Wakeman T H, Themelis N J
Department of Port Commerce, One World Trade Center, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, 62W, New York, NY 10048-0682, USA.
J Hazard Mater. 2001 Jul 30;85(1-2):1-13. doi: 10.1016/s0304-3894(01)00218-7.
In the last decade, an area of increasing estuarine research in the New York/New Jersey Harbor has been the identification of toxic contaminant sources, mapping of contaminant levels in water and sediments, and assessment of contaminant accumulation in biota. The accumulation of anthropogenic contamination in the harbor's sediments has occurred for centuries, primarily from land-based municipal and industrial sources. Contaminants from land-based sources introduced into surface waters rapidly become scavenged by suspended particles that then tend to settle to the bottom, primarily in deep areas, such as berths and navigation channels. Several million cubic meters of sediments must be dredged annually to clear navigation channels. In the past, the dredged material was disposed in a designated ocean site. However, in1992, new testing procedures were implemented, and much of the harbor's dredged material was determined to be unsuitable for ocean placement. It is ironic that these restrictions came at a time when the quality of harbor sediments is improving, largely because of pollution controls implemented as a result of the Clean Water Act and other environmental measures put in place by government and industry. For example, the harbor-wide concentration of mercury has decreased to 0.7-0.8ppm, a level that is approaching the pre-industrial background level. Nevertheless, in certain areas of the harbor, there remain sufficiently high concentrations of contaminants to merit concern and to create serious problems for sponsors of dredging projects. Development of a basin-wide sediment management strategy is necessary to guide port decision-makers in their efforts to clean-up contaminant sources, to dredge regional waterways, and to ameliorate the contaminated sediment disposal problem. The backbone of this strategy is the integration of the data from an ongoing field monitoring and modeling program with a parallel investigation of watershed and airshed sources and sinks using industrial ecology methodology.
在过去十年中，纽约/新泽西港河口研究不断增加的一个领域是确定有毒污染物来源、绘制水和沉积物中的污染物水平图以及评估生物群中的污染物积累情况。港口沉积物中人为污染的积累已经持续了几个世纪，主要来自陆基市政和工业源。来自陆基源的污染物进入地表水后，很快就会被悬浮颗粒清除，这些颗粒随后往往会沉淀到底部，主要是在泊位和航道等深水区。每年必须疏浚数百万立方米的沉积物以清理航道。过去，疏浚材料被倾倒在指定的海洋场地。然而，1992年实施了新的测试程序，结果发现港口的许多疏浚材料不适合倾倒在海洋中。具有讽刺意味的是，这些限制措施出台时，港口沉积物的质量正在改善，这主要是由于《清洁水法》实施的污染控制以及政府和行业采取的其他环境措施。例如，全港汞浓度已降至0.7-0.8ppm，接近工业化前的背景水平。尽管如此，在港口的某些区域，污染物浓度仍然足够高，值得关注，并给疏浚项目的发起者带来严重问题。制定全港沉积物管理战略对于指导港口决策者努力清理污染源、疏浚区域水道以及缓解受污染沉积物的处置问题是必要的。该战略的核心是将正在进行的现场监测和建模计划的数据与使用工业生态学方法对流域和空气流域的源和汇进行的平行调查相结合。
