FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 7, 2005

CONTACT:
Christina Kreitzer (415) 977-5619


  DELlSLE RESIDENTS LACKING CONFIDENCE IN GOVERNMENT'S SAFETY ASSURANCES
      Groups Resort to Independent Testing in Schools, Neighborhoods

DeLisle, MS -- Local residents, concerned that government officials are
playing down health risks around the DuPont chemical plant, are taking
matters in their own hands by enlisting the help of private organizations
to evaluate whether Katrina's storm surge spread toxic contaminants in the
surrounding area.  Working with the Sierra Club, environmental consultant
and chemist Wilma Subra is conducted testing in the residential
neighborhoods surrounding the plant as well as the DeLisle Elementary
School. Results from the testing will be available in roughly two weeks.

Subra provides technical assistance on environmental issues to Southern
Mutual Help Association (SMHA), a private organization founded in 1969 to
aid distressed rural communities.

"The flooding of the DuPont DeLisle chemical plant created a serious cause
for concern over the safety of the residences and schools surrounding the
area," said Subra.  "Officials should have been the ones conducted testing
in these areas."

Nearly nine feet of water buried DeLisle's chemical facility, the country's
second-largest titanium dioxide maker, in at least 7 to 9 feet of hurricane
floodwaters.  The plant produces 14 millions pounds of toxic waste
annually, but Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ)
officials claim that no hazardous material leaks have been found at the
DuPont facility.  MDEQ and the Environmental Protection Agency just
recently began monitoring the facility.

"How can DuPont and MDEQ officials possibly claim that the area around the
DeLisle plant is safe?" said Becky Gillette, co-chair of the Sierra Club's
Mississippi Chapter.  "Families will head back to their destroyed or
flooded houses to clean and save their possessions and may be exposed to
harmful poisons that they won't even know about.  Communities have a right
to know about the potential health risks associated with the plant's toxic
waste contaminating soil and drinking water."

                                   ####


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to:
[log in to unmask]