Cleaning Up After Unwelcome Guests

After the worst of the wind and rain had died down from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and people began making their way back home, it became apparent that citizens of Texas and Florida would have more worries.  Following are a few examples of the worst messes left behind by the unwelcome guests.

·        The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency disclosed that at least thirteen toxic waste sites in Texas were flooded and damaged by Hurricane Harvey and another forty-one Superfund sites were negatively affected.  Legacy contamination includes lead, arsenic, polychlorinated biphenyls, benzene and other carcinogenic compounds from historic industrial processes.

·        In Florida storm problems after Hurricane Irma were amplified by human error when workers were repairing a pump station so vital in the flatlands of Florida.  The team accidentally released 2,000 gallons of raw sewage onto the streets of Edgewater, Florida. 

·        Some wastewater treatment systems were reportedly running backward in Florida.  In one Orlando neighborhood flooding caused a filter system to overflow and over 10,000 gallons of partly treated effluent bubbled up through manhole covers.

·        Houston experienced an outbreak of E.Coli, a type of bacteria typically found in human waste.  The Houston Health Department reported that in some flooded homes E.Coli contamination was as high as 135 times the level considered safe.

·        After Hurricane Irma over six million gallons of wastewater reportedly flowed out to the coast and the Key Biscayne aquatic preserve in Florida.

·        The U.S. EPA estimated that over two million pounds of hazardous substances had been released into the air from the more than 500 industrial sites in and around Houston during the week following Hurricane Harvey.  Chemicals such as nitrogen oxide, benzene and other volatile organic compounds are on the list of released toxins. 

·        The Florida Department of Environmental Protection reported an estimated 28 million gallons of treated and untreated sewage released in 22 counties after Hurricane Irma.

Harvey Comes to Town

So the two storms played out in the first weeks of September 2017.  Toxic wastes released from chemical plants and oil refineries bubbled up in Texas where the petrochemical industry dominates the landscape.  While in Florida plain old sewage and waste water posed the greatest threat to people, fish and wildlife in sunny Florida.  Different economies, different geographies, but the need for environmental readiness related to major storms is growing.

After Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 revealed serious faults in the New Orleans economy and infrastructure.  Irma and Harvey are now revealing that cities along the Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast have still not learned all the lessons.  They need help.  This will create demand for waste water treatment products and services.  For example, even before Hurricane Irma the EPA had estimated $17 billion would be needed over the next two decades just to maintain Florida’s existing waste water systems.  The maintenance bill for the entire country is near $271 billion.  However, with the prospect of increasingly powerful storms that have the power to do considerable damage to existing infrastructure, maintenance costs are likely to escalate.  

Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp has been appointed by the Governor Greg Abbott, as the fix-it man to prepare Texas for the next storm.  Drainage for fouled flood waters is top of Sharp’s to-do list  -  if adequate funding can be arranged.  Abbott has already estimated recovery after Hurricane Harvey will require $150 billion.  Congress recently took action to approve more than $15 billion in aid for Florida and Texas.  While the figure falls well short of the Abbotts’ estimate, it still presents a start for the two states now suffering from the most recent storm damage.  That translates into demand for companies with wastewater treatment solutions.

The next three posts will feature companies that can solve problems in Texas, Florida and a few other places. 

 

Neither the author of the Small Cap Strategist web log, Crystal Equity Research nor its affiliates have a beneficial interest in the companies mentioned herein.