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Publications—Circular 1302  

#### Prepared in cooperation with the  Massachusetts Water Resources Authority,  U.S. Coast Guard, and  Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

# Processes Influencing the Transport and Fate of Contaminated Sediments in the Coastal Ocean—Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay

By Michael H. Bothner1 and Bradford Butman1, editors

 Other contributing authors:

 P. Soupy Alexander2, Sandra M. Baldwin1, Dann S. Blackwood1,    Jonathan Borden1, Michael A. Casso1, John Crusius1, Joanne Goudreau3,    Linda H. Kalnejais3, Paul J. Lamothe4, William R. Martin3, Marinna A. Martini1,    Richard R. Rendigs1, Frederick L. Sayles3, Richard P. Signell1, Page C. Valentine1,    and John C. Warner1

1 U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole, MA2 Integrated Statistics, Woods Hole, MA3 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA4 U.S. Geological Survey, Lakewood, CO 

#### U.S. Geological     Survey Circular 1302 

## Contents

The body of the report is available in PDF     Format

Report Front Matter (502 KB) Section 1: Introduction, Geologic Setting, and Program Overview (2,182 KB) Section 2: High-Resolution Geologic Maps of the Sea Floor (5,476 KB) Section 3: Long-Term Oceanographic Observations in  Massachusetts Bay: Field Program (670 KB) Section 4: Oceanographic Setting (1,574 KB) Section 5: Effluent Dilution Simulations in Massachusetts Bay:  An Evaluation of Relocating Greater Boston’s Sewage Outfall (325 KB) Section 6: Predicting the Transport and Fate of Sediments  Caused by Northeast Storms (2,455 KB) Section 7: Using Sediments to Monitor Environmental Change  in Massachusetts Bay and Boston Harbor (693 KB) Section 8: Sediment Oxygen Profiles and Fluxes as a  Constraint on the Delivery of Organic Matter to Sediments (514 KB) Section 9: The Effects of Bioturbation on Sedimentary  Contaminants Inferred from Modeling Radionuclide Profiles in (202 KB) Section 10: The Cycling of Silver, Copper, and Lead in the  Coastal Sediments of Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay (451 KB) Section 11: Summary of Important Findings (143 KB) Section 12: References Cited (158 KB) Appendix:     Supplemental Bibliography (391 KB) 

##  Introduction

Most of the major urban centers of the United States including Boston, New York, Washington, Chicago, New Orleans, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle—are on a coast (fig. 1.1). All of these cities discharge treated sewage effluent into adjacent waters. In 2000, 74 percent of the U.S. population lived within 200 kilometers (km) of the coast. Between 1980 and 2002, the population density in coastal communities increased approximately 4.5 times faster than in noncoastal areas of the U.S. (Perkins, 2004). More people generate larger volumes of wastes, increase the demands on wastewater treatment, expand the area of impervious land surfaces, and use more vehicles that contribute contaminants to street runoff. According to the National Coastal Condition Report II (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2005a), on the basis of coastal habitat, water and sediment quality, benthic index, and fish tissue, the overall national coastal condition is only poor to fair and the overall coastal condition in the highly populated Northeast is poor.

 Scientific information helps managers to prioritize and regulate coastal-ocean uses that include recreation, commercial fishing, transportation, waste disposal, and critical habitat for marine organisms. These uses are often in conflict with each other and with environmental concerns. Developing a strategy for managing competing    uses while maintaining sustainability of coastal resources requires scientific understanding of how the coastal ocean system behaves and how it responds to anthropogenic influences. This report provides a summary    of a multidisciplinary research program designed to improve our understanding of the transport and fate of contaminants in Massachusetts coastal waters. 

  Massachusetts Bay and Boston Harbor have been a focus of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research because they provide a diverse geographic setting for developing a scientific understanding of the geology, geochemistry, and oceanography of coastal systems in general. Scientific data from this region can also be used to inform decisions about important economic, environmental, and political issues. From the economic viewpoint, the annual value of tourism and shipping in Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays is about $1.5 billion and $1.9 billion, respectively. Commercial and recreational  fishing generates about $240 million per year in the same region (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2005b).

 The environmental issue is the 300-year history of waste discharge from the Boston metropolitan area into the harbor. This history is punctuated by cycles of environmental degradation, public outcry, and improvements in the sewage treatment system. With each improvement, however, the continuous growth of population in greater Boston (fig. 1.2) and the resulting increase in the volume of waste exceeded the capacity of the treatment system, thereby setting the stage for a new contamination crisis. By the 1980s, the levels of contaminants in sediments of Boston Harbor were among the highest in the nation (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1987). Fish were diseased, shellfish beds were closed, and swimming beaches were unsafe after heavy rains; in general, water quality and aesthetics were below acceptable standards.

 Legal and political issues have always been part of Boston Harbor’s history. The environmental conditions    in the 1980s were highlighted in a 1983 legal suit brought by the city of Quincy against the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC, the state agency responsible for sewage treatment) and heads of three state agencies for discharging untreated or poorly treated sewage into the harbor (Dolin, 2004). The suit never went to trial, but through the actions of a Massachusetts Superior Court, the issue of Boston Harbor contamination remained on the political and public agenda. The judge called the harbor “unsafe, unsanitary, indecent, in violation of the law (Clean Water Act), and a danger to the health and welfare of the people” (Forman, 1984). To force the state legislature to implement a plan to improve harbor conditions,    the judge threatened to place the MDC in receivership    and curtail new sewage hookups for industry. Under intense lobbying by business, the legislature created the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) in December 1984. The independent MWRA was established    to manage Boston’s waste treatment system and was given the authority to float bonds to pay for major improvements in the treatment system.

 In 1985, a Federal court began hearings on a suit brought by the Conservation Law Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and towns of Quincy and Winthrop against the MDC and MWRA (as heir to responsibilities of the MDC) for years of violation of the Clean Water Act. The judge ruled against the defendants and required all the parties to submit a construction plan and schedule for a new sewage treatment system. From these submissions, he developed a schedule for treatment system upgrades that would give the “citizens of this commonwealth a public assurance that Boston Harbor will be cleaned up within a defined period of time” (Dolin, 2004).

 The MWRA’s Boston Harbor cleanup program (Levy and Connor, 1992) has transformed the Boston sewage system. Key improvements were to (1) reduce contaminants at the industrial source; (2) remediate leaks in the sewage-collection system; (3) eliminate sewage sludge discharge to the harbor; (4) upgrade sewage treatment    from primary to secondary; (5) construct a new ocean outfall 15.2 km offshore in Massachusetts Bay for discharge of treated effluent (fig. 1.3); and (6) implement improvements in the combined-sewer-overflow system.

 As part of the harbor cleanup program, the MWRA developed a comprehensive monitoring program (summarized in MWRA, 2004) to assess changes in the harbor and bays that specifically related to the new sewage system. Additional information about conditions and processes in the coastal system on a regional scale and over a long time period was and continues to be important in predicting and interpreting local change. Implementation of the MWRA’s program and the mission of the USGS to understand the geology of the nation’s offshore waters provided an opportunity to conduct a cooperative multidisciplinary research program. This USGS program addresses basic scientific questions as well as concerns raised by management regarding the design, implementation, and assessment of the new sewage treatment system. Already active in Boston Harbor during the late 1970s, the USGS expanded research into Massachusetts Bay with a multidisciplinary program in 1989.

### Suggested Citation 

Bothner, M.H., and Butman, Bradford (eds.), 2007, Processes influencing the transport and fate of contaminated  sediments in the coastal ocean—Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1302, 89 p.

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For further information, contact:

Michael H. Bothner United States Geological SurveyWoods Hole Science Center384 Woods Hole RoadQuissett CampusWoods Hole, MA 02543-1598(508)457-2240E-mail: mbothner@usgs.gov

    U.S. Department of Interior > U.S. Geological Survey > Coastal and Marine Geology Program >  Woods Hole Science Center

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U.S. Department of the Interior |	U.S. Geological Survey	URL: https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2007/1302/	Page Contact Information: USGS Publishing Network	Page Last Modified: Wednesday, 23-Nov-2016 12:27:05 EST

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