Near New Orleans a small oil-slickened dog was seen wandering in Chalmette, Louisiana, as cleanup crews recovered oil from a ruptured refinery tank on September 6, 2005. Tens of thousands of barrels of oil had spilled and mixed with receding floodwater from Hurricane Katrina.

Oil, gasoline, chemicals, feces, and other pollutants have so tainted New Orleans's water supply that safe drinking water may be largely unavailable for years, U.S. and Louisiana officials announced on September 7. Key sources of contamination are two oil spills, submerged cars and other machines, 2,200 facilities with underground fuel tanks, 25 major sewage-treatment plants, and tens of millions of tons of solid waste, according to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

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