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sludge dumpsite, located 12 nautical miles southeast of the Sandy 

 Hook-Rockaway Point Transect, has been in continuous use since 1924 

 (Section 2.1). 



The 12-Mile Site comprises 6.5 square nautical miles with water depths 

 of between 22 and 27 meters and is located on a shallow topographic high. 

 The Christiaensen Basin with water depths of over 30 meters lies to the 

 northwest of the site; the upper Hudson Shelf Valley lies to the west 

 with depths of 30 to 40 meters, increasing to the south (Section 2.2). 

 The dredged material dumpsite is located on the western edge of the 

 Christiaensen Basin and has been in use since 1914. The location of the 

 sewage sludge dumpsite is often misrepresented in the literature: either 

 as a point at the extreme northwest corner of the site or, in some pub- 

 lications, even at point locations entirely outside of the actual site 

 boundaries (Section 8.2). Sludge dumping takes place by continuous 

 discharge from a moving vessel transiting the disposal site. Sludge 

 is, therefore, discharged throughout the Site and not restricted to the 

 northwest corner. Furthermore, the Coast Guard has concluded that sludge 

 dumping activities are not a navigation hazard and that the use of the 

 site could double with proper scheduling. 



2.2 TOXICANTS IN FISH AND SHELLFISH 



Analysis of NOAA's most comprehensive databases indicate that the tissue 

 levels of metals, other than mercury, in fish and shellfish from the New 

 York Sight are not higher than in other areas of the western Atlantic 

 Ocean (Section 15.2). The analysis also indicates that mean metal tissue 

 levels from the New York Bight apex do not differ from the entire New 

 York Bight (Section 15.2, Table 15-2). Although'mean mercury tissue 

 ■levels in fish and shellfish of the New York Bight as a whole do- appear 

 to be somewhat higher than in other parts of the western Atlantic Ocean, 

 mean mercury tissue levels in fish and shellfish of the New York Bight 

 apex are not higher than in other parts of the New York Bight (Section 

 15.2). Furthermore, sewage sludge contributes only 3 percent of the 

 total mercury to the New York Bight (Section 6.6). Except for some ele- 

 vated PCB levels in several migratory fish species (which probably result 

 from contamination within Hudson - Raritan estuarine system), concentra- 

 tions of organics in fish and shellfish are well below levels believed to 

 result in potential public health hazards (Section 15.3). 



The New York Bight apex receives contaminant inputs from numerous sources 

 including: the Hudson River estuary and its tributaries, municipal and 

 industrial wastewater discharges, urban runoff, ocean dumping, atmos- 

 pheric deposition, accidental spills, and landfill leachate. The domi- 

 nant source of chemical constituents to the New York Bight apex is the 

 Hudson - Raritan estuary and to a lesser extent, dredged material dumping 

 (Section 6.6). The most recent data indicate that sewage sludge dumping 

 contributes approximately 2 percent of the land-derived annual input of 

 arsenic to the New York Bight apex; 3 percent of the mercury and PCBs; 

 4 percent of the nickel; 8 percent of the cadmium, zinc, and oil and 

 grease; 9 percent of the lead; 10 percent of the chromium; and 11 percent 

 of the copper (Table 6-23). Therefore, given the overwhelming contri- 

 bution of contaminants from the Hudson - Raritan estuary and dredge spoil 

 aumping, the few instances of increased contaminant levels in the New 



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