NEW ORLEANS — The attorneys representing residents in Gert Town claim the City of New Orleans not only knew about radioactive material in the area, but also knew the risk that it posed and tried to keep it out of the public eye.
In 2013, when the city hosted Super Bowl XLVII, the federal government discovered radioactive material two miles away from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome while conducting sweeps of the area for the event.
On Tuesday, new documents just released to Eyewitness News show exchanges between city officials and an environmental service that attorney Steven Rando said proves the city tried to discretely clean up the potentially hazardous material on Lowerline Street.
"We now have their emails, which say in October of 2018, the people that were involved with this Lowerline project, wanted to implement a recovery strategy, 'as surgically and discreetly as possible,'" Rando said. "Which means they really didn't want to notify the people that they had radioactive material in the ground on Lowerline."
Rando said he received more than 500 pages of documents after his office filed extensive public records request.
He claimed the city didn't do enough to alert the public about the potential dangers involved with the clean up.
"One of the doctors engaged by the city was asking questions as to whether or not people should be evacuated from that area and whether or not pregnant women should be given special precautions. The only thing that we've seen relative to that is they say, 'if you're pregnant, you don't wanna go around the site, and you don't want to get any dust on you,'" Rando said.
Last week, city officials released a statement saying their goal is to protect the health and safety of residents.
"Upon learning of the presence of the underground materials in 2018, this administration took immediate action by notifying residents prior to safely removing the material in close coordination with the appropriate federal and state partners," the statement said.
City officials also said they continually monitor the area and have not reported any increased risk to the public during the removal of the material.
Rando, however, said the emails paint another picture.
"I expect nothing from the city, I expect more lies from the city. That's all I expect," Rando said.
WWL-TV reached out to city late Tuesday night about these developments but did not hear back.
Read the City's full statement from June 28 below:
“This administration has been clear. Our goal is always to protect the health and safety of residents. This community has historically experienced environmental challenges, and it was imperative for us to address this immediately. Upon learning of the presence of the underground materials in 2018, this administration took immediate action by notifying residents prior to safely removing the material in close coordination with the appropriate federal and state partners. Due to the scope of the work necessary to protect health and safety, EPA assumed oversight of project operations. The City has been in constant communication with federal and state partners to push for safe and expedient removal and these agencies have been continually monitoring and have not reported any increased risk to the public during removal. The EPA has informed us the remaining containers will be removed next week. For further questions or concerns about the removal, call EPA Region 6 External Affairs at (214) 665-2200 or r6press@epa.gov”