COASTAL POLLUTION Effects on Living Resources and Humans MS_MarineScience.fhmx 11/22/05 3:14 PM Page 1 Marine Science Series The CRC Marine Science Series is dedicated to providing state-of-the- art coverage of important topics in marine biology, marine chemistry, marine geology, and physical oceanography. The series includes volumes that focus on the synthesis of recent advances in marine science. CRC MARINE SCIENCE SERIES SERIES EDITOR Michael J. Kennish, Ph.D. PUBLISHED TITLES Artificial Reef Evaluation with Application to Natural Marine Habitats, William Seaman, Jr. The Biology of Sea Turtles, Volume I, Peter L. Lutz and John A. Musick Chemical Oceanography, Second Edition, Frank J. Millero Coastal Ecosystem Processes, Daniel M. Alongi Ecology of Estuaries: Anthropogenic Effects, Michael J. Kennish Ecology of Marine Bivalves: An Ecosystem Approach, Richard F. Dame Ecology of Marine Invertebrate Larvae, Larry McEdward Ecology of Seashores, George A. 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Kennish Practical Handbook of Marine Science, Third Edition, Michael J. Kennish Seagrasses: Monitoring, Ecology, Physiology, and Management, Stephen A. Bortone Trophic Organization in Coastal Systems, Robert J. Livingston COASTAL POLLUTION Effects on Living Resources and Humans Carl J. Sindermann Boca Raton London New York A CRC title, part of the Taylor & Francis imprint, a member of the Taylor & Francis Group, the academic division of T&F Informa plc. 9677_Discl.fm Page 1 Monday, November 14, 2005 3:23 PM Published in 2006 by CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742 © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group No claim to original U.S. Government works Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number-10: 0-8493-9677-8 (Hardcover) International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-8493-9677-9 (Hardcover) Library of Congress Card Number 2005051483 This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reprinted material is quoted with permission, and sources are indicated. A wide variety of references are listed. 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Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sindermann, Carl J. Coastal pollution: effects on living resources and humans / Carl J. Sindermann. p. cm. -- (Marine science) Rev. and enl. ed. of: Ocean pollution. 1996. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8493-9677-8 1. Marine animals--Effect of water pollution on. 2. Seafood--Contamination. I. Sindermann, Carl J. Ocean pollution. II. Title. III. Marine science series. QL121.S62 2005 577.7’27--dc22 2005051483 Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com Taylor & Francis Group and the CRC Press Web site at is the Academic Division of Informa plc. http://www.crcpress.com 9677_book.fm Page v Monday, November 14, 2005 9:17 AM Dedication I would like to dedicate this new edition to my dear wife, Joan, who has been and continues to be my severest critic and my most enthusiastic supporter. 9677_book.fm Page vi Monday, November 14, 2005 9:17 AM 9677_book.fm Page vii Monday, November 14, 2005 9:17 AM Prologue: Menace of the Sludge Monster Environmental crises are daily events in the New York metropolitan area and its much-abused adjacent waters. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, when human concerns about degradation of the planet were still in their ascendancy, the news media gave unusual attention to problems created by an ocean dumpsite just 12 mi southeast of New York City, where stupendous quantities of sewer sludge, contam- inated dredge spoil, toxic industrial wastes, and construction rubble were deposited every day. But it was the sewer sludge — some 5 million tons of it being dumped every year — that particularly fascinated the news people (see Figure P.1). The dumping had created a zone on the ocean bottom that was deficient in most forms of marine life and was therefore labeled “the dead sea.” Bottom samples contained all that is awful about our society’s offal but little evidence of life forms, except for a few species of pollution-resistant worms and luxuriant populations of microbes. Furthermore, the sludge was found by scientists to have accumulated to appreciable depths near the dumpsite. Some imaginative reporter with headline possibilities in mind extrapolated the scientific observations to a “sludge monster” lurking just off the coast. To many people the monster was almost real, with a sinister energy derived from the ocean currents. It was out there — huge, black, and menacing — just beyond the surf zone, poised to overwhelm the already marginal beaches of Long Island and New Jersey, ready to make them totally unacceptable for any further human presence. During the long hot summers of that traumatic period from 1976 to 1984, the state (New York and New Jersey) departments of health and environmental protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were called upon repeatedly to examine what seemed to be early warning signs of the feared sludge invasion, in the form of slimy blobs deposited on the beaches by the tides. These ugly masses (referred to as “tar balls” or “waste balls”) were identified consistently by the regu- latory and public health agencies as “innocuous material,” “decaying mats of algae,” or “aggregates of weathered oil,” and not of human fecal origin — but savvy metro- politan beachgoers knew better. They were not about to be conned by the so-called experts, and many stayed away from those suspect shores. Each year during that time (1976 to 1984), the “sludge monster” frenzy peaked in summer and then dissipated with the onset of cool weather and the withdrawal of people from the beaches, only to reappear in the following spring. But, unaccountably, the major invasion never came. By 1985, there were fewer reports of sludge-like contaminants on the beaches, and talk of the sludge monster began to recede from the morning news. This relative calm was shattered in the summers of 1987 and especially 1988 by a new coastal crisis: sightings of quantities of medical wastes (including bloody 9677_book.fm Page viii Monday, November 14, 2005 9:17 AM FIGURE P.1 High-altitude photograph of the inner New York Bight, taken in 1977. The dark streaks in the center are surface residues of ocean dumping, after barges have deposited their noisome cargoes. hospital dressings and used syringes, some containing HIV-positive blood) cast up on a number of bathing beaches of New Jersey and New York, probably as conse- quences of illegal dumping in coastal waters or equipment failures in municipal sewage treatment facilities. News accounts, including graphic photographs of this revolting new form of shoreline pollution, drove masses of people from the beaches during those dismal summers. The obscene combination of sludge and medical wastes was just too much to tolerate, even for hardened urban sensitivities. 9677_book.fm Page ix Monday, November 14, 2005 9:17 AM But the medical waste furor also dissipated quickly, leaving only a small residue of heightened vigilance among the few who persisted in visiting those mean shores of the New York Bight. The news media moved nimbly to other crises, helicopter surveillance flights and water sampling surveys by the regulatory agencies were reduced or eliminated, and the coastline slumped back to its usual blighted normalcy. Sludge dumping was, however, banished by EPA from the 12-mi dumpsite to a location 106 mi seaward of New York City, on the edge of the continental shelf, late in 1988, and was officially terminated even there in 1992. Undoubtedly, the sludge monster publicity, regardless of its validity, contributed significantly to attempts by environmental activist groups to stop ocean dumping. Some day in the distant future, the 12-mi dumpsite will be a rich source of information for cultural anthropologists — a thin black layer of compressed sedi- ments rich in fossilized artifacts that illustrate the nadir of human abuse of the edges of the sea in the 20th century, just offshore of the site where New York City used to stand. Those scientists of the future will never know the excitement and the dread generated by the sludge monster whose essence is captured in those sediments, but the physical evidence will be appalling enough for all time. From Field Notes of a Pollution Watcher (C.J. Sindermann, 1993)