Louisiana Estuary
Planning Underway

By Stephen C.Smith

Covering four million acres, the Barataria-Terrebonne Estuary encompasses all or part of 15 Louisiana parishes.

The BTNEP is a cooperative effort involving several state and federal agencies, local governments, private businesses, and the general public. Its purpose is to create a long-term management plan for both the Barataria and Terrebonne basins to utilize the resources there wisely and solve the estuary's environmental problems.

The Water Quality Act, under which the National Estuary Program was established in 1987, authorized EPA to bring together "management conferences" to develop strategies for protecting nationally significant estuaries. The management conference isn't a one-time meeting, as the name might imply, but refers to the ongoing activities of a whole team of volunteers. It is a forum for open discussion, cooperation, and consensus.

The BTNEP Management Conference consists of approximately 100 people who live, work, and/or play in the Barataria and Terrebonne basins. Conference members represent federal, state, and local governments; business and industrial interests; commercial fishing organizations; community groups; sportsmen's organizations; the educational and scientific communities; and the public at large.

Midway through their five-year process, BTNEP conference members have identified seven problems in the estuary and are giving them priority attention:

• Changes in Natural Water Flows (hydrological modification) - Simply stated, hydrological modification is the change or alteration in natural water flows resulting from external forces, such as flood control levees, canals, and dams. Water quality and water flow are important factors of the ecosystem's health; they also represent the estuary's basic problem. All other problems are related to it.

• Sediment Reduction - Loss of sediment has worsened several problems in the estuary. This reduction of sediment input, along with continuing subsidence, has allowed land loss to occur at an alarming rate.

• Habitat Loss/Modification - Habitat loss and modification result from a number of causes. Combined effects of both natural and artificial influences impact wildlife, waterfowl, and fish species; reduce the recreational and commercial values of these species; and lessen the area's torm-diminishing ability.

• Changes in Living Resources - As with habitat loss, changes in living resources result in decreased recreational and commercial values because populations of fish, shellfish, waterfowl, and fur-bearing animals have changed. For example, together saltwater intrusion and lower water quality eutrophication have greatly reduced available nursery grounds for oysters within Barataria Basin.

• Oxygen-starved water bodies (nutrient enrichment/eutrophication) - Eutrophication is the effect of natural or artificial additions of nutrients to water bodies. In estuarine ecosystems, eutrophication is a natural process that is greatly accelerated by human activity. It is characterized by algae blooms, dominance of "trash" fish, and fish kills caused by low dissolved oxygen levels.

• Toxic substances in water bodies - Toxic substances include heavy metals, polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs), drilling fluids, pesticides, and herbicides. These toxics are being introduced into the Barataria-Terrebonne estuarine system and may already be causing serious ecological problems. Such poisonous substances can contaminate, reduce, and even cause the loss of commercial and recreational fisheries and wildlife populations while decreasing wetland vegetation.

• Disease-causing bacteria - Pathogens are agents capable of producing disease. Pathogen contamination of shellfish is a public health issue that causes oyster beds to be closed. These closures in turn cause unemployment and revenue losses for south Louisiana.