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Borrow pit dredge disposal
Volume 20/Number 1/January 1989
already been developed to a point where field validation is all that is required. An ecotoxicological venture of this kind has limited relevance without a chemical data base for appropriate environmental and biological samples. To this end we are inviting the collaboration of colleagues and groups in ICES and IOC concerned with chemical contamination of the marine environment. The problem of monitoring chemically the vast and growing number of potentially toxic contaminants can be reduced by using sensitive biological techniques which provide an integrated measure of environmental quality. In this way chemical effort could then be focused where environmental quality is demonstrably poor in biological terms, in order to establish causal relationships and effect controls. The Workshop is planned for the second half of March 1990 and will have a shore-based element hosted by the Alfred Wegener Polar Research Institute in Bremerhaven FRG. The ship-based elements will be on the Victor Hensen and three other vessels provided by the German authorities. Various elements of the Workshop are being organized by different ICES and IOC groups, and overall coordination is the function of a small Planning Group. If you are interested in participating it may not be too late to submit a proposal through Dr A. R. D. Stebbing, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, West Hoe, Plymouth PL1 3DH, UK.
North American News San Francisco Bay Agreement A major US oil company and an environmental group, usually found on opposite sides of environmental disputes, have reached an unique agreement over discharges to San Francisco Bay. Chevron USA and Citizens for a Better Environment (CBE) have agreed to compromises that appear to be to the benefit of both parties. Chevron has agreed to reduce its discharges of heavy metals from its Richmond refinery into the Bay. The company will study the practicability of reducing selenium in its effluent and the need to remove contaminants from Bay sediments at a former deepwater discharge point. In exchange, CBE will withdraw its challenge to local water quality board approval of renewal of the company's permit under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). CBE has argued that the permit did not sufficiently control the refinery's discharges of heavy metals. In response to that charge, Chevron has agreed to test effluents using baby rainbow trout flow-through bioassays instead of the less sensitive stickleback static renewal bioassays, to recover and recycle nickel, and to convert two cooling towers to phosphate treatment to inhibit corrosion rather than its current chrome/zinc treatment. Chevron has reduced its daily discharges of treated effluent from 72 million 1. (19 million gal) in 1983 to 27 million I. (7 million gal) in 1988. The environmental group has praised Chevron for its outstanding accomplishments in wastewater reductions
and treatments and has called its efforts a "model wastewater treatment program'.'
Fines for NJ Beach Pollution The State of New Jersey has fined one of its communities for sewage discharges that forced officials to close beaches in the State this summer. The State's Department of Environmental Protection fined Asbury Park S 1 million, which is the largest environmental fine ever levied against a New Jersey municipality. Discharges from Asbury Park's obsolete treatment plant caused seven resort communities to close their beaches at the height of their summer tourist season. The beaches were contaminated with grease balls containing faecal coliforms in excess of the State standard. The fine was the first penalty imposed under a new State statute that raised maximum daily environmental pollution penalties from $5000 to $50 000.
Borrow Pit Dredge Disposal The US Army Corps of Engineers has proposed to dump dredged material from the New York-New Jersey Harbor in underwater borrow pits. Borrow pits, which are created by sand mining of the ocean floor, have previously been proposed as dredged material disposal sites in several East Coast and Gulf of Mexico locations. The US EPA did not object to the Corps of Engineers plan as outlined in a draft environmental impact statement. However, the EPA did state that the borrow pit disposal plan should be implemented as a demonstration project and that land-based disposal alternatives should be further studied as an option to ocean disposal of the material.
San Diego Dredge Disposal Site The US EPA has proposed final designation of a dredged material site offshore of San Diego, California. The site, which is known as 'LA-5', is located 9.3 km from San Diego and would receive materials dredged from the City's Port and other nearby harbours. LA-5 encompasses approximately 8.2 km 2 in water depths of between 45 and 200 m. EPA designation of the site would allow annual disposal of about 293 000 m 3 of dredged silts and clays for an indefinite period of time. In the same announcement, EPA proposed that another site, known as 'LA-4', should be closed. Both sites were designated as interim disposal sites in 1977. The LA-4 site, which is located less than 9.3 km south of Point Loma, has not been used for several years and EPA officials believe the site is no longer needed. The decision to close the site was further prompted by concerns that the dredged material disposal was detrimental to marine life in the area and that disposal activities were in conflict with fishing and boating in the area. If approved for final designation, LA-5 would not receive industrial and municipal wastes or toxic sediments. A disposal permit, issued by the US Army 7
already been developed to a point where field validation is all that is required. An ecotoxicological venture of this kind has limited relevance without a chemical data base for appropriate environmental and biological samples. To this end we are inviting the collaboration of colleagues and groups in ICES and IOC concerned with chemical contamination of the marine environment. The problem of monitoring chemically the vast and growing number of potentially toxic contaminants can be reduced by using sensitive biological techniques which provide an integrated measure of environmental quality. In this way chemical effort could then be focused where environmental quality is demonstrably poor in biological terms, in order to establish causal relationships and effect controls. The Workshop is planned for the second half of March 1990 and will have a shore-based element hosted by the Alfred Wegener Polar Research Institute in Bremerhaven FRG. The ship-based elements will be on the Victor Hensen and three other vessels provided by the German authorities. Various elements of the Workshop are being organized by different ICES and IOC groups, and overall coordination is the function of a small Planning Group. If you are interested in participating it may not be too late to submit a proposal through Dr A. R. D. Stebbing, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, West Hoe, Plymouth PL1 3DH, UK.
North American News San Francisco Bay Agreement A major US oil company and an environmental group, usually found on opposite sides of environmental disputes, have reached an unique agreement over discharges to San Francisco Bay. Chevron USA and Citizens for a Better Environment (CBE) have agreed to compromises that appear to be to the benefit of both parties. Chevron has agreed to reduce its discharges of heavy metals from its Richmond refinery into the Bay. The company will study the practicability of reducing selenium in its effluent and the need to remove contaminants from Bay sediments at a former deepwater discharge point. In exchange, CBE will withdraw its challenge to local water quality board approval of renewal of the company's permit under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). CBE has argued that the permit did not sufficiently control the refinery's discharges of heavy metals. In response to that charge, Chevron has agreed to test effluents using baby rainbow trout flow-through bioassays instead of the less sensitive stickleback static renewal bioassays, to recover and recycle nickel, and to convert two cooling towers to phosphate treatment to inhibit corrosion rather than its current chrome/zinc treatment. Chevron has reduced its daily discharges of treated effluent from 72 million 1. (19 million gal) in 1983 to 27 million I. (7 million gal) in 1988. The environmental group has praised Chevron for its outstanding accomplishments in wastewater reductions
and treatments and has called its efforts a "model wastewater treatment program'.'
Fines for NJ Beach Pollution The State of New Jersey has fined one of its communities for sewage discharges that forced officials to close beaches in the State this summer. The State's Department of Environmental Protection fined Asbury Park S 1 million, which is the largest environmental fine ever levied against a New Jersey municipality. Discharges from Asbury Park's obsolete treatment plant caused seven resort communities to close their beaches at the height of their summer tourist season. The beaches were contaminated with grease balls containing faecal coliforms in excess of the State standard. The fine was the first penalty imposed under a new State statute that raised maximum daily environmental pollution penalties from $5000 to $50 000.
Borrow Pit Dredge Disposal The US Army Corps of Engineers has proposed to dump dredged material from the New York-New Jersey Harbor in underwater borrow pits. Borrow pits, which are created by sand mining of the ocean floor, have previously been proposed as dredged material disposal sites in several East Coast and Gulf of Mexico locations. The US EPA did not object to the Corps of Engineers plan as outlined in a draft environmental impact statement. However, the EPA did state that the borrow pit disposal plan should be implemented as a demonstration project and that land-based disposal alternatives should be further studied as an option to ocean disposal of the material.
San Diego Dredge Disposal Site The US EPA has proposed final designation of a dredged material site offshore of San Diego, California. The site, which is known as 'LA-5', is located 9.3 km from San Diego and would receive materials dredged from the City's Port and other nearby harbours. LA-5 encompasses approximately 8.2 km 2 in water depths of between 45 and 200 m. EPA designation of the site would allow annual disposal of about 293 000 m 3 of dredged silts and clays for an indefinite period of time. In the same announcement, EPA proposed that another site, known as 'LA-4', should be closed. Both sites were designated as interim disposal sites in 1977. The LA-4 site, which is located less than 9.3 km south of Point Loma, has not been used for several years and EPA officials believe the site is no longer needed. The decision to close the site was further prompted by concerns that the dredged material disposal was detrimental to marine life in the area and that disposal activities were in conflict with fishing and boating in the area. If approved for final designation, LA-5 would not receive industrial and municipal wastes or toxic sediments. A disposal permit, issued by the US Army 7