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Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain is located north of the city of New Orleans. Lake Pontchartrain and its adjacent lakes in Louisiana (Lake Maurepas, Lake Borgne) form one of the largest estuaries in the Gulf Coast region. The estuary drains the Pontchartrain Basin, an area of over 12,000 sq. km situated on the eastern side of the Mississippi River delta plain (USEPA, 1999). Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain are bounded by landmasses and coastal marshlands, and Lake Borgne is open to the east and connects directly with Mississippi Sound. Lake Pontchartrain and its Basin offer opportunities for fishing, crabbing, swimming, and boating, but are today described as Louisiana's most environmentally impacted estuary. Coordinated efforts are currently underway to restore the environmental quality of the Basin. 
Coordinates: 30.30° N 90.27° W Selected Characteristics: (USEPA, 1999) Surface Area: 1,839 km2 Drainage Area: 14,200 km2 Average Daily FW Inflow: 303 m3/s Average Depth: 3.0 m Average Salinity: 2 ppt References: USEPA. 1999. Ecological condition of estuaries in the Gulf of Mexico. EPA 620-R-98-004. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Gulf Ecology Division, Gulf Breeze, Florida. 80 pp. USGS. Environmental Atlas of the Lake Ponchartrain Basin. Located on the web at: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2002/of02-206/intro/intro.html Additional Information: LACoast - Lake Ponchartrain Basin USGS Coastal & Marine Geology Program - Lake Ponchartrain Basin USGS Coastal & Marine Geology Program - Lake Ponchartrain Basin Lake Ponchartrain Basin Foundation University of New Orleans Coastal Research Laboratory U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service - Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge USGS - Environmental Atlas of the Lake Ponchartrain Basin Keywords: Bays, Estuaries, Lake, Pontchartrain, Borgne, Maurepas |
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To give proper credit to the original authors, please cite information taken from GulfBase by the original source as displayed. 
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M. Nipper, J.A. Sánchez Chávez,
and J.W. Tunnell, Jr., Editors. 2010.
GulfBase: Resource Database for Gulf of Mexico Research.
World Wide
Web electronic publication. http://www.gulfbase.org, 29 July 2010. |
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