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National Status and Trends:

Integrated Response to Hurricane Katrina

Objectives

  • Measure contaminant burdens in the tissues of oysters in the affected region; measure contaminant concentrations in the substrate and waters surrounding oyster beds;
  • Measure known human pathogen indicators in coastal waters surrounding oyster beds;
  • Assist the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with the collection of oysters at NS&T/Mussel Watch sites for the analysis of additional chemical and microbial indicators of seafood safety; and
  • perform P450 and Microtox bioassays to assess biological effects of contaminant exposure in sediments.
Map of Post-Hurricane sample locations

At each of the locations in table 1 below, NS&T scientists along with its partners from TDI Brooks International are collecting sediment and oyster tissue samples that will then be analyzed for a standard suite of NS&T Program analytes, including conventional pesticides, metals, PAHs, and PCBs. Toxicity tests (Microtox and P450 assays) also will be conducted on the sediment samples. In addition, sediment samples will be collected and analyzed for concentrations of polybrominated flame retardants (i.e., PBDEs), the insecticide Fipronil, and Clostridium perfringens, a pathogenic microorganism which is widely distributed in the environment where spores of the organism persist in soil, sediments, and areas subject to human or animal fecal pollution. Water samples also will be collected and analyzed for the triazine herbicide Atrazine, and for additional bacterial and viral indicators of fecal contamination. While these latter suites of sediment and water samples are not standard NS&T measurements, they conform to broader suite of proposed activities presented herein (by all of the partners), and will provide a robust addition to the overall coordinated federal response. Lastly, additional oyster samples will be collected at each of the NS&T Mussel Watch sites and provided to FDA's Gulf Coast Seafood Laboratory for the analysis of complementary chemical and microbial indicators of seafood safety, including petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants (through use of FDA's new BTEX technology) and a variety of microbial indicators (e.g., fecal coliforms, bacteriophages, E. coli, and enterococci).

It is important to note that NS&T Mussel Watch has a rigorous quality control and assurance program to ensure accuracy and precision of all estimated contaminant concentrations. There are four aspects to the Quality Assurance effort of National Status and Trends Mussel Watch Project.

  1. All Mussel Watch chemical analyses are performed under contract therefore before any contract is let all laboratories wishing to perform sample analyses must analyze tissue samples for the suite of trace elements and organic contaminants regularly quantified by the Project. These "unknown" sample materials originate from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for organics and from the National Research Council of Canada (NRCC) for trace elements. Laboratories performing sample analyses for the project are required to analyze quality assurance samples for each group (batch) of field samples. A batch of no more than 20 samples contains the following quality assurance samples: method blank, duplicate sample, matrix spike/matrix spike duplicate and a standard reference material (organics) or a certified reference material (trace elements). If any of the control materials are outside predefined bounds the entire sample batch must be reanalyzed. Laboratories analyzing Mussel Watch samples participate in annual intercomparison exercises that are overseen by the National Institute of Standards and Technology for organics contaminants and by the National Research Council of Canada for trace elements. If participating laboratories' intercomparison results indicate analytical problems the reference laboratories work with the participants to resolve analytical issues.
  2. Once data analyses are completed for a monitoring year the laboratory performing the analyses compares current results with all results dating back to 1986 of the Mussel Watch Project. If current data are outside of previously reported results individual data values are evaluated to determine whether these new high or low concentrations indicate an environmental change or are associated with analytical problems. Once data are supplied to NOAA this process is repeated by NOAA's Mussel Watch team.

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TABLE 1. Mussel Watch sites that will be sampled as part of the post hurricane contamination assessment. Links from the "site" code will provide you with a general description of the location, including geoposition, NOAA navigational chart number, site access information, and other information. The links from the “location” attribute will provide you with historical DDT, PCB, and Low and High molecular weight PAH concentrations measured in oysters at these sites. Data is provided from 1990 to present. Please contact us if you would like data from years prior to 1990.
Site
link to site description 		Estuary Location
Right click and "Save As" for historical data 		State Latitude Longitude
MBDR Mobile Bay Dog River AL 30° 35.50' 88° 02.39'
MBHI Mobile Bay Hollingers Is. Chan. AL 30° 33.80' 88° 04.50'
MBCP Mobile Bay Cedar Point Reef AL 30° 18.93' 88° 08.03'
MSPB Mississippi Sound Pascagoula Bay MS 30° 20.16' 88° 35.35'
MSBB Mississippi Sound Biloxi Bay MS 30° 23.55' 88° 51.45'
MSPC Mississippi Sound Pass Christian MS 30° 18.14' 89° 19.63'
LPNO Lake Pontchartrain New Orleans LA 30° 02.18' 90° 02.48'
LBGO Lake Borgne Gulf Outlet LA 29° 56.69' 89° 50.12'
LBMP Lake Borgne Malheureux Point LA 29° 52.02' 89° 40.71'
BSBG Breton Sound Bay Gardene LA 29° 35.88' 89° 37.25' 
BSSI Breton Sound Sable Island LA 29° 24.34' 89° 29.03'
MRPL Mississippi River Pass A Loutre LA 29° 05.37' 89° 04.49'
MRTP Mississippi River Tiger Pass LA 29° 08.70' 89° 25.64'
BBMB Barataria Bay Middle Bank LA 29° 16.60' 89° 56.52'
BBSD Barataria Bay Bayou Saint Denis LA 29° 24.29' 89° 59.93'
BBTB Barataria Bay Turtle Bay LA 29° 30.67' 90° 05.00'
TBLF Terrebonne Bay Lake Felicity LA 29° 15.85' 90° 23.89'
TBLB Terrebonne Bay Lake Barre LA 29° 15.57' 90° 35.66'
CLCL Caillou Lake Caillou Lake LA 29° 15.19' 90° 55.60'
ABOB Atchafalaya Bay Oyster Bayou LA 29° 15.33' 91° 08.17'