ORISE Fellow at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Environmental Management and Modeling, Atlantic Coastal Environmental Sciences Division, 27 Tarzwell Drive, Narragansett, RI, 02882, USA.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Environmental Management and Modeling, Atlantic Coastal Environmental Sciences Division, 27 Tarzwell Drive, Narragansett, RI, 02882, USA.
J Environ Manage. 2023 Apr 1;331:117218. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117218. Epub 2023 Jan 12.
As salt marshes attempt to migrate upland due to sea level rise, they will encounter many kinds of land development and infrastructure in highly populated, urbanized coastal communities. Hazardous and contaminated sites (HCSs) -- facilities and infrastructure that store, use, or release harmful substances -- are particularly concerning obstacles to salt marsh migration because of their potential to release contaminants if their structural integrity is compromised. Inventorying HCSs within migration pathways can inform coastal resilience planning. To understand what kinds of HCSs migrating marsh may encounter in Rhode Island, USA, we inventoried sites from federal and state sources, assigned contaminant hazard rankings to most sites, and overlayed them with projected marsh migration corridors. We found that HCSs are extensive across marsh migration corridors in the state, especially in urban areas. Among the most common HCSs in and around Rhode Island salt marshes are stormwater outfalls, underground storage tanks, and facilities registered with EPA's Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) or EPA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). These sites pose varying hazards to human and aquatic life if breached, with some sites representing little or no threat but most posing some degree of hazard to their surroundings. This coastal HCSs inventory can inform prioritization and management of coastal salt marshes subject to accelerated sea level rise. Management decisions such as allowing marsh migration, implementing adaptation actions to build salt marsh elevation, or erecting physical barriers at marsh sites will influence future salt marsh extent, marshes' ability to provide ecosystem services, and public health exposures to toxic releases. In addition, as Rhode Island and other coastal states work to promote coastal resiliency, this type of inventory can inform decisions about which HCSs to prioritize for remediation and other climate adaptation actions. Marsh migration is just one potential consequence of sea level rise, so many of the considerations outlined here are widely applicable to the broader goal of preparing coastal communities for rising seas.
随着盐沼因海平面上升而试图向内陆迁移，它们将在人口密集、城市化的沿海社区中遇到许多土地开发和基础设施。危险和污染场地 (HCSs)——储存、使用或释放有害物质的设施和基础设施——由于其结构完整性受损时可能释放污染物，因此对盐沼迁移构成了特别令人关注的障碍。在迁移路径中清查 HCSs 可以为沿海弹性规划提供信息。为了了解美国罗德岛州的盐沼在迁移过程中可能会遇到什么样的 HCSs，我们从联邦和州两级来源清查了这些场地，对大多数场地的污染物危害程度进行了排名，并将其与预测的盐沼迁移走廊叠加。我们发现，HCSs 在该州的盐沼迁移走廊中分布广泛，尤其是在城市地区。在罗德岛州盐沼内和周围最常见的 HCSs 包括雨水出水口、地下储油罐以及根据 EPA 的《资源保护和回收法》(RCRA)或 EPA 的《国家污染物排放消除系统》(NPDES)注册的设施。如果这些场地发生泄漏，会对人类和水生生物造成不同程度的危害，其中一些场地几乎没有威胁，但大多数场地对周围环境构成一定程度的危害。这份沿海 HCSs 清单可以为受加速海平面上升影响的沿海盐沼的优先级排序和管理提供信息。允许盐沼迁移、实施提高盐沼海拔的适应行动，或在盐沼场地设置物理障碍等管理决策将影响未来盐沼的范围、盐沼提供生态系统服务的能力以及公众对有毒物质释放的健康暴露程度。此外，随着罗德岛州和其他沿海州努力提高沿海地区的弹性，这种清查可以为确定优先考虑哪些 HCSs 进行修复以及其他气候适应行动提供信息。盐沼迁移只是海平面上升的潜在后果之一，因此，这里概述的许多考虑因素广泛适用于为沿海社区应对海平面上升做好准备的更广泛目标。
