The legacy of sewage sludge disposal in New York bight

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:203591

Buchholtz ten Brink, M; Casso, M A ^[1]; Allison, M A ^[2]; Schleel, J S

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1. Geological Survey, Woods Hole, MA (United States)
2. Texas A and M Univ., Galveston, TX (United States)

From 1924 until 1987, New York City disposed of sewage sludge by dumping at the 12-mile dumpsite in 20 m of water off the New York-New Jersey coast. Approximately 125 {times} 10{sup 6} m{sup 3} was deposited, peaking in the early 1980`s. The dumpsite is at the head of the Hudson Shelf Valley, a submerged river channel crossing the continental shelf, in a region of sandy sediments that are regularly reworked by wave action. The introduction of the chemically and texturally distinct `sludge` sediment provides a tracer to study how accumulated anthropogenic deposits are dispersed throughout the region or transferred off the shelf. This work, begun in 1992, focuses on the fate of the material in the valley, ``downstream`` from the dumpsite. Geophysical, chemical, and radiological tools were used to delineate the sedimentary processes, the extent of contaminant dispersal, and the longterm fate of the dump spoils. Sediment derived from the sewage sludge has preferentially deposited on the valley floor relative to the surrounding shelf, resulting in unnaturally high accumulation rates in the upper valley. Dark, sludge-derived sediment is being covered by cleaner deposits from 0 to 26 km downvalley from the dumpsite, but ongoing resuspension and transport of the sediment results in a sewage signal in the uppermost sediments up to 80 km from the dumpsite. Both buried and surface ``sludge`` is subject to biological mixing. The patchy occurrence of the black sediment and interbedded sand layers observed downvalley suggest that resuspension and transport occur episodically, probably during major storm events.

• OSTI ID: 203591
• Report Number(s): CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
MARINE DISPOSAL
NEW YORK BIGHT
POLLUTANTS
SEDIMENTS
SEWAGE SLUDGE
WATER POLLUTION