Newark Bay Study - Passaic River Public Digital Library

Table 1-2. Extent of historical data in Newark Bay for selected chemicals.
TCDD DDT PAHs PCBs Hg Pb
L S L S L S L S L S L S
Surface water 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 9 9 28 9 28
Sediment 93 123 93 149 93 118 93 103 93 152 93 152
L: number of locations; S: number of samples
1-21
in water column data, as illustrated in Table 1-2. For all the measurements carried out by the
different agencies/organizations/firms in Newark Bay between 1990 and 2001, there are only a
handful of water column measurements for tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD), PCBs, PAHs, DDT,
Hg and Pb. The paucity of data is even more pronounced for biological tissue: there are fewer
locations and a small number of samples per organism collected over the years. Although more
measurements are available on sediment quality, as discussed below, there is not enough information
to provide a clear picture of the spatial and temporal trends as necessary to support modeling or risk
assessment purposes. It is important to add that while CARP information was recently forwarded to
EPA, this information was not publicly available at the time that the TSI database was developed. It
is planned that the CARP information will be incorporated into future model development and
model calibration work.
An intrinsic part of data evaluation is understanding the physical characteristics of the
sediments, the spatial and temporal distribution of the chemicals in the sediments, the spatial and
temporal patterns in water column concentrations and in biota, as well as the hydrodynamic
behavior likely to affect the stability of the sediments in terms of deposition and resuspension. The
bulk of the data analysis is centered on establishing the horizontal and vertical distribution of the
contaminants in the surface and bottom sediments, as well as in the water column and biota. The
analysis is aimed at i) constructing a conceptual site model that guides the design of the
hydrodynamic, sediment transport, fate and transport and bioaccumulation modeling framework,
and ii) helping to design a sampling program that supports data modeling needs as well as
geochemical, risk assessment and engineering analyses.
1.4.3.2 Data Evaluation: Sediments
For the sediments, HydroQual has focused its historical data evaluation of Newark Bay on analyzing
a subset of TSI’s database that covers field programs conducted between 1991 and 2001. This
database is available on the www.ourPassaic.org project website. To better view and analyze the
data, map-based spatial representations of some of the chemical concentrations were developed, in
addition to two-dimensional plotting templates for rendering the data in the longitudinal direction
from the mouth of the Passaic River along a north-south axis that extends to the lower end of
Newark Bay, and easterly into Kill van Kull (Figure 1-6). The purpose of this analysis is to gain a
better understanding of the spatial distribution of contaminants in the water column and sediment,
two important environmental compartments in Newark Bay. It is also important to recognize that