Dioxins in the Newark Bay Complex-Newark, New Jersey

摘要

The Newark Bay complex long has been associated with dioxin contamination.Historically, this contamination has been associated with one of the tributaries toNewark Bay, the Passaic River. To evaluate the impact of Passaic-contaminated sedimentin Newark Bay, chemical mass balances for 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) and Total TCDD were developed. These mass balances were based on a solidsmass balance and surface concentration data for the Lower Passaic River, Newark Bay,the Hackensack River, the Arthur Kill and Kill Van Kull. To constrain the mass balancecalculations for Newark Bay, the two mass balances were solved simultaneously,effectively tracking the ratio of the two compounds through the bay. Mass balance resultsfor 2,3,7,8-TCDD indicate that more than 80 percent of the 2,3,7,8-TCDD currentlyaccumulating in Newark Bay must originate from the Lower Passaic River. The currentlikely source of contamination from the Lower Passaic is the sediment bed itself. Theinventory of dioxins within the Lower Passaic was estimated on a mass-per-unit area(MPA) basis using data collected in the 1990s. The mass of 2,3,7,8-TCDD in thesediments of the Lower Passaic was estimated at 29 kg, representing 6.5 million cubicyards of contaminated sediment.