Chemical and Microbiological Tracers for the Deposition and Movement of Sewage Particulates

Bottom sediments were collected from sampling networks extending southwest through northeast from the New York Bight Sewage Sludge Dumpsite towards the New Jersey and New York coastlines and southeast along the Hudson Shelf Valley almost to the rim of the Hudson Canyon. These sediment samples were examined for their levels of Clostridium perfringens spores and the heavy metals, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, lead, mercury, silver, and zinc in order to determine which of these "potential conservative tracers" provides a better measure of the deposition of municipal sewage particulates into bottom sediments and their movement along the bottom. It was found that the C. perfringens spore levels generally were the most accurate and descriptive measure of contamination of the sediments with sewage particulates. There was suggestive evidence that metal-spore relationships can provide a measure of the industrial input of the specific chemical contaminants into the sediments.