pbs高端访谈:退洪后的工业残渣引居民担忧

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Now we turn to our ongoing¹ coverage² of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

　　Tonight, special correspondent Rick Karr looks at environmental concerns in New York City. Many residents in Brooklyn want to know more about the risks of chemicals that may have spread when the storm surge hit.

　　RICK KARR:The area around Brooklyn's GowanusCanal could be New York City's answer to Amsterdam. At least, that's what some real estate developers are betting. The canal's neighbor to the north, Newtown Creek³, can offer up its own beautiful vistas⁴, but both waterways are also surrounded by heavy industry, as they have been for more than a hundred years.

　　And so they're among the most polluted in the country, so bad that the Environmental Protection Agency has designated both as superfund cleanup sites.

　　THOMAS BURKE, JohnsHopkinsUniversity: There are persistent⁵ contaminants there, like PCBs, like heavy metals, that have been there probably for a good part of the last century.

　　RICK KARR:Thomas Burke teaches about the environment and public health at JohnsHopkinsUniversity.

　　THOMAS BURKE:There are also kind of combustion⁶ byproducts—that sounds like a fancy term, but that's from the old plants there, coal tar⁷ plants and plants like that, so there's heavy petroleum⁸ molecules⁹ too.

　　RICK KARR:Some of those chemicals in the water have been shown to cause cancer in animals. Others can damage the central nervous system. Both the creek and the canal overtopped their banks when Sandy's storm surge reached them. The water lapped onto sidewalks and poured into buildings nearby.

　　Here in the Greenpoint neighborhood, the Newtown creek is less than a quarter-mile away. And one of New York's biggest sewage treatment plants, which was also in the flood zone, is just around the corner. Resident Jacqueline Lombard says water poured into her house from both directions.

　　JACQUELINE LOMBARD,New York resident: The evening that Sandy hit, we were hit with an eight-foot storm surge that basically flooded my basement up through the ceiling and my landlord's basement here up through their first floor. So it was a very smelly, noxious¹⁰ mix.

　　RICK KARR:The floodwaters drained out of Lombard's basement quickly, but left a lot of muck behind.

　　JACQUELINE LOMBARD:There was a lot of silt¹¹, a lot of mud, a lot of debris¹², sewage that flowed in and then flowed out. And the residue¹³ was left.+RICK KARR:The flood left residue in Emrys Berkowers' waterfront furniture workshop too.

　　EMRYS BERKOWERS,New York resident: There was an oily sheen, a slippery feel to everything. I saw a good number of things that had a sort of white foamy¹⁴, kind of almost waxy¹⁵ film. I really don't know what it is. And it's kind of alarming to me, actually.

　　RICK KARR:Berkowers' workshop sits around three quarters of a mile from the mouth of the polluted GowanusCanal and this oil distribution depot¹⁶.

　　REP. NYDIA VELAZQUEZ,D-N.Y.: We don't know what was in that water.

　　RICK KARR:Nydia Velazquez is a Democratic member of Congress who represents areas around the GowanusCanal and Newtown Creek. She's been pushing the Obama administration to find out what kinds of contaminants may have been spread by the storm and what can be done to prevent contamination during future floods.

　　NYDIA VELAZQUEZ: We have a cluster of heavy industries throughout the waterfront with some kind of metals, petroleum. We need to know if there are any safety and health issues as it relates to this storm surge that impacted these communities.

　　RICK KARR:The Environmental Protection Agency did test a few flooded sites, two along the GowanusCanal and two near the Newtown Creek. The agency tested the Newtown creek sites 13 days after the storm.

　　The EPA detected high levels of bacteria and some gasoline and diesel¹⁷ fuel. The agency declined requests for an interview, but in a press release reported that other chemicals that were tested were below levels of concern or not detected.

　　Thomas Burke of Johns Hopkins used to be the state of New Jersey's chief environmental scientist. He says it appears the risk from Sandy's floodwaters are low, but it's impossible to know the long-term risks of what may have been in the water without more extensive testing.

　　THOMAS BURKE:Does every single house have to be sampled? Can we characterize what was in the floodwaters without doing that? Probably. But we do need more samples. And I think, if I lived there, I would want to know.

　　RICK KARR:Burke says it's difficult for the EPA to do a lot testing in the wake of disasters like Sandy, but he says testing is the only way to ameliorate the fears of flood zone residents like Jacqueline Lombard.

　　JACQUELINE LOMBARD: I ended up in the hospital with a full-blown case of bronchitis. Eight days after, so did my landlord, so did his wife. So did our neighbor.

　　Everybody sort of got sick at the same time. All of us sort of attributed it to, well, we're all stressed out. It's very cold. We're all sleeping in houses without heat or hot water.

　　But, that said, you know, there is a lot of nasty stuff hanging about. And, you know, again, when the EPA shows up with a van and six people get out, you know, it kind of tells you something.

　　RICK KARR:Lombard says she's lucky. Because she was renting, she can move elsewhere. But her neighbors near the Newtown Creek's Superfund site may have to live through another flood and whatever it brings with it.

1 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

2 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

3 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

4 vistas   

长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景

参考例句：

• This new job could open up whole new vistas for her. 这项新工作可能给她开辟全新的前景。
• The picture is small but It'shows broad vistas. 画幅虽然不大，所表现的天地却十分广阔。

5 persistent   

adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的

参考例句：

• Albert had a persistent headache that lasted for three days.艾伯特连续头痛了三天。
• She felt embarrassed by his persistent attentions.他不时地向她大献殷勤，使她很难为情。

6 combustion   

n.燃烧；氧化；骚动

参考例句：

• We might be tempted to think of combustion.我们也许会联想到氧化。
• The smoke formed by their combustion is negligible.由它燃烧所生成的烟是可忽略的。

7 tar   

n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于

参考例句：

• The roof was covered with tar.屋顶涂抹了一层沥青。
• We use tar to make roads.我们用沥青铺路。

8 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

9 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

10 noxious   

adj.有害的，有毒的；使道德败坏的，讨厌的

参考例句：

• Heavy industry pollutes our rivers with noxious chemicals.重工业产生的有毒化学品会污染我们的河流。
• Many household products give off noxious fumes.很多家用产品散发有害气体。

11 silt   

n.淤泥，淤沙，粉砂层，泥沙层；vt.使淤塞；vi.被淤塞

参考例句：

• The lake was almost solid with silt and vegetation.湖里几乎快被淤泥和植物填满了。
• During the annual floods the river deposits its silt on the fields.每年河水泛滥时都会在田野上沉积一层淤泥。

12 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

13 residue   

n.残余，剩余，残渣

参考例句：

• Mary scraped the residue of food from the plates before putting them under water.玛丽在把盘子放入水之前先刮去上面的食物残渣。
• Pesticide persistence beyond the critical period for control leads to residue problems.农药一旦超过控制的临界期，就会导致残留问题。

14 foamy   

adj.全是泡沫的，泡沫的，起泡沫的

参考例句：

• In Internet foamy 2001, so hard when, everybody stayed. 在互联网泡沫的2001年，那么艰难的时候，大家都留下来了。 来自互联网
• It's foamy milk that you add to the coffee. 将牛奶打出泡沫后加入咖啡中。 来自互联网

15 waxy   

adj.苍白的；光滑的

参考例句：

• Choose small waxy potatoes for the salad.选些个头小、表皮光滑的土豆做色拉。
• The waxy oil keeps ears from getting too dry.这些蜡状耳油可以保持耳朵不会太干燥。

16 depot   

n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站

参考例句：

• The depot is only a few blocks from here.公共汽车站离这儿只有几个街区。
• They leased the building as a depot.他们租用这栋大楼作仓库。

17 diesel   

n.柴油发动机，内燃机

参考例句：

• We experimented with diesel engines to drive the pumps.我们试着用柴油机来带动水泵。
• My tractor operates on diesel oil.我的那台拖拉机用柴油开动。