Chemical and microbiological indicators of environmental impacts around New Orleans due to hurricanes Katrina and Rita

DSTR 23

Herbert L Fredrickson, fredrih@wes.army.mil1, John S. Furey2, Mark Dortch1, Mansour Zakikhani1, Chris Foote2, Kim Sung-Chan2, and Margaret Richmond, richmom@wes.army.mil3. (1) Environmental Laboratory, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, 3909 Halls Ferry Rd, Vicksburg, MS 39180-6199, (2) Environmental Laboratory, USAE Waterways Experiment Station, 3909 Halls Ferry Rd., Vicksburg, MS 39180, (3) Environmental Laboratory, SpekPro, 3909 Halls Ferry Rd, Vicksburg, MS 39180
The flooding of the City of New Orleans resulted in the entrainment of chemical and infectious contaminants that either sedimented within the levees or was pumped from the city along with the floodwater. We used benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) as a tracer for total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) pollution, and fecal coliform counts and fecal sterol levels as markers for fecal contamination to assess the exposure of adjoining ecosystems, Lake Pontchartrain and Violet Marsh, to these two classes of major contaminants. COE environmental models predicted and Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation data showed the elevated fecal coliform counts were confined to the shore adjacent to pump outfalls. Measured (March 2006) levels of fecal coliforms were mostly below levels of concern in Violet Marsh. However, both BaP and fecal sterol analysis revealed a chronic input of fecal and TPH into this confined system and that the levels of these contaminant indicators were higher in the most recently deposited sediments. Assessment of environmental expose was method dependent.
 

Recovery from and Prevention of Natural Disasters
1:00 PM-5:05 PM, Tuesday, 12 September 2006 Moscone Center -- Room 300, Oral

Recovery From & Prevention of Natural Disasters

The 232nd ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, September 10-14, 2006