06/30/2006

Associated Press

Test results show that a landfill built next to a Vietnamese community is safe, state environmental regulators said Friday, but the announcement did little to quell a bitter fight over the dump in eastern New Orleans.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said air and water samples were taken at the Chef Menteur Landfill in late May and early June to see if contaminants such as zinc and asbestos were being released. The landfill was opened to speed up the cleanup from Hurricane Katrina.

Sampling shows there are no risks and Chuck Brown, an assistant secretary at the agency, said that proves the facility is not toxic.

"The state, local and federal agencies involved in the cleanup of New Orleans have gone to great lengths to reassure the public that these disposal sites are safe for human health and the environment," Brown said.

"This should ease the concerns of the citizens," said Mayor Ray Nagin.

But the Rev. Vien Nguyen, a Vietnamese pastor and leader of the Village de l'Est community, said the sampling proves little. The tests were taken shortly after the landfill opened and he said it was premature to say how toxic the dump will be in the long term.

"The issue here is not today, it is what will happen five years down the road," the priest said.

Nguyen vowed to continue fighting the landfill, which Nagin approved on an emergency basis. The landfill is big enough to handle a third of the estimated waste in the city from Katrina.

This week the White House sent a mediator to ease talks between the Vietnamese community and government officials. Those talks resulted in an agreement to conduct more studies to understand the long-term social, economic and environmental hazards posed by the landfill, Nguyen said.