While the human and economic toll of Hurricane Katrina continued to mount, New Orleans was beginning to pump back into Lake Pontchartrain the floodwaters that had inundated the city. What started flowing back into the lake is laced with raw sewage, bacteria, heavy metals, pesticides and toxic chemicals.

Whether or not the accelerating pumping of this brew from city streets into coastal waters poses a threat to the ecosystems and fisheries in the brackish bay remains to be seen.

Read (New York Times)