Post-Katrina fecal contamination in Violet Marsh near New Orleans.

John Furey,Margaret Richmond,Herbert Fredrickson,Chris Foote

doi:10.3390/ijerph2007040001

Abstract

Fecal material entrained in New Orleans flood waters was pumped into the local environment. Violet Marsh received water pumped from St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward. Sediment core samples were collected from canals conducting water from these areas to pump stations and from locations within Violet Marsh. Viable indicator bacteria and fecal sterols were used to assess the levels of fecal material in sediment deposited after the levee failures and deeper sediments deposited before. Most of the cores had fecal coliform levels that exceed the biosolids criterion. All of the cores had fecal sterols that exceeded the suggested environmental quality criterion. Our data show both a long history of fecal contamination in Violet Marsh and an increase in fecal loading corresponding to the failure of the levee system. The work was performed as part of the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force investigation into the consequences of the failures of the New Orleans levee system.

Highlights

Multiple failures of the levee system protection for the City of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August 2005 led to the flooding of the metropolitan area
The United States Army Corps of Engineers created and led the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) shortly after the flooding by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to evaluate the performance of the New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana hurricane protection system and the consequences of the system failure
This study focused on Violet Marsh which received the water that was pumped from the Lower Ninth Ward and Chalmette

Summary

Introduction

Multiple failures of the levee system protection for the City of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August 2005 led to the flooding of the metropolitan area. The United States Army Corps of Engineers created and led the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) shortly after the flooding by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to evaluate the performance of the New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana hurricane protection system and the consequences of the system failure. As part of the IPET investigation of the environmental consequences of the failure of the levee system, the U.S Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) analyzed the distribution of fecal contamination in the New Orleans environs during and after the flooding [4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion