208 



related to degraded environmental quality. However, the occurrence of 

 diseases (such as lymphocystis) in relatively unpolluted areas has led 

 researchers to conclude that certain diseases are latent in most fish 

 poDulations and may intensify periodically for natural reasons (Section 



13'. 7). 



Although much of the early 1970's literature circumstantially associated 

 fish and shellfish disease with sewage sludge dumping, the databases used 

 were extremely limited, lacked adequate control data, and generally were 

 inadequate to determine the causative factors of these conditions or even 

 to determine if the incidence of disease in "polluted" areas was signifi- 

 cantly higher than in the general population. Recently published data 

 indicate that the prevalence of some diseases in the Mew York Bight is 

 less than was previously thought, and that the fish populations of the 

 Bight are generally healthy. For example, recent data have indicated 

 that the incidence of black gill disease in the New York Bight is not 

 significantly higher than natural background levels (0-2.0 percent) and 

 that there were no apparent differences between the incidence of the 

 disease at "contaminated" (Bight apex stations) and control stations 

 (Section 13.2). Furthermore, fin rot, lymphocystis, and ulcers appeared 

 in only 3.7 percent, 0.16 percent, and 0.20 percent, respectively, of the 

 New York Bight fish examined (Chapter 13). 



2.6 BEACH WASH-UPS 



Properly treated sewage sludge does not contain any significant quantity 

 of floatable material which could potentially wash up on Long Island or 

 New Jersey beaches. Furthermore, sewage sludge does not accumulate in 

 a mass on the sea bottom and, therefore, there is no potential that a 

 sludge "mass" could wash up on the beaches. The 1976 Long Island beach 

 pollution incident attracted a great deal of attention based on media 

 speculation that barge dumped sewage sludge was the principal source of 

 the stranded materials. Based on numerous technical investigations, 

 scientists have concluded that other sources (e.g., the Hudson-Raritan 

 estuary, inland runoff, municipal wastewater discharges, combined sewer 

 and stormwater runoff, and solid waste barging operations in New York 

 Harbor) far outweigh any possible contribution of floatables from sludge 

 dumping at the 12-Mile Site (Section 10.5). Furthermore, EPA water 

 quality sampling during the beach pollution incident indicated that the 

 problem was aesthetic rather than health related since "EPA data for surf 

 samples collected during 14-29 June 1975 (the peak of beach contamina- 

 tion) showed that in all cases the total col i form levels were well within 

 safe swimming standards" [emphasis added] and "data collected by other 

 agencies gave similar results" (EPA 1973, p. 60). 



2.7 SHELLFISH CONTAMINATION 



As noted in the 1978 FEIS, shell fishing has been prohibited in the imme- 

 diate area of the 12-Mile Site, as well as in other estuarine and coastal 

 apex areas, as a result of elevated coliform bacteria levels (Section 

 16.2). However, the 1978 FEIS also correctly notes that "barging is an 

 insignificant source of fecal contamination to the New York Bight" apex 

 (p. 40). Recent data indicate the sewage sludge contribution to be 

 approximately two-tenths of on€ percent of the entire coliform load to 



A-5 



