beaches. The 106 Mile Site is currently designated for disposal 

 of municipal sludges originating from 9 sewage authorities in the 

 New York metropolitan area. It is the only site designated for 

 municipal sludge disposal in the United States. Are media claims 

 realistic? The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has 

 developed a monitoring plan that is being used to determine 

 whether impacts result from municipal sludge at the 106 Mile 

 Site. It has been developed using an approach based on current 

 Ocean Dumping Regulations and designed to provide for efficient 

 and effective monitoring results that can be used in making 

 management decisions. 



9. 3 Appendix 3. 106 Mile Site Fact Sheet 



Municipal Sludge Disposal: 

 12 Mile Site and 106 Mile Deepwater 

 Municipal Sludge Dump Site 



Historical Perspective 



In 1924 New York City began ocean dumping municipal sludge 

 at a site 12 miles outside of New York Harbor, known as the 12 

 Mile Site. Over the next few decades additional communities in 

 the New York and New Jersey area began to dump municipal sludge 

 at this site. The 12 Mile Site was located in the New York Bight 

 Apex approximately 10.3 nautical miles east of Highlands, New 

 Jersey, and 9.9 nautical miles south of Long Island. The site 

 occupied an area of about 6.6 square nautical miles with a water 

 depth of approximately 27 meters (88 feet) . 



While more than 2 00 sewage treatment plants dumped municipal 

 sludge at the 12 Mile Site at one time, by December 1981 only 

 nine municipal sewage authorities from both New York and New 

 Jersey were authorized to use that site. The nine were the New 

 York City Department of Environmental Protection, the Westchester 

 County Department of Environmental Facilities, the Nassau County 

 Department of Public Works, the Passaic Valley Sewerage 

 Commissioners, the Middlesex County Utilities Authority, the 

 Rahway Valley Sewage Authority, the Bergen County Utilities 

 Authority, the Linden/Roselle Sewerage Authority, and the Joint 

 Meeting of Essex and Union Counties. 



In 1981, New York City and several other municipalities 

 brought suits against EPA, challenging the Agency's refusal to 

 renew their permits to dispose sludge at the 12 Mile Site after 

 December 31, 1981, when site designation expired. In the case, 

 "City of New York v. EPA," 543 F. Supp. 1084 (S.D.N.Y. 1981), the 

 Judge ruled that EPA could not deny ocean dumping permits without 

 considering the availability and impact of land-based 

 alternatives. 



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