535 



8 



evaLuation of pennic applications. The information from mesocosra 

 stuaies may also lieip us to design ocean monitoring criteria and to 

 develop approacnes to dumpsite designation. 



i'lassacUusetts Bay Dumpsite Survey 



In September iy82, EPA conducted a comprehensive survey of 

 Massacnusetts Bay to determine the environmental effects of radioactive 

 waste disposed in the Bay between 1946 and 1959. During those years, 

 about 4000 waste packages containing about 2400 curies of radioactivity 

 were dumped in a designated two mile diameter site about 15 miles out 

 from Boston, m water about 300 feet deep. These disposals represent 

 only about two percent of the total radioactive materials disposed of 

 in the ocean by the United States. However, this dumpsite is in the 

 shallowest water, is closest to land of any dumpsite, and is in an area 

 of commercial fishing. 



Prior to the 1982 survey, EPA gathered preliminary data on 

 environmental conditions in the Bay with assistance from the National 

 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NCAA). In the summer of 1981, 

 NCAA collected several sediment and fish samples from around the Bay, 

 wnicn were sent to EPA' s Eastern Environmental Radiation Facility 

 (EERF) m Montgomery, Alabama for radionuclide measurements. To assist 

 in the design of a comprehensive survey, EPA requested NCAA to conduct 

 side-scan sonar surveys m September 1981 to locate objects on the 



