[garbage] [industrial waste water] [sludge dumping]



One more form of pollution is sludge dumping. In 1988 the United States passed the Ocean Dumping Act, which said that sludge dumping must end by December 31, 1991 or a fee would be charged. Once the deadline passed, most people believed that ocean dumping would stop. It did not stop. Companies decided it was easier to pay a large fee and dump in the ocean than to find an alternative solution. Sludge dumping continued. 6 miles off the coast of Sandy Hook, New Jersey, a sludge dump site was created in 1914 and named the “Mud Dump.” This dumpsite accepts dredge material from New York Harbor. The EPA states that dumping at places like the “Mud Dump” buries benthic organisms, reduces ocean oxygen levels, and elevates concentrations of bacteria and toxic contaminants like PCBs. “Sludge dumping adds more than 8 million pounds of heavy metals – lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and the like – to the marine ecosystem annually.” Between 1972 and 1987, 166 billion pounds of wet sludge was dumped at the “Twelve-Mile Sewage Sludge Site.” The water there is only 80 ft deep and is located off New Jersey. Sludge dumping is not just a problem in the U.S. It occurs all over the world. The Netherlands and Norway have some of the most pollution in the world. They are trying to correct this, but are having some difficulties. The problem is that currents off the coast of England, bring the sludge that is dumped back towards Europe, with the brunt of it going to the Netherlands and Norway. To prevent sludge dumping from occurring in the future, strict laws must be passed to prevent chemical companies from emptying wastes into sewers. Environmentalists want to build plants to process the sludge into compost. Clean compostable sewage sludge would exist right now if pre-treatment laws were enforced. It’s not just the large industries that cause problems. It’s also the coastal runoff, like lawn fertilizers and sewage. This is speeding up the growth of macroalgae, which blocks light from getting the coral below it. This macroalgae can also form underwater turfs that can grow up to 6 inches high and smother the coral reefs.