United States
                      Environmental Protection
                      Agency
                                                 Office of Research and
                                                 Development
                                                 Washington DC 20460
EPA/620/R-02/001b
       April, 2002
                                           Barataria - Terrebonne, Louisiana
                                                National Estuary Program
                                                2001 Intensive Sampling Design
>&EPA    Coastal  Communications

                             Barataria-Terrebonne,  Louisiana
                                National  Estuary Program
                               National Coastal Assessment
                            ORO/OW/Region 6/BTNEP/L&WF

Background
The U.S. EPA's National Coastal Assessment
(NCA) is a multi-year partnership among EPA's
Office of Research and Development (ORD),
EPA's Office of Water (OW), EPA's Regional
Offices, all coastal states, and selected
territories. The effort described here is
conducted in special partnership with the
Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program
(BTNEP). This joint effort will evaluate the
changing condition of tributaries to and coastal
areas of the BTNEP.  Information will also be
shared with Louisiana Department of Wildlife
and Fisheries (LDWF) and EPA Region 6, and
contribute to state and regional assessments.
The effort is being coordinated by the ORD
National Health and Environmental Effects
Research Laboratory's Gulf Ecology Division in Gulf Breeze, Florida.

National Coastal  Assessment Strategy
The National Coastal Assessment is a strategic partnership between EPA and the coastal states and other
federal agencies. Each state or NEP uses a compatible probabilistic design and a common set of
environmental indicators (see Table below) to survey its coastal resources and assess their condition. These
estimates can then be aggregated to assess conditions at the EPA regional, biogeographical, and national
levels. All data will be made available for public access on the Internet. The map shows the coastal areas
included in the 2001 survey and the number of sampling sites in estuarine waters of Louisiana.
Water Quality
Dissolved oxygen
Salinity, temperature, depth
pH
Nutrients
Chlorophyll
Sediment Quality
Grain size
Total organic carbon
Sediment chemistry
Benthic community structure
Sediment toxicity
Biota
Benthic community structure
Fish community structure
Fish external pathology
Fish tissue chemical analyses

Further Information
For further information, please contact Terry Romaire at the LDWF at (225) 765-2952 or
romaire_tl@wlf.state.la.us; or Kerry St. Pe at BTNEP at (9985) 447-0868 or kerry@btnep.org; or Bill Walker
at the ORD National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory's (Sulf Ecology Division at (850) 934-9247
or walker.bill@epa.gov.  Visit the coastal communications web site at http://www.epa.gov/ged/crc.htm.

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