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Disasters & the Law

UC Berkeley School of Law

5 entriesexpand all

+Esworthy, Robert, et al., Congressional Research Service (CRS), Cleanup after Hurricane Katrina: Environmental Considerations (Updated May 3, 2006) (PDF — 221KB)

"This report provides an overview of the immediate and intermediate cleanup tasks and the federal role supporting these tasks."—Summary.

+Mason, Byron, National Research Council, Law, Science & Disaster: Summary of the October 18, 2005 Workshop of the Disasters Roundtable (National Academies Press) (2006)

"The Disasters Roundtable convened its 15th workshop on Law, Science, and Disaster on October 18, 2005. It is recognized that science and technology can provide part of the basis for more effective hazard-related laws and regulations, including zoning laws, building codes, and hazard disclosure requirements. It is also clear that issues unrelated to science and technology also drive the development of hazard and disaster law. This workshop examined recent developments and trends in hazard and disaster law and its implementation, and drew on the September 11, 2001 experience to discuss the related issue of victim compensation."—Summary.

+Tibbetts, John, Louisiana's Wetlands: A Lesson in Nature Appreciation Environmental Health Perspectives, v.114, no.1 (January 2006), pp.A40-A43 (Spheres of Influence) (PDF — 2.4M)

"Hurricane Katrina's disastrous flooding of the Gulf Coast confirmed three decades of warnings by scientists. Most of New Orleans is below sea level, and South Louisiana's coastal wetlands, which once helped buffer the city from giant storms, have been disappearing at a spectacularly swift pace. Now some researchers are calling for restoration of wetlands and barrier islands to help protect New Orleans the next time a hurricane strikes."

+Tomain, Joseph P., Katrina's Energy Agenda (provided by: SSRN) (U of Cincinnati Public Law Research Paper No. 06-18) (Natural Resources & Environment, Vol. 20, No. 4, Spring 2006)

"Hurricane Katrina is a warning for the United States not only about disaster response but also about planning for a healthy and productive energy economy. The Energy Policy Act of 2005, signed into law only months before Katrina, continues a policy that has dominated our energy thinking for over a century. Neither the United States nor the world can continue on a path of increased fossil fuel burning without acknowledging the long-term, global, difficult to manage, and complex to understand consequences of climate change. This article advocates a significant energy transition away from that path to become less dependent on fossil fuels and more dependent on cleaner renewable and alternative fuels. An alternative energy policy has been developing over the last three decades that is based on the assumption that energy production has a direct impact on the quality of the environment, on national security, and on global relations, as well as on a healthy pro-growth economy. Katrina presents an opportunity to reevaluate the traditional policy and to engage in a transition to this new "smart" energy policy for a strong economic future." —Abstract.

+Walsh, William J. et al., An Evaluation of Chemical Contamination in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (UCB Institutional License) (provided by: UCB institutional license) Environment Reporter, Vol. 37, No. 43 (Nov. 3, 2006)

"In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, concerns over a potential 'toxic gumbo' in New Orleans and concerns for public safety were paramount for state and federal agencies. This concern was evidenced by the unprecedented nature of the investigation of residential floodwater sediment contamination. Looking at the Environmental Protection Agency's residential sediment and soil sampling results, the authors attempt to place these results in the appropriate scientific context, to provide some preliminary suggestions concerning the lessons learned, and to examine policy issues that have arisen in this situation and that may arise in a future disaster. The authors believe the compressed risk management approach used by EPA may be useful in other large scale contamination events."