130 



waters that included the region where the Mud Dump Site is located' ; . The 1983 

 study found elevated level of dioxin in two out of nineteen Bluefish. Composite 

 samples of the hepatopancreas of lobsters caught from the Mud Hole, deep 

 nearshore waters to the south of the Mud Dump Site, were found to be 

 contaminated with dioxin at 72 and 82 pptr. The 1986-87 study found levels of 

 PCBs in stripped bass in estuarine and ocean waters between Sandy Hook, and 

 Seaside Park, to be above the FDA action level for PCBs of 2 ppm. The New 

 York Bight Restoration Plan, a Congressionally mandated 13 program that was to 

 ivestigate pollution problems affecting human health and the manne environment 

 and to propose remedies to those problems, reported three toxicants to have been 

 identified from historical data sets to have exceeded enforceable limits from fish 

 tissue concentrations: mercurv; PCBs; and dioxin 14 . 



iii. Biological monitoring at other sites 



The EPA is routinely lax on monitoring at ocean dumping sites. In the 

 designation of the ocean dumping site for dredged materials off Los Angeles and 

 Long Beach, the proposed monitoring plan emphasizes the location of dredged 

 material mounds rather than the environmental effects of .dumping. Effects 

 monitoring is prescribed by EPA only if the dumping misses or is earned outside 

 the dump site. The effects of proper dumping is apparently of no concern to 

 EPA Region DC. 



Similarly, the monitoring of the Mud Dump Site off new York and New 

 Jersey has been very limited. Furthermore, in recent considerations of the Port 

 Authority's permit EPA Region II has not expressed any interest in monitoring 

 beyond observing the physical integrity of capping sediments and a very limited 

 sampling for animals and contaminated sediments. They have demonstrated a 

 lack of knowledge of the effects of materials already dumped at the site, and they 

 have not asked for monitoring that would assess the biological effects of dumping 



|: NJDEP. 1990. PCBs. Chlordane and DDTs in Selected Fish and Shellfish 

 from New Jersey Waters. 1986-1987: Results from New Jersey's Toxics in Biota 

 Monitoring Program . 



''by the Marine Plastic Pollution. Research, and Control Act of 1987 

 ( MPPRCA) 



l4 New York Bight Restoration Plan Toxics Inputs. Fate and Effects Work 

 Group. 1990. Phase II Report: Preliminary New York Bight Toxics 

 Categorization. U.S. EPA-Region II. 



