Analyses of water, core material, and elutriate samples collected near New Orleans, Louisiana (Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, and vicinity hurricane protection project)

When a hurricane approaches the New Orleans, Louisiana area, the accompanying tides and heavy rainfall increase the level of water in Lake Borgne, Mississippi Sound, and Lake Pontchartrain and pose a major threat of water damage to the populated areas. During Hurricane Betsy (1965), for example, the level of Lake Pontchartrain rose as much as 13 feet. Nineteen core-material-sampling sites were chosen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as possible borrow areas for fill material to be used in levee construction for flood protection around Lake Pontchartrain. Twenty-three receiving-water sites were also selected to represent the water that will contact the proposed levees. Selected nutrients, metals, pesticides, and other organic constituents were analyzed from bed-material and native-water samples as well as upon elutriate samples of specific core material-receiving water systems. The results of these analyses are presented without interpretation. (Woodard-USGS)