right in the city's downtown, according to map overlays of the flooded area. The situation could exacerbate the already dire threat to human health and the environment from the flood waters.

The Agriculture Street Landfill (ASL) is situated on a 95-acre site in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana. The ASL is a federally registered Superfund site, and is on the National Priorities List of highly contaminated sites requiring cleanup and containment. A few years ago the site, which sits underneath and beside houses and a school, was fenced and covered with clean soil. However, three feet or more of flood waters could potentially cause the landfill's toxic contents – the result of decades of municipal and industrial waste dumping – to leach out.

Link (Thanks, Phil Gross) Reader comment: Brent Cater says,

Why is no one mentioning the nuclear power plant in New Orleans? It was in an area that flooded. I wonder what its condition is?

Reader comment: TomorrowYesterday says,

This article published on the 28th notes that the nuclear power plant near New Orleans was shut down in preparation for Katrina. One would imagine that it is in good condition.

Reader comment: Clay Shonkwiler says,

Apropos the reader comment about the safety of the nuclear plant in New Orleans, it's fitting that the International Atomic Energy Agency organized a "International Workshop on External Flooding Hazards at Nuclear Power Plant Sites." At least, according to the attached link they did; I can't find any references since August 29 to it on Google News and there's nothing on the IAEA's own site. According to the agenda (Link, PDF) there were at least two talks specifically about U.S. reactors and flooding. Note that the conference was inspired by the flooding of India's Kalpakkam NPP during the tsunami and that the plant shut down safely with no release of radiation.