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Hurricanes and the Effects
On Waterways:
The Rise in Industrial Pollutants
An environmental research project currently being conducted at the University of Houston may provide some important insight into the short and long-term effects of hurricanes on pollution levels and help state regulators and environmental engineering consultants determine the likelihood that certain bodies of water are more prone to higher levels of pollutants – particularly during the hurricane season.
Research work has focused on the Galveston Bay water system with an emphasis on identifying the environmental challenges facing the estuary during the typical hurricane season.
The primary focus has been on POPs, or persistent organic pollutants which include dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). By gathering data for 2009 (both before and after conditions) – then comparing this information to the 2008 data – will provide an important environmental impact perspective of hurricanes on natural resources such as Galveston Bay.
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Sophisticated research models have been created to help determine just how much pollution a body of water is consuming and where that pollution might be entering. 50 designated sites are monitored continuously to examine pollutants in sediment, water and tissue. Emphasis for the first few years was centered on dioxins. Today, researchers and energy consultants are looking at PCBs in every body of water in the Houston metro area, all the way to upper Galveston Bay. The focus is on past and current industrial pollutants.
Meanwhile, PCBs, whose use in manufacturing was banned in 1979, were once used as coolants and lubricants in electrical transformers and capacitors. Why PCBs still persist today in local waterways and seafood remains a mystery, but one scenario might link the problem to the transformers and capacitors. Historically with PCBs, if you made a million transformers, you didn’t have to destroy them. However, many outdated transformers in Houston were completely ruined by Hurricane Ike, and the impact of this is only now being realized as a potential threat to Houston’s waterways.
While dioxins in the Houston area can be traced back historically, researchers are actually seeing that PCBs patterns have shifted and that there could be some relatively new sources of PCBs. For the past decade, Houston has grown considerably in its industrial development, which might possibly be a major cause for allowing new material to enter the environment. What those new sources might include still remains unclear, but the concern is that materials which were once manufactured with PCBs before the ban may still be in use today.
Now that Houston’s industrial development has re-emerged, state officials are now dealing with the lingering repercussions of such growth and the mounting concerns regarding hurricanes and the aftermath of more pollutants. The PCBs issue is not going away any time soon. The sudden increase is only speculative at this time, but it’s a big enough worry to require immediate action in the near future.
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