vey that additional areas in the Bay had to be closed. Not until May 20, 

 1977 was the area closed, and a large-scale riot almost ensued. As a result 

 the judge issued a temporary restraining order against the state. On 

 July 20, 1977 the area was closed again but again the Attorney General's 

 office issued another restraining order. Then the States of Connecticut and 

 New Jersey sent telegrams requesting the City of New York or the State to 

 take some action to protect its citizens. As a result, shellfish shipments 

 were returned by out-of-state dealers. Finally on August 4, 1977 the area 

 was closed. The judge's decision upheld the validity of the total coliform 

 standard, and it also upheld the view that the standard is constitutional, 

 or if it is not, that the agency was doing things right. They did not write 

 an Environmental Impact Statement, and that was a possible weakness, but it 

 was upheld. In other words, the State had done everything within its power 

 to ensure that sanitary requirements had been met. - J.L.M. 



1197 



MacMillan, Robert B., and James H. Redman. 1971. 



Hard clam cleansing in New York. Comm. Fish. Rev. 33(5): 25-33. 



New York has about 400,000 acres of bottom suitable for shellfish, 13% of 

 which was closed by pollution. Many closed areas, most of which are in the 

 western part of Long Island, have abundant stocks of M. mereenaria. The 

 resource can not be used legally, but it is a public health menace. The 

 State began transplanting in 1964 to certified waters for 30-day depuration. 

 In 1965 funds were obtained for a pilot-plant study of commercial depuration. 

 The plant had controlled dry storage for untreated and treated shellfish, 

 depuration tanks, and seawater treatment. Location was at West Sayville on 

 Great South Bay. Landings of hard clam from the Bay in 1969 were 6.3 million 

 pounds of meats with landed value of $6.85 million. Recommended water 

 temperature for depuration was 59°F. Hard clams cease feeding at 45°F. 

 Thus, a water heating system was installed to warm Bay water in winter. 

 Three tanks, about 9 by 10 feet and 1.4 feet deep, received Bay water at 

 20 gal/min. Two settling tanks were provided to remove silt. For 

 supplementary water supply four experimental wells were driven. At well 

 point depth range of 20-50 ft below tidal water level pumping rate was 30 

 gal/min, water temperature 54.5-55.5°F, salinity 24-25. 5°/°% and no 

 detectable bacteria/ml. Consequently, a larger well was driven and use of 

 Bay water was discontinued. The advantages were: constant salinity and 

 temperature, no need to heat water, minimum ultra-violet sterilization, 

 elimination of fouling, elimination of settling tanks. Then 42 experiments 

 were conducted with clams from several areas. After washing, clams were 

 loaded in plastic coated wire baskets, placed in holding tanks, and treated 

 for 48 hours. The most heavily contaminated sample contained 5,100 fecal 

 coliform colony forming units (CFU) per 100 g of clam meats at the beginning 

 of the experiment to 100 CFU at 24 hours, and to less than 20 CFU at the end 

 of 48 hours. The usual method for determining fecal coliforms in shellfish 

 takes 3 days. The authors developed a pour-plate procedure which gave 

 results in 24 hours. When seawater temperatures fall below about 45°F clams 

 cease feeding and no longer accumulate bacteria. Hard clam harvested in 

 December to March inclusive are virtually free of coliforms, whatever the 

 water quality. The crystalline style also is absent in winter, but 

 experiments showed that when depurated in winter in water sufficiently warm, 

 50-92% of the clams developed a style in 24 to 48 hours, demonstrating that 

 the clams were active. Depuration is used only to remove bacterial or viral 

 contamination. The process does not remove contaminants like heavy metals, 

 pesticides or radionuclides. The program was terminated in 1969. Its success 

 led the State to announce that use of the process would be authorized by 

 private concerns under appropriate conditions, and that laboratory support 

 would be provided to ensure proper operation. - J.L.M. 



336 



