The Bay of St. Louis (St. Louis Bay; french: Baie Saint-Louis) is a shallow-water, partially enclosed estuary of the northeast Gulf of Mexico along the southwestern coast of Mississippi.Wang, X, Y. Cai, and L. Guo. 2010. Referential removal of dissolved carbohydrates during estuarine mixing in the Bay of St. Louis in the northern Gulf of Mexico, in ''Marine Chemistry'' 11(1-4):130-138.Lin, P., M. Chen, L. Guo. 2012. Speciation and transformation of phosphorus and its mixing behavior in the Bay of St. Louis estuary in the northern Gulf of Mexico, in ''Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta'' 87:283-298.Blain, CA, CR Edwards. 2002. Development of a forecast capability for coastal embayments of the Mississippi Sound, in OCEANS '02 MTS/IEEE 3:1501-1508Blain, CA, J Veeramony. 2002. The role of river discharge and vertical mixing formulation on barotropic circulation in Bay St. Louis, MS, in ''Estuarine and Coastal Modeling, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference'', ML Spaulding, editor, 745-764. The estuary receives freshwater input from one

blackwater Blackwater or Black Water may refer to: Health and ecology * Blackwater (coal), liquid waste from coal preparation * Blackwater (waste), wastewater containing feces, urine, and flushwater from flush toilets * Blackwater fever, an acute kidney disea ...

, or swamp-land, the

Jourdan River Jourdan may refer to: * Carolyn Jourdan, American author *Claude Jourdan (1803–1873), French zoologist and paleontologist * David W. Jourdan, businessman *Jean-Baptiste Jourdan (1762–1833), French army commander * Jourdan Bobbish (1994–2012), ...

on the west and the Wolf River on the east and some smaller streams ( Bayou Portage); these are mixed in the bay with salt water from Mississippi Sound and the Mississippi Bight. The waters are comparatively well mixed, with an average salinity of less than 20. The Bay of St. Louis is classified as an "impaired" waterway by the United States Environmental Protection Agency due to high

fecal coliform A fecal coliform (British: faecal coliform) is a facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped, gram-negative, non-sporulating bacterium. Coliform bacteria generally originate in the intestines of warm-blooded animals. Fecal coliforms are capable of growth ...

levels in the waters from urban development on the bay and surrounding waters.Lui, Z, NB Hashim, WL Kingery, DH Huddleston. 2010. Fecal coliform modeling under two flow scenarios in St. Louis Bay of Mississippi, in ''Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A: Toxic/Hazardous Substances and Environmental Engineering'' 45(3):282-291.

References

Estuaries of Mississippi Bodies of water of Hancock County, Mississippi {{HancockCountyMS-geo-stub