1.0 INTRODUCTION 



The Bridgeport Disposal Site is an inactive disposal site in Long Island Sound (Figure 1- 

 1). It is located approximately 5 nmi south-southwest of the entrance to Bridgeport Harbor, 

 Connecticut. The disposal site is 2 nmi long and 1 nmi wide (the long axis of which runs east- 

 west) and is centered about 41°04.4' N latitude and 73° 12. 6' W longitude. The site was used 

 frequently for dredged material disposal over a period of twenty-five years from 1953 to 1977. 

 Until now, the site was never monitored under the DAMOS Program. The DAMOS Program 

 began in 1977 around the time that site use was discontinued. 



On 4 August 1992, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) conducted 

 side-scan sonar and REMOTS® reconnaissance surveys at this historical site to document 

 existing site conditions. The surveys were performed in one day to obtain information 

 concerning onsite physical and biological conditions. The goals of the 1992 survey were 



• to search for the existence of relic disposal mounds; 



• to assess the current status (i.e., areal extent, topography, amount of reworking, etc.) of 

 relic dredged material; 



• to examine present benthic biological conditions at the site; and 



• to predict future site conditions at DAMOS disposal sites currently in use. 



The side-scan sonar survey was performed first, to identify potential relic disposal 

 mounds 1 to 5 m in elevation. The identification of relic dredged material using side-scan sonar 

 was used to guide the placement of REMOTS® sampling locations. Following field operations, 

 the REMOTS® sediment-profile photographs were analyzed for physical and biological 

 parameters to assess onsite conditions. These data may provide a better understanding of the 

 long-term behavior of dredged material and may be used to predict the future of Long Island 

 Sound disposal sites that are presently in use. 



1.1 History of Disposal Activity at the Bridgeport Disposal Site 



The Bridgeport Disposal Site was active from 1953 to 1977. In this twenty-five-year 

 period, the disposal site received more than 4. 1 million m 3 of material dredged from multiple 

 locations (Table 1-1). The dredged material source areas extended over a 70 mi stretch of 

 coastline from Norwalk Harbor to the Thames River in New London. The majority of the 

 material, 1,987,960 m , was dredged from Bridgeport Harbor and Black Rock Harbor and 

 deposited at the disposal site between 1960 and 1963. 



Before the mid 1970s, harbor sediments underwent minimal testing prior to dredging and 

 disposal. Moreover, while the Bridgeport Disposal Site was in use, the majority of disposal 

 records do not list the sources of dredged material released at the site. The records do 



Reconnaissance Survey of the Historical Bridgeport Disposal Site, August 1992 



