IV-414 



SECTION 4. EXAMPLES OF ESTUARINE SYSTEMS DAMAGED BY POLLUTION 



Even though water quality damage and ecological damage are difficult 

 to quantify in terms of exactly how much damage has been done and 

 what was its cause, many estuarine systems have felt the deleterious 

 impact of human exploitation. Examples showing the Impact of one 

 particular source of pollution or of one kind of pollutant are rare, 

 because use of the estuarine resource is seldom confined to a single 

 type of activity. The estuarine systems discussed here were chosen 

 because one particular kind of pollutional situation or effect seems 

 to dominate the environment; but, nevertheless many other conditions 

 contribute to the total environmental damage in each case. 



MUNICIPAL WASTES 

 Raritan Bay 



Ran tan Bay between New York and New Jersey is a prime example of a 

 polluted estuary surrounded by an intensively developed area (Figure 

 IV. 5. 27). The Raritan system, which is composed of the Bay itself, 

 the Raritan River, the Arthur Kill, and the Narrows receives approxi- 

 mately 1,500,000,000 gallons of wastes per day which contain over 

 1,300,000 pounds of BOD. Although 75 percent of the waste volume 1s 

 from industry, the major impact on the estuary is from therutrient 

 and bacteriological content of the municipal sewage. The densities 

 of bacteriological indicator organisms along the shorelines of the 

 Bay and in the confluences of the tributary systems indicate gross 



