The draft of this environmental impact statement (EIS) was issued in February of 

 1976 (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EIS. Draft. 1976; Final Report. 

 1978). The conclusions of the draft, which remained unchanged in the Final EIS 

 issued in September 1978, include the following: 



• Sewage sludge dumping at the existing site has not significantly affected the 

 water quality off Long Island or New Jersey beaches. 



• Dumping of current volumes of sewage sludge will not have a significant effect 

 on the rather limited benthic community at the existing site. The benthic com- 

 munity would not recover in the near future if the existing site were abandoned. 

 Furthermore, areas now closed to shellfishing would not be reopened in the 

 near future, even if the existing site were abandoned. 



• Continued dumping of present volumes of sewage sludge at the existing site will 

 not have a significant additional effect on the water quality in the Bight apex. 



• Small quantities of floatables derived from sewage sludge are present at the ex- 

 isting dumpsite for short periods immediately after dumping occurs. There is 

 no direct evidence that the wash-up of floatables on Long Island and New 

 Jersey is attributable to sewage sludge dumping. The probability that these 

 materials result directly from sludge dumping activities is low. 



These conclusions led the Environmental Protection Agency to recommend that 

 the existing sewage sludge dumpsite should continue to be used, although they be- 

 lieved that the development and implementation of land-based alternatives that are 

 environmentally acceptable, technically feasible, and economically reasonable 

 should be carried forth as expeditiously as possible. At the same time, this draft envi- 

 ronmental impact statement contained references to several ongoing and completed 

 studies that indicated sewage sludge was only a minor contributor to the overall pol- 

 lution problem within the New York Bight apex (Mueller et a 1., 1976; MESA. 1975; 

 Segar and Cantillo, 1975; Segar et al.. 1975; Drake. 1974). 



In June 1976 almost all of Long Island's major public ocean beaches were closed to 

 swimmers for varying periods of time because of floating trash and pollutants. 

 Waterborne debris has been a constant irritant to beach users in recent years, but the 

 concentrations during June 1976 were the heaviest ever known. The unprecedented 

 closings began with the restriction of 32 km (20 mi) of Fire Island beaches on June 15, 

 1976. By the third week of June 1976, most of Long Island's south shore beaches were 

 closed. By July 1, 1976, these beaches were again opened, but during the interval, 

 normal summer beach use decreased, causing inconvenience and annoyance to pro- 

 spective swimmers and economic loss to local businesses. The problem was such that 

 on June 23, 1976, the area was declared a disaster area by the Governor of the State 

 of New York. Because much of the material washing up on the beaches appeared to 

 be derived from sewage, there was public suspicion that the source of the material 

 was the sewage sludge dumped into the ocean off the shore of Long Island. This sus- 

 picion persisted despite the Environmental Protection Agency's finding in the envi- 

 ronmental impact statement that floatables from the sewage sludge dumping were 

 negligible in quantity. In February 1977, a detailed analysis of the Long Island beach 

 pollution incident was reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad- 

 ministration (MESA, 1977). This report concluded that no source could be identified 

 as the single major contributor of floatables. However, the report continued, most of 

 the material was probably derived from the outflow of the Hudson-Raritan Estuary 

 and, although sewage sludge dumping was a possible source of floatables, the contri- 

 bution from it was "relatively minor." 



In July 1976 fishermen reported large numbers of dead surf clams and other bot- 

 tom-dwelling organisms in an 8,600 km : (3,320 mi : ) area off the New Jersey conti- 

 nental shelf. The phenomenon continued through October of that year. The mor- 

 talities were caused by extremely low concentrations of dissolved oxygen and by 

 hydrogen sulfide poisoning in some bottom waters. At the height of the event, dis- 

 solved oxygen values in the water approached and in some instances reached zero in 



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