Research Product

Estuaries are used for many purposes, some of which stress this productive environment. The potential for such stresses is increasing, even though we are becoming more informed and aware of environmental consequences of our actions. As we move into the 1980's and face serious deficiencies in energy production, estuaries will not be immune to exploration for production of oil and gas and potential accompanying pollution problems. Dredge-and-fill operations are used as examples of industrial effluents and thermal discharges in estuaries or streams that flow into them are discussed. Development and use of criteria for determining if an estuary is "used" or "misused" are discussed briefly.