ECO-SYSTEM BASED MANAGEMENT FOR THE GOWANUS CANAL AND ITS SEDIMENTS Keith W. Jones Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973-5000 Gowanus Canal Conservancy 2007 Water Quality Summit March 6, 2007
WHAT DOES BROOKHAVEN DO? Established in 1947 on Long Island, Upton, New York, Brookhaven is a multi-program national laboratory operated by Brookhaven Science Associates for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Brookhaven has a staff of approximately 3,000 scientists, engineers, technicians and support staff and over 4,000 guest researchers annually. Brookhaven National Laboratory's role for the DOE is to produce excellent science and advanced technology with the cooperation, support, and appropriate involvement of our scientific and local communities. The fundamental elements of the Laboratory's role in support of the four DOE strategic missions are the following: • To conceive, design, construct, and operate complex, leading edge, user-oriented facilities in response to the needs of the DOE and the international community of users. • To carry out basic and applied research in long-term, high-risk programs at the frontier of science. • To develop advanced technologies that address national needs and to transfer them to other organizations and to the commercial sector. • To disseminate technical knowledge, to educate new generations of scientists and engineers, to maintain technical capabilities in the nation's workforce, and to encourage scientific awareness in the general public.
BNL CAN BE A MAJOR RESOURCE FOR WORK ON ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS IN THE NEW YORK METROPOLITAN REGION.
BNL FROM THE AIR.
BNL AND SEDIMENTS • BNL has worked for more than 10 years with the U. S. EPA Region 2 and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers on a project to develop and demonstrate methods for decontamination and beneficial use of dredged material from the Port of New York/New Jersey. • Buddy Scotto was a major stimulus in bringing this about. • Lessons learned from the results of the project are relevant to present problems of the Gowanus Canal sediments.
DECONTAMINATION TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATIONS • Environmentally acceptable, economically affordable. • Beneficial use for processed sediments. • Demonstrations at bench-, pilot-, and large-scales. • Began with over 10 tests at the bench scale and finished with 2 at large scales. • Low- and high-temperature technologies were included. • Beneficial uses include cement product, manufactured soils, glass tiles.
Top: Bayshore Storage. Middle: GTI Rotary Kiln. Bottom: BioGenesis Washing.
REPORTS ON THE GOWANUS CANAL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gowanus_Canal Gowanus Canal From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.gowanus.org/finalreport011207.pdf Gowanus Canal Comprehensive Community Plan http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/harbor/gowanus/reports/quality. pdf SEDIMENT QUALITY EVALUATION REPORT GOWANUS CANAL AND BAY ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION PROJECT http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/ GOWANUS CANAL AND BAY ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION PROJECT: WETLAND CREATION GENERAL INVESTIGATION REPORT
http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/harbor/gowanus/reports.htm. Gowanus Canal and Bay Restoration Study Reports http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/harbor/gowanus/reports/sediment.pdf SEDIMENT SAMPLING WORK PLAN GOWANUS CANAL AND BAY ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION PROJECT
http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/project/newyork/fa ctsh/pdf/gowanus.pdf Hudson Raritan Estuary-Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, New York. ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION STUDY
SUMMARY OF THE REPORTS
• Sediments in the Gowanus Canal are contaminated with metals, PAHs, PCBs, and other compounds at levels that affect the environmental health of the canal. • An ecological management plan can be used in dealing with the sediments and other features of the canal.
SOME COMPONENTS OF AN EC0SYSTEM BASED PLAN Physical Characteristics Historical Use Land Use Water Quality Toxic Substances Habitat and Living Resources Fish and Fisheries From Clay C. Sutton, John C. O'Hare, II, and Robert T. Zappalorti. The Scientific Characterization of the Delaware Estuary. Delaware Estuary Program, April, 1996.
AIMS FOR RESTORATION OF THE GOWANUS CANAL • • • • •
Reduce input of contaminants to the canal. Improve sediment biotoxicity/bioaccumulation. Improve water quality. Improve habitat along the canal. Provide for recreational uses.
• Contaminant reduction is a pressing task.
Contaminant Transport
CONTAMINANT TRANSPORT • Transport of contaminants through the environment of the canal involves many different materials. Reliable calculation of the transport is problematical. • Partitioning between the solid phase and the water is probably largely in favor of the solid phase. Hence, it is plausible that the impact on water quality may not be large. Experimental measurements are called for. • Physical transport from the surface should also be small because of the low water velocities in the canal. • Bioturbation effects should be considered.
NYS SOIL CRITERIA Total VOCs: < 10 ppm. Total semi-VOCs: < 500 ppm. Individual semi-VOCs: < 50 ppm. PCBs < 1 ppm surface: < 10 ppm sub-surface. Mercury: <0.1 ppm. Lead: Site Boundary Reference: TAGM #4046 In general, New York regulations seem to be more stringent than those in NJ and CT. Beneficial use of the sediments for soils need to consider these criteria.
CONTAMINANT TRANSFER FROM SEDIMENTS TO THE WATER COLUMN The sediments in the canal are not homogeneous. This make an estimate of the transfer of contaminants to the water column problematical. Based on know partition coefficients, however, it seems that the sediment contaminants will not be the major factor affecting water quality in the Gowanus Canal. Measurements could be done to investigate this point more thoroughly.
AIRBORNE CONTAMINANTS Atmospheric deposition of lead, copper, and zinc accounts for a substantial fraction of the concentrations found in salt marsh sediments close to New York City. The fractions were 72%, 32%, and >46%, respectively. A measurement of present levels of atmospheric deposition into the Gowanus Canal would be useful for consideration in developing restoration plans. Other sources maybe more important in this case. [J. K. Cochran, D. J. Hirschberg, J. Wang, and C. Dere. Atmospheric Deposition of Metals to Coastal Waters (Long Island Sound, New York U.S.A.): Evidence from Saltmarsh Deposits. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (1998) 46, 503-522.]
NON-POINT SOURCE RUNOFF The importance of non-point source runoff contributions is obviously difficult to assess.
POINT SOURCE CONTAMINANT INPUTS • A Gowanus example of point source inputs to the canal is the Public Place site that was used for coal gasification. • Input to the sediments can be through runoff from soils and from liquids in the sub-surface. • Details of the ongoing work to define and remediate the contaminants are to be discussed by Al Wilshire.
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOWS (CSO) • CSO is probably the major source directly affecting water quality. • Reductions in the CSO input require major changes over a many year period of time. • Reliable numbers for amounts of contaminant metals, PAHs, PCBs, etc. coming into the canal waters are needed to use in planning canal restoration.
APPROACHES TO RESTORATION • Fill it in • Dredged and send the sediments to a landfill. • Liner/capping. • Dredging, treatment, beneficial reuse of treated material at the Canal. Addressed by EPA, ACE, and BNL demonstration project. • CRITICAL POINT: WHEN WILL A SECOND DREDGING BE REQUIRED IF CONTAMINANT INPUT IS NOT REDUCED?
DREDGED MATERIAL DECONTAMINATION Lessons learned from the Decontamination Demonstration Project: • High temperature treatments are most effective. No facility exists in the region. • Low temperature chemical/physical are less effective, but could probably be setup locally. • Microbial/chemical treatment. • Soil creation from treated material.
WHAT TO DO? A mega-scale restoration project is unlikely to happen very quickly by reason of the total cost, conflicting aims of various public agencies, community groups, developers, etc. Therefore, we should consider smaller projects with welldefined goals as a precursor or starting point to demonstrate ways to improve the environment and usefulness of the canal for human activities.
POSSIBLE PROJECTS FOR CONSIDERATION â&#x20AC;˘ Eliminate mudflats and use the material at other locations for creation of wetlands. â&#x20AC;˘ Remove sediments and do low temperature chemical/microbial decontamination followed by beneficial use. Applications could be making a soil for brown-field restoration or covering mudflats for wet land creation.
DREDGING COST ESTIMATE Guesstimate of volume to be removed: Length = 2 miles, Width = 20 yards, Depth removed = 1 yard. Total volume = 3520 x 20 x 1 = 70, 499 cubic yards. Cost to dredge and deposit in secure land fill, including contingency estimated at $200/cubic yard Total cost = 70,499 cubic yards x $200/cubic yard = $14,080,000
RESTORATION OF OYSTER AND MUSSEL HABITAT • Restoration of oyster beds in the Hudson Estuary is being undertaken by many groups. Locations include the Gowanus Canal. • Expanding the work in conjunction with wetland creation could give the opportunity for assessing bivalve use in improving water quality and habitat in the Canal. • Community and educational involvement can generate interest in the Canal and support for improvements. • BNL is collaborating with various schools on a test program to use web conferencing between lab facilities at BNL and the students to investigate oyster science.
OYSTER PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS Green School, Brooklyn New York Harbor School, Brooklyn Longwood Middle School, Middle Island East Hampton High School Southampton High School Locust Valley High School
Stony Brook University Institute of Nuclear Physics, Krakow, Poland University of Mining and Metallurgy, Krakow, Poland Miller Place High School Sayville High School
INTERACTIVE SCIENCE AT THE NATIONAL SYNCHROTRON LIGHT SOURCE (NSLS)
NSLSâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;High intensity x-ray source for characterization of environmental samples. Web conference enables participation from high school science classes at their schools.
FUNDING • Funding for sediment cleanup will come from a variety of sources: federal, state, and local government, principal responsible parties, and property developers. • For a start, a developer could work with government, community groups, environmental groups etc. to create a model demonstration site that shows how eco-system based restoration of the canal adjacent to the developer’s site could both meet commercial and environmental needs.
SUMMARY • Methods for dealing with removal, possible treatment, and disposal through beneficial use or other means exist. Cost/benefit ratios should be acceptable. • Time for recontamination of the canal after cleanup needs to be assessed. • Initial projects to demonstrate cleanup methods, beneficial uses, wetland creation, habitat improvement, access improvement should be doable at the present time.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Eric Stern, Scott Douglas, Kerwin Donato, JIM Lodge, Rob Klein, Rick Wilke, Scott Bronson, Buddy Scotto, Tom Chardavoyne, Basil Seggos, Paul Mankiewicz, Katie Mosher-Smith, Jeff Levinton, Nick Clesceri, John Sontag, Charles Wilde, Michael Mensinger, and others.