Environmental Science in the Coastal Zone Issues for Further Research (1994) / Chapter Skim
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9 Coastal Pollution and Waste Management by Jerry R. Schubel
9 Coastal Pollution and Waste Management by Jerry R. Schubel
Pages 124-148
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From page 124... ...
The State University of New York Storm Brook, New York "The Future Ain't What It Used To Be. " Yogi Berra INTRODUCTION This paper was prepared as a background paper for the National Research Council's Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources Retreat on "Multiple Uses of He Coastal Zone in a Changing World".
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From page 125... ...
COASTAL OCEAN? Each year, the 23 coastal states, jurisdictions, and interstate commissions must report, for their estuarine waters, degradation that has reached the point that estuarine areas no longer fully support designated activities.
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From page 126... ...
The states cited municipal wastewater discharge as the most extensive single source of pollution to their estuarine waters. It accounted for 53 percent of the total impaired area.
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From page 127... ...
In others, such as Long Island Sound, the area of terrestrial influence is more constrained, and planning and management can be concentrated in the coastal zone. For each coastal system, the zone of influence of human activities needs to be identified and become the basic planning and management unit.
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From page 128... ...
There are other environmental impacts of discharging raw or improperly treated sewage into coastal waters, particularly into bays, estuaries, and lagoons. The added nutrients can produce eutrophic conditions leading to loss of submerged aquatic vegetation; to shifts in plankton assemblages; to degradation of coral reefs; and, in the extreme, to hypoxic or even to anoxic conditions.
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From page 129... ...
Over the same period, the point-source inputs from New York City treatment plants has been relatively stable, but non-point- sources in coastal counties bordering the sound have increased significantly. Overenrichment of Long Island Sound by nitrogen is considered by the Long Island Sound Study to be the most important hazard to the sound ecosystem.
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From page 130... ...
130 Table 9. ~ Distribution of Classified Esm~ine Waters, 198S =d 1990 Environmental Science in the Coastal Zone Percent Classified l ~ /~)
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From page 131... ...
Coastal Pollution aM Waste Management Table 9.2 Pollution Sources Affecting H~vest-Limited Acregage, 199oab Now AtImdc Soul Atlantic Point Sources Sewage Treat Paws 238 67 Combined Sewers 21 6 Direct Discharge ~
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From page 133... ...
7 ~ I'' ~ i\\\ LGus' ~ ~ .
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From page 134... ...
warnings concerning consumption of fishery products, the following would make my unranked list of coastal areas of greatest concern: . Boston Harbor · Narragansett Bay · Buzzards Bay · We stern Long T s I and S ound Baltimore Harbor Upper Chesapeake Bay · Hampton Roads/Elizabeth River (Chesapeake Bay)
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From page 136... ...
And, since I have the floor... Sea Level Half of He world's population lives in coastal regions, many of which are already under stress.
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From page 137... ...
As freshwater inflows are decreased, salt penetrates farther into estuaries, destroying low salinity habitat. Manipulation of River Discharge: A Looming One set of problems that has received too little attention and that may become more serious in He future is the effect of manipulation of river discharge on estuaries and near-coastal waters.
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From page 138... ...
may be an over-estimate -- and I believe it is -- the regulated fraction of the world's river discharge will increase and changes in regional precipitation patterns could have an influence. The most intensive period of dam-building activity was between 1945 and 1971 when more than 8000 major dams were built outside of China (Beaumont, 1978)
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From page 139... ...
In the 1981 National Symposium on Freshwater Inflow, Rosengurt and Hay~ock (1981) stated "Direct experience and the published results of the effects of water development abroad, all point to the inescapable conclusion that no more than 25-30% of the natural outflow can be diverted without disastrous ecological consequences.
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From page 140... ...
The Atmosphere -- An Underestimated Source of Contaminants to the Coastal Zone? The atmosphere may be underestimated as a source of a number of contaminants to coastal waters, particularly in urban areas such as Long Island Sound.
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From page 141... ...
But, ~ am convinced that there was another reason for the rapid evolution of our knowledge of estuarine physics in the 1950s and 1960s. That reason was the strong, stable institutional support provided primarily by the Office of Naval Research and the Atomic Energy Commission.
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From page 142... ...
While a program of sustained fundamental research in the coastal ocean and studies of specific coastal systems are necessary, even they are not enough if we are to conserve these valuable resources. We must develop new paradigms not only for coastal research but for coastal research in support of coastal management.
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From page 143... ...
In today's climate, some projects could be aborted by their very titles. It is unlikely today that many directors of coastal marine institutions would sign off as Don Pritchard did in the mid-1960s on a project of mine for a study of the "Effects of Dissolved Gases in An Old Wombats Gut'' (Old Woman's Gut is a waterway in upper Chesapeake Bay)
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From page 144... ...
T am part of the National Research Council's Water Science and Technology Board's Committee on Wastewater Management for Coastal Urban Areas that has struggled for well over a year with the problems of waste management in urban coastal areas and that produced the draft report on integrated coastal management. We've made some progress, but the hard part is still ahead: to show how to apply the paradigm not in the abstract, but in specific, concrete terms the way managers would have to do it.
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From page 145... ...
I seldom bring anything to use; it's not my way. Knowledge is my ultimate end." Too many of us in the coastal marine science community are Sir Nicholas Jimcracks.
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From page 146... ...
Sponsored by the National Sea Grant College Program and the National Marine Fisheries Service. UNC Sea Grant College Publication UNC-SG-84-08.
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From page 147... ...
Stony Brook, New York: Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York. Schubel, J
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From page 148... ...
1990. Greenhouse effect, sea level rise and land use.
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