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106-Mile Dumpsite Assessment Study
The 106-Mile Dumpsite, located about 185km east of Cape May, NJ, began receiving sewage sludge in 1986 from nine New York and New Jersey sewerage authorities. The 106-Mile Dumpsite is located seaward of the continental shelf and has water depths ranging from 2,400 to 2,700m. About 8 million tons of sewage sludge were dumped at the site annually from 1986 until 1992, when the Ocean Dumping Ban Act suspended the dumping of all sewage sludge and industrial waste in the oceans.
The Ocean Dumping Ban Act required studies to determine whether disposal operations at the 106-Mile Dumpsite resulted in any environmental impacts. This study is part of a larger program that looked at the dumpsite as well as other areas of the Middle Atlantic Bight where sewage sludge dumped at the 106-Mile Site could potentially be transported.
Two primary conclusions emerged from this study:
First, sewage sludge disposed at the 106-Mile Dumpsite and the contaminants associated with that sludge, were rarely, if ever, transported to the continental shelf, and not to the inner shelf or seashore. Although the deposition of sewage material onto the seabed was quite evident, it was also clear that no sludge reached the shelf.
The second conclusion was that species which reside on the continental slope, and even those at the dumpsite itself, showed little evidence of adverse impact from the sewage sludge. Bioaccumulation of sludge contaminants was either low, or could not be related to disposal activities at the 106-Mile Dumpsite.
Partners included: EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds; Battelle Ocean Sciences; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; State University of New York at Stony Brook; Science Applications International Corp.; Virginia Institute of Marine Science; and many other institutions.
References
Aikman III, F. and M.B. Empie. 1991. 106-Mile Dumpsite Physical Oceanography Project: Hydrographic Data Report of the Delaware II 90-08 Cruise. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS OMA 61. Rockville , MD. 166 pp.
O'Connor, T.P., H.H. Walker, J.F. Paul, and V.J. Bierman. 1985. A strategy for monitoring contaminant distributions resulting from proposed sewage sludge disposal at the 106-Mile Ocean Disposal Site. Marine Environmental Resources 16: 127-150.
Robertson, A., A. Cantillo, and F. Aikman, III, 1991. Deep water ocean disposal: A program to assess effects at the 106-Mile Site dumpsite, (abstract). In: Program and Abstracts, First International Ocean Pollution Symposium. University of Puerto Rico , Mayaguez , Puerto Rico . April 28- May 3, 1991 : 40.
Robertson, A., A.Y. Cantillo, and F. Aikman. 1991. NOAA's monitoring of ocean dumping at the 106-mile dumpsite. In: Proceedings, Coastal Zone '91 Vol. 3, New York : American Society of Civil Engineers: 1820-1829.
White, H.H., A.F.J. Draxler, R.A. Duncanson, D.L. Saad, and A. Robertson. 1993. Distribution of Clostridium Perfringens Spores in Sediments around the 106-Mile Dumpsite in the Mid-Atlantic Bight. Marine Pollution Bulletin 26(1): pp. 49-51