Environmental and Economic Assessment of Discharges from Gulf of Mexico Region Oil and Gas Operations

The primary objectives of the project are to increase the base of scientific knowledge concerning (1) the fate and environmental effects of organics, trace metals, and NORM in water, sediment, and biota near several offshore oil and gas facilities; (2) the characteristics of produced water and produced sand discharges as they pertain to organics, trace metals, and NORM variably found in association with the discharges; (3) the recovery of three terminated produced water discharge sites located in wetland and high-energy open bay sites of coastal Louisiana; (4) the economic and energy supply impacts of existing and anticipated federal and state offshore and coastal discharge regulations; and (5) the catch, consumption and human use patterns of seafood species collected from coastal and offshore waters. The products of the effort will be a series of technical reports detailing the study procedures, results, and conclusions which contribute to the transfer of technology to the scientific community, petroleum industry, and state and federal agencies