Long-Term Remote Sensing of Receiving Waters at an East Coast United States Offshore Dumpsite

Weekly analysis of surface water mass boundaries derived from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite imagery between October 1, 1976 and September 30, 1985 revealed the relative importance of various water mass types for receiving industrial wastewaters at the 106 Mile Dumpsite. These data were produced from weekly classification of the dumpsite´s 4 quadrants with respect to the predominant water mass (based on the image analysis) together with the dumping input to each quadrant for that week. Based on these analyses, 65.8% of the total 367.9 million gallons of wastewater discharged during this time period by 2 of the largest dumpers was released into the slope water, while 16.5% and 13.4% of this amount were released into shelf and warm core Gulf Stream ring waters, respectively. Minor amounts of wastewater (2.3%) were released directly into the Gulf Stream itself. These long term data clearly indicate that the 106 Mile Dumpsite regularly receives wastewater inputs into the 3 water masses which, on a statistical basis, regularly occupy the site. Although this analysis represents a simplified first order approximation, such techniques may in the future provide a highly cost effective tool for monitoring.