Solid Waste

Currently, WRMI is working on the following solid waste projects:

the reuse of municipal solid waste (MSW) combustor ash for roadbase material;
the construction of an airport hangar, hangar apron and taxiways using combustor ash;
an examination of radioactivity in sewage sludge.

MSW Ash

During 2004, research into beneficial uses of MSW combustor ash focused on continued monitoring of the road pavement demonstration at the Bald Hill, Farmingville, site. A new demonstration project, the construction of a hangar using construction quality cement blocks fabricated from processed MSW combustor ash, was undertaken at the Town of Brookhaven’s airport in Shirley. In addition, the base and wearing surfaces of the taxiways and hangar apron were fabricated using processed ash as a supplement to the natural aggregates.

Working with the Town of Brookhaven, their consultants and private industry, a Beneficial Use Determination (BUD) application was submitted requesting that the NYS DEC grant permission for the use of processed MSW combustor ash as an aggregate substitute in construction opportunities.

Sewage Sludge

As a follow-up to an April 2001 seminar on low-level radioactive waste in MSW, we determined that there is a need to look for radioactivity in sewage effluent and sewage sludge, particularly in plants that are treating sewage from hospitals. We have initiated the study using three treatment plants on Long Island. Two of the plants treat hospital discharges. The third, which has no hospital sewage discharge, will serve as a control. Our aim is to determine the partitioning of the radioactivity through the plants and to the sewage effluent and sludge, and determine if radioactivity is being concentrated in the marine environment. Isotopes of interest include Cesium-137, Iodine-125, Iridium-192, and Samarium-145. All have half-lives greater than or equal to sewage sludge digestion time.

Marine Pollution

The Trace Organic Contaminant laboratory continues to conduct research on the trace level detection, occurrence and transport of pharmacologically active contaminants in ground water and estuarine systems impacted by wastewater. New HPLC-MS methods were developed to detect pesticides used to control mosquitos by Long Island and New York City municipalities. Detection limits using these methods were below parts per trillion. A new initiative was undertaken to characterize the distribution of oil in sediments from the New York Harbor complex. It is hypothesized that residual oil contamination is the primary cause of many harbor sediments failing sediment toxicity tests used to manage dredged materials in urban harbors.

WRMI researchers continue to focus on the interactions of metals with marine and freshwater biota, with a focus on organisms at the bottom of the food chain. Thus, they consider the rates and extent of bioaccumulation of select metals in marine plankton and the trophic transfer of these metals to organisms which consume them, including zooplankton, bivalves, and fishes. They continue to use a biokinetic model to evaluate the relative importance of diet and solute exposure to assess the importance of different uptake pathways for metals in marine animals and have field-tested this model with fishes in San Francisco Bay, with copepods in the Mediterranean Sea, with mussels and clams in Long Island Sound and San Francisco Bay, and with zebra mussels in the Hudson River and the Great Lakes. An important aspect of the research considers the roles that biota play in influencing geochemical cycling and oceanic residence times of contaminants in marine systems. They have also recently developed a new tool using synchrotron x-ray fluorescence to measure trace metal concentrations and cellular distributions of metals in individual plankton cells, and have been applying this technique to evaluating metal contents in plankton cells from different bodies of water. In 2004, they had research programs active in the Mediterranean, Southern Ocean, San Francisco Bay, and New York’s coastal waters.

A WRMI faculty member and students are working on several research fronts, including:

developing an in-situ analyzer for dissolved copper, in order to make continuous measurements of dissolved copper at the ppb level in estuarine waters as well as in sewage treatment plants. It is being tested in the East River-western Long Island Sound system.

establishing major biogeochemical processes that control the cycling of vitamins in different marine environments. Despite the importance of Vitamin B12 for DNA synthesis, this study is the first to address the importance of this vitamin controlling phytoplankton blooms in coastal and open ocean waters. For this project, they are sampling waters in the Long Island Sound and Great South Bay in New York as well as in the Antarctic and North Atlantic Ocean. The study is feasible because they have developed the first analytical technique to measure vitamins in seawater.

establishing the impact of intracellular metal quotas on primary production and on carbon sequestration in the ocean, in order to understand the effect of anthropogenic CO2 on phytoplankton functions. This group is trying to relate intracellular metal quotas with CO2 concentrations. This is important because global change modelers have not yet incorporated metal quotas in phytoplankton that reflect changes due to CO2 increases. They are using in this project a new technique to differentiate intra- versus extra-cellular metal pools in phytoplankton.

determining, for the first time, metal levels in bottom waters of the Long Island Sound. In addition, they will study the effect of temperature and dissolved oxygen on metal concentrations and their chemical speciation. Samples will be collected in the summer and the spring in locations ranging from the East River to the Race in eastern Long Island Sound.

Monitoring

A biokinetic model is being developed and field-tested for assessing metal accumulation in zebra mussels in the Hudson River and the Great Lakes for the purpose of determining its value as a bioindicator for contamination in freshwater systems.

WRMI has implemented trace metal clean protocols to isolate metals (silver, cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc) in Long Island ground water. Measurements show that levels of toxic metals in “uncontaminated” ground water could not be properly measured without implementation of clean techniques similar to those developed for open ocean studies. Clean protocols were established to measure these metals in ground water at concentrations in parts per trillion.

WRMI is also partners with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the NYS DEC in conducting the National Coastal Assessment Program for New York’s waters around Long Island and up the tidal portion of the Hudson River to Albany. This monitoring program contributes to the national assessment of the condition of the nation’s coastal waters. The spring trawl and CTD surveys were successfully completed during the first week in May. Twenty-five 2004 stations in New York’s coastal waters were sampled for fish community structure, species abundance and pathology, as well as sediment and water quality.

WRMI continued to work on developing a Hudson River Estuary Monitoring Plan. The basis of the plan is to monitor the ecosystem and its processes throughout the estuary, and also to supply information that is adequate to address management priorities. The final report on this research was completed in December.

Page last modified on Friday, July 21, 2006 by George E. Carroll