Studies of a contaminated brackish marsh in the Hackensack Meadowlands of northeastern New Jersey: An assessment of natural recovery

Eight-Day Swamp is known to be contaminated with heavy metals, especially mercury. Sediment cores were collected to 32 cm at 17 sites on four transects and analyzed at 1 or 2 cm intervals for seven metals and organic matter. Very high metal levels were found throughout the site. Long and Morgan’s “effects range–median” (ER–M) was exceeded in more than 50% of slices for all elements except As. Hg had the highest concentration relative to ER–M; median Hg concentration was 72 times its ER–M. On the marsh plain, all metals showed enrichment at 14–20 cm depth of 10–40X over surficial sediments. 137Cs analysis showed sedimentation rates ranging from 0.33 to 0.50 cm yr−1 over the last 40 yr. These rates indicate that metal contamination peaks occurred in sediments deposited in the early 1960s. Thus, newer, less contaminated sediments are burying older, more contaminated layers and peak levels of contaminants are becoming less available to benthos.