Stabilized Coal-Fired Power Plant Wastes as a Fouling Substrate in Estuarine Waters

摘要

Two potential resource management strategies for disposal of combustion by-products originating from coal-fired power plants involve the manufacture of stabilized coal-fired power plant waste (SCPW) blocks and their disposal in estuaries either (1) as artificial reefs to enhance finfish abundance in local areas or (2) as the foundation material for artificial oyster bars to be used in oyster farming. To determine the acceptability of the material in an estuary, coal waste blocks containing fly ash and sludge in the ratio of 2.9:1 (dry wt) and stabilized with lime were placed in the Choptank River, a subestuary of Chesapeake Bay. Larval recruitment and epibenthic community development were monitored for two years on the lower horizontal surface of SCPW block sections positioned 60cm off the river bottom. Species richness of the epifaunal community did not vary significantly by block type (SCPW vs. concrete or asbestos plates vs. cut-SCPW vs. outer-SCPW sections). In both programs, seasonality was several times as important as the block type effects on the epibenthic community structure: temporal effects were significant at P < 0.003 for all taxa analyzed.