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Rotting Flood Cars Should be Banned from California

By Rosemary Shahan
President
Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety

A year after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, an estimated 500,000--600,000 flood-ravaged vehicles remain at large. Experts agree the cars are extremely hazardous "killer cars"--automotive ticking time bombs that are basically rotting from the inside out.

Insurers have "totalled" them--taken them from their owners, and paid off their insurance claims. But if you think that is the end of the road for the Katrina cars, you are in for a huge surprise. Despite warnings they should all be crushed, most of them are headed for sale to unsuspecting used car buyers. Auto insurers have quietly shipped almost all of their "total loss" Katrina flood cars to other states.

California, with our enormous, lucrative market, is a notorious for being a favorite dumping ground. Insurers ship the hurricane cars to more than 20 "salvage pools" in California where they are auctioned off to the highest bidder. Unscrupulous, unlicensed rebuilders buy them, give them a power wash and replace the upholstery, and sell them to unscrupulous auto dealers, who in turn foist them off on unsuspecting used car buyers--often teenagers buying their first cars, or single moms. The insurers get a cut of the proceeds from the auctions, reducing their losses by millions of dollars.

Why are the cars so dangerous? Saltwater is corroding all their electronic components. It's only a matter of time before the engines start to die in traffic without warning. The air bags may not inflate in a crash. The braking systems are likely to fail.

They are also contaminated with toxic residue that cannot be totally removed. According to a task force that includes the U.S. EPA and the Centers for Disease Control, if the contents of the sludge they were submerged in were put into a bucket and shipped, it would have to be classified as a "Hazardous Material." They warn anyone coming in contact with the vehicles to wear protective gear and caution that "each flooded vehicle can potentially carry an extraordinary amount of harmful residue." They note that the floodwaters were tested and found to have "high levels of raw sewage, hexavalent chromium, arsenic and lead....as well as biological waste that includes human and animal remains."

Why isn't more being done to stop the illicit trade in flood cars? Last November Congress held a hearing to delve into the hazards posed by Katrina flood cars. Experts from the National Insurance Crime Bureau, National Automobile Dealers Association, National Association of Attorneys General and American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators testified. I was invited to testify on behalf of consumers. We were all in agreement--the vehicles pose an imminent threat to the public's health and safety. Lawmakers, including Senator George Allen of Virginia, who presided over the hearing, promised quick action. But since then, due to opposition from the powerful insurance industry, Congress has done nothing.

Here in California, lawmakers succumbed to heavy lobbying by insurers and car dealers who profit from flood car frauds. They failed to pass legislation that would have banned the hurricane flood cars from entering our borders.

CARS is leading efforts in California to expose the hazards of flood cars and protect the public from being victimized by flood car frauds. If you suspect you have purchased a flood car, or wish to report a flood car, you may contact Rosemary Shahan at Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, phone: 530-759-9440 or via e-mail at stopsca@earthlink.net. More info, including tips for spotting flood cars, is posted on their website.

Posted on August 30, 2006

Comments

The new topic for this discussion is that of sewage sludge and its safe disposal. Specifically we're talking about 33% of the sewage sludge generated within the State of California which mostly comes from Los Angeles and Orange County with assorted other municipal wastes thrown in. This sewage sludge for years now has been trucked from southern California over the Grapevine pass into Kern County and dumped on agricultural fields there. There are approximately 10,000 acres of farmland where the sewage sludge is dumped and spread, not the least of which is the City of Los Angeles' own 4,688 acre farm in Kern County where they spread just under 254,000 tons of sewage sludge in 2005. They -- The City of LA -- ironically has named this cess pool "farm" "Green Acres". Cities the sewage sludge comes from for LA City's "Green Acre" farm include Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale, Santa Monica, El Segundo, Beverly Hills, Culver City, San Fernando, and West Hollywood. The city of Los Angeles trucks 99.9 percent of its treated sewage sludge to it's farm south of Bakersfield.

Tiring of this pollution from Southern California, Kern County voters in June passed an initiative -- Measure E -- banning the importation of sewage sludge into Kern County. The vote was 83% in favor of the ban. It stops the practice of spreading treated human and industrial sewage sludge on Kern county farmland.

The toxic nature of sewage sludge is well known and is fast becoming a topic of concern nationally and internationally. The subject is also rife with industrial and political intrigue as $ millions annually are involved. For a scientific treatment of the topic including an analysis of the political and industrial bias issues, I refer you to Dr, Caroline Synder's recent article in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health.
http://www.ijoeh.com/pfds/IJOEH_1104_Snyder.pdf

On or about August 14, the news came forth that the City of LA's City Council and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa passed a measure to appropriate money to hire law firms and sue the County of Kern for this action of blocking imported sewage sludge. The city of Los Angeles filed the suit along with a coalition of other sewage agencies and private-industry sludge interests. The suit names Kern County and the Board of Supervisors as defendants.
http://cityclerk.lacity.org/CFI/DisplayOnlineDocument.cfm?SRT=D1&cfnum=05-0688

In a press release, State Senator Dean Florez (Shafter CA) had this to say:

"Upon learning that the City of Los Angeles has filed suit to overturn Kern County’s voter-approved ban on the land application of sewage sludge, State Senator Dean Florez, D-Shafter, called on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to live up to his own claims of being a “green” mayor. Florez, who spearheaded efforts to prevent treated human waste -- euphemistically known as “biosolids” – from being spread on land above sensitive groundwater reserves, pointed out the hypocrisy of Villaraigosa saying he’s “committed to making LA the greenest big city in America” (SF Chronicle blog, 08-01-06) when he does so at the expense of his neighbors to the north in Kern County."

Subsequent to this there have been two major articles written and picked up both nationally and internationally including the UK's Guardian. Other than an initial piece on August 16, the LA Times as well as key surrounding -- geographically -- publications have been virtually silent on this topic. Today the New York Times published a lengthy article entitled "Los Angeles and Farm Area Duel Over Disposal of Waste" on the entire subject. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/us/27waste.html

Can you tell me why the LA Times appears to be embargoing this story? Could it be that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is considered to be a future Democratic candidate for Governor? I ask rhetorically, could that possibly be a reason for not covering the story -- a story that appears to appeal to readers as far away from LA as London?

It's disgusting really... No wonder this quote seems appropriate:

... the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.

Australian social scientist, quoted by Noam Chomsky in World Orders Old and New

Posted by: Frank at August 31, 2006 08:43 AM

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