THE LAST TEN YEARS 



The past 10 years have seen a dramatic a wakening of public and institutional inter- 

 est in the effects of our society on the environment, including the oceans. Nowhere 

 has this awakening been more clearly felt than in the New York-New Jersey metro- 

 politan region. 



The problems of the New York Bight are but one component of a spectrum of envi- 

 ronmental scares that have entered the public conscience during the decade. However, 

 the problems ot the Bight have included a number of dramatic incidents that have 

 taken on the dimensions of environmental crises. Some of these perceived crises were 

 not real but did illustrate the extent to which dramatic outbursts of public concern 

 can lead to widespread misunderstandings. Nevertheless, real crises did in fact take 

 place, ranging from chronic beach pollution incidents to the major oxygen depletion 

 and beach closure of 1976. Were these crises of the 1970s more numerous and more 

 serious than had occurred in prior decades or was it that situations were much the 

 same and we simply looked and saw more? This is a difficult question to answer in 

 view of the poor documentation prior to 1970. However, our best estimate must be 

 that there are elements of truth in both views, that environmental crises were more 

 frequent and severe during the seventies, but that the perception that these only be- 

 gan to occur during the seventies is also quite wrong. 



During the seventies we have achieved much toward identifying and under- 

 standing the causes and effects of marine pollution in the New York Bight. In addi- 

 tion, much progress has been made in establishing the legislative and regulatory 

 framework within which we^an manage these causes and effects and prevent further 

 degradation. One might even expect that the rates of pollutant discharge to the estu- 

 ary and Bight may have decreased somewhat in response to implementation of the 

 New York and New Jersey pollutant discharge elimination systems. However, we are 

 not aware of any empirical evidence regarding trends in total pollutant loadings 

 during the 1970s. 



There is equally inadequate evidence for 10-year trends in water quality of the 

 Bight. While an earlier study seemed to detect a slight downward trend in summer 

 concentrations of dissolved oxygen in bottom waters of the apex from 1949 through 

 1974 (O'Connor, D.J., et al., 1977), Swanson et al. ( 1979) found that dissolved oxy- 

 gen concentrations in recent years did not indicate a trend. Existing information on 

 toxicants in Bight waters or sediments is inadequate to assess trends during the 

 1970s. Trends in biotic effects would be even more difficult to detect, and no such 

 trends are evident. Somewhat more extensive measurements of bacterial pathogen 

 indicators do not illustrate marked trends in their concentration or distribution. 



We have now reached a point where many hard choices have to be made con- 

 cerning the next steps to be taken in managing the New York Bight ecosystem with 

 respect to pollution. The New York-New Jersey metropolitan area is a region of ex- 

 treme stress in terms of both economic resources and intensity of land and water use. 

 Therefore, mistakes in simply shifting pollutant loads from the ocean to land or air 

 can have particularly high monetary and environmental costs. While some adjust- 

 ments in the disposal media of existing wastes may be appropriate, it seems probable 

 that the most useful improvements in waste management strategies must involve tox- 

 icant control and recycling or burning for energy use before the toxicants are greatly 

 diluted in water. Given the increasing value of reclaimed energy and toxic materials 

 and inexpensive reclamation technologies now available, all waste generating facili- 

 ties, including households, should be induced to practice such source control. 



While environmental science can be expected to provide openly some of the infor- 

 mation required for waste management decisions, reliable information on more 

 readily measured features of waste management is not always available. For in- 

 stance, the quantities of pollutants liberated by specific industries or regions are of- 

 ten estimated incompletely and roughly; and reliable costs for, and effectiveness 

 measures of, treatment processes are often difficult to gain. Wise decisions regarding 



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