Loop Marine and Estuarine Monitoring Program, 1978–95: Volume 2: Water Chemistry

This is Volume 2, Water Chemistry, of a six volume set that includes: Volume 1: Executive Summary; Volume 2: Water Chemistry; Volume 3: Physical Hydrography; Volume 4. Zooplankton and Ichthyoplankton; Volume 5: Demersal Nekton; and Volume 6. Sediment Quality. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) facilities in coastal Louisiana provide the United States with the country's only Superport for off-loading deep draft tankers. The three single-point mooring (SPM) structures connected by pipelines to a platform mounted pumping station are located west of the Mississippi River delta, 30 kilometers southeast of Belle Pass in the Gulf of Mexico, in 36 meters of water, where the offshore depth contours fold landward. Pumping stations offshore and at the land-based Fourchon Booster Station move the off-loaded crude via subsurface pipeline to a storage facility located in the intermediate marsh zone of the northern Barataria Bay watershed. The proposed construction and use of these facilities in an environmentally sensitive area led to questions about various consequential environmental impacts. A water quality environmental sampling program was established by the state of Louisiana to monitor the inshore and offshore area potentially impacted by the project. This water chemistry analysis is part of the water quality monitoring program.