--> Abstract: NOAA's Waste-Disposal Studies in New York Bight, by G. L. Freeland, J. W. Lavelle, D. J. P. Swift, R. A. Young; #90968 (1977).

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Abstract: NOAA's Waste-Disposal Studies in New York Bight

G. L. Freeland, J. W. Lavelle, D. J. P. Swift, R. A. Young

Waste-disposal studies in the New York Bight center around three programs: the effects of dumping in the Bight apex, mid-shelf potential dumpsites, and the new Inner Shelf Sediment Transport Experiment (INSTEP) which will attempt to resolve the pattern (rates and directions) of deposition, transport, and erosion on the inner Long Island Shelf for both cohesive and noncohesive sediment.

In the Bight apex, natural sedimentation, affecting 82% of the area, has resulted in net erosion of 58 × 106 cu m of sediment over the 37-year period from 1936 to 1973. Dumping over the same period has resulted in a net deposition of 81 × 106 cu m at dredge spoil and cellar dirt (construction rubble) dumpsites. Sewage sludge, constituting only 3.3% of dumped solids, is nearly neutrally buoyant, highly mobile, and does not form a deposit at the sewage-sludge dumpsite, but mixes into nearby deposits of natural mud.

Two mid-shelf areas, north and south of the Hudson Shelf Valley, were found to be pristine and not recommended for use. Material dumped would have a net southwestward movement as a result of storm conditions, thus potentially contaminating a much larger area than is affected at present.

INSTEP will examine the temporal and spatial variance of sediment flux on the bottom and through the water column. It will assess the pattern of sediment transport on a straight shoreface, in an inner shelf ridge topography, and in an area of nearshore mud patches. Near-bottom sediment fluxes will be measured by electromagnetic current sensors coupled to forward-scattering nephelometers, plus additional vertical arrays of EM meters coupled with an acoustic meter which incrementally measures the suspended-sediment concentration in the first meter above the bottom. Bottom sediments will be mapped and monitored quarterly for a year. Completion of the program is expected in 1980.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90968©1977 AAPG-SEPM Annual Convention and Exhibition, Washington, DC