Environmental Consequences of Water Pumped from Greater New Orleans Following Hurricane Katrina: Chemical, Toxicological, and Infaunal Analysis

Abstract

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Environmental Laboratory, Vicksburg, MS, conducted a study to determine the extent to which Hurricane Katrina floodwaters in the New Orleans, Louisiana area may have had impacts on wildlife habitat and other biological resources in surrounding areas. These studies were conducted as part of the Interagency Performance Evaluation Taskforce, an investigation of environmental impacts originating from the failure of the hurricane protection system during Hurricane Katrina. This paper presents data regarding the effects of pumped floodwaters on sediment chemistry, toxicity, and benthic invertebrate assemblages near pumping stations that discharged floodwaters into marshes near Chalmette and Violet, Louisiana. Chemical contamination of sediments was observed and varied among sample locations (e.g., outfall locations, wastewater treatment plant, canals, and wetlands); however, trends in the chemistry data were not always consistent with bioassay results. A comparison of the sediment chemistry data from this study with three other studies reporting concentrations of chemicals in sediments within the city of New Orleans suggested that sediments and associated contaminants present within the levees were not pumped into the marsh in appreciable quantities.