wastes directly affect the immediate coastal environment. Up to 1972, 

 at least 130 municipal waste outfalls discharged directly into the waters 

 of the New York Bight (Table 19). The total flow was 1,843 million 

 gallons per day. Of this flow, 16 percent received no treatment, 27 

 percent received primary treatment, and only 57 percent received more 

 than primary" treatment. 



It was estimated that the yearly biochemical oxygen demand resulting 

 from municipal discharges of sewage directly into New York Harbor 

 exceeded 200,000 tons, which is probably greater than the oxygen demand 

 resulting from sewage sludge dumping at the ocean dumping grounds. 



Up to 1972, millions of gallons of poorly treated municipal wastes 

 from 25 sewer plants were discharged along a 70-mile stretch from Sandy 

 Hook to Beach Haven. These discharges have continued in New Jersey for 

 more than 40 years in such municipalities as Asbury Park, Avon, Bay Head, 

 Beach Haven, Belmar, Bradley Beach, Deal, Lavallette, Long Beach, Long 

 Branch, Manasquan, Neptune City, Neptune Township, Ocean Grove, Point 

 Pleasant Beach, Sea Bright, Sea Girt, Seaside Heights, Seaside Park, 

 Ship Bottom, Spring Lake, Spring Lake Heights and Surf City. According 

 to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, which pro- 

 vided the New Jersey newspaper "Star-Ledger" (3 October 1971) with this 

 listing, the daily capacity flows of waste treatment plants in these 

 municipalities total nearly 33 million gallons. 



Other sources of wastes and pollutants that may reach New York 

 Harbor are municipalities and industrial facilities up the Hudson River. 

 It was estimated by Dole and Stabler (1909) that the "normal" sediment 

 load of the Hudson River was about 400,000 tons per yr. around 1900. 

 1960 estimates by Panuzio (1965) gave the sediment load at 830,000 

 tons per yr. According to Gross (1970), between 1964 and 1968, about 

 700,000 tons per yr. of wastes were dumped into the river, and may 

 have reached the Harbor. They were subsequently dredged up and barged 

 to the ocean dumping grounds of the Bight. 



Although it is assumed that little suspended sediment in the outflows 

 of the Hudson and Raritan Rivers may find its way to the offshore environ- 

 ment of the New York Bight due to the configuration of the Upper and 

 Lower Bays and other physical barriers, this may not be true under certain 

 heavy rainfall and storm conditions. Under such conditions, a great 

 load of suspended sediments may reach the entrance of the harbor and be 

 deposited offshore in the Bight. 



Considering circulation and natural drainage patterns, such deposition 

 probably occurs in the vicinity of the ocean dumping grounds and in the 

 the vicinity of the now-buried upper head of the Hudson Channel. Al- 

 though quantities of sediments resulting from such deposition cannot be 

 calculated with accuracy, estimates of sediment discharges by some U.S. 

 Atlantic Coast Rivers and other major rivers of the World, are given in 

 the literature. Tables 20 and 21 list such estimates. It is possible, 

 that because of natural sediment deposition and outflow of waters of 



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