The wetlands in Louisiana can also act as a buffer to pollutants in the water. While beautiful, the common comparison frequently made about the wetlands is that they are the kidneys of nature. The basis behind the nickname is that kidneys can filter out pollution and toxins that advance into the area. However, like the kidney which does a similar function in the human body, if it takes in too much pollution and toxic materials, the wetlands will begin to breakdown and begin to be destroyed. The BP Oil Spill in 2010 and Hurricane Katrina expedited the destruction with a mix of different toxins. However, in some cases, the toxins found may have been already present long before these two famous disasters.
Hurricane Katrina in 2005 caused a variety of issues with health and pollution in the Louisiana area. Some people in the area discussed a phenomenon they called “Toxic Soup” that while an issue was not nearly all because of the hurricane. The initial reports had the public concerned that the toxicity of the floodwaters due to chemicals, oil, human waste, and even dead bodies. However, this would be disproved as a later study showed that the amount of toxic metals found had been present in waters prior to Hurricane Katrina. The following was posted in an article posted on medicalnewstoday.com:
In one report, Michael T. Abel, Ph.D., of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, described finding potentially hazardous levels of lead and arsenic in New Orleans soil samples collected after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. "It should be noted that similar values found in this sampling effort were present in studies conducted before the hurricanes," Abel wrote in a summary of his presentation.
Without the wetlands, a lot of this natural filtering would not have been feasible. In this same article it is also mentioned how 118 square miles of wetlands turned into just water, which will reduce the amount of protection these wetlands can provide.
Five years later, the BP Oil Spill destroyed more of these same wetlands. Unfortuantely though in the case of an oil spill, the recovery efforts cannot be as simple as the ones for any other disaster. Charles Lavis, a lawyer working on the case of the oil spill explains on a blog that the mix of oily water and dead vegetation is hard to clean up because walking on soaked grass and removing said vegetation can remove roots necessary for re-growth. Some scientist have said though that nature will run its course to remove the mess. The problem with letting nature do what it needs to is the fishing business that is the primary source of income for many people in Louisiana. The other larger concern is that the amount of land that would be lost by the Oil Spill will exceed the amount lost by Hurricane Katrina.
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