Transcript Environmental Cleanup & Restoration: CASE STUDY Foundry Cove in the Hudson

Environmental Cleanup &
Restoration: CASE STUDY
Foundry Cove in the Hudson
River, New York
Foundry Cove is situated in the Village of Cold Spring, in Putnam
County, NY, approximately 54 miles north of Battery Park, NYC (Fig 1).
• The Marathon Battery Company facility in Cold
Spring, NY, was located near Foundry Cove. The
plant was constructed in 1952 by the U.S. Army
Corps. From 1952 through 1979 this facility
manufactured nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries,
initially for military contracts.
Fig. 2. Foundry Cove, foreground, with Constitution Marsh
Audubon Sanctuary at Center Left. South Cove is at the Rear
• The battery manufacturing process requires the
use of concentrated metal nitrate solutions that
result in dilute waste solutions and metal
precipitates. Both nickel and cadmium were
used in large quantities; for a brief time, cobalt
was used as an additive.
• The plant effluent was a fine suspension of
nickel and cadmium hydroxides, in a pH range
of 12 - 14, at a volumetric flow rate averaging 50
- 100 gallons/minute.
• The effluent usually contained from 10 - 100's
ml/l suspended Ni and Cd hydroxides,
depending upon production values. The total
waste water output ranged from 100,000 200,000 gallons/day (Klerks 1987).
• Of this amount, 51,004 kg of particulate Cd,
and 1,569 kg of soluble cadmium were
discharged directly into East Foundry cove;
the remainder was discharged in the
Hudson River (Klerks 1987). This earned
Foundry Cove the dubious distinction of
being "the most cadmium polluted site in
the world".
• In 1971, state officials detected high
cadmium levels in East Foundry Cove in
violation of the Clean Water Act of 1970. A
civil law suit filed against Marathon Battery
Company resulted in the dredging of all
sediment exceeding 900 mg/g Cd based on
wet weight.
• In 1972 - 1973, this dredging removed 10%
of Cd released into Foundry Cove. These
contaminated sediments (90,000 m3) were
buried in a clay-lined, underground vault on
the plant property.
• Fig. 3. Distribution of cadmium in surface
sediments in East Foundry Cove in 1974
• In 1975, about 30% of the cove still had
surface Cd levels in excess of 1000 ppm. In
1979, the Marathon company closed the plant
and relocated. Merchandise Dynamics
purchased the plant in 1980 for use as a book
storage facility. In that same year Congress
enacted the comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
(CERCLA) to address the cleanup of the
nation's hazardous waste sites.
Fig. 4. Distribution of cadmium in surface
sediments in East Foundry Cove in 1983
• Unlike some toxic compounds, e.g., PCB's,
which can be broken down by natural
processes or through remediation
techniques, metals like cadmium cannot be
degraded. The natural reduction of surface
Cd concentrations in Foundry Cove from
1971 to 1983 (prior to EPA's excavation and
dredging activities) must be due either to: (1)
deposition of new sediment, (2) transport of
metals out of the cove, (3) redistribution of
sediments within the cove, or (4) some
combination of these processes. Depth
profiles were established in order to
determine if burial had occurred.
• The benthic oligochaete,
Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri
(Fig. 8), inhabiting cadmium, nickel-, and cobalt-polluted
Foundry Cove has evolved
resistance to these metals
(Klerks & Levinton 1989a,b).
In survival experiments in
which oligochaetes from
Foundry Cove and South
Cove (control site) were
exposed to sediment with
highly elevated metal levels,
Foundry Cove worms
survived the 28 day
exposure while control
worms did not. Second
generation offspring of
Foundry Cove worms reared
in clean sediment also
possess metal resistance.
• An increased resistance to
a metal can be achieved by
a reduced accumulation of
the pollutant. Reduced
uptake rates have been
reported for a number of
different organisms, e.g.,
bacteria, algae, annelids,
and fish (references cited
in Klerks & Bartholomew
1991). But several studies
comparing metal
accumulation in
populations differing in
resistance did not find
reduced uptake rates in
resistant populations; some
authors even found
increased uptake rates.
• If resistant individuals have increased
metal uptake rates, then they must
possess some physiological mechanism
for metal detoxification. The ultimate
research goal is to determine the
mechanism(s) by which resistance has
evolved in Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri
inhabiting Foundry Cove.
• Cumulative toxic materials, tend to increase in
concentration, and are often associated with a
specific tissue, e.g., Cd tends to increase over time
in the digestive gland of blue crabs.
• Such accumulation may lead to food chain
magnification, i.e., the magnification of toxic
materials concentrations across trophic levels when
the prey species possesses a physiological
mechanism which concentrates the toxin in a
specific tissue and the predator consumes large
quantities of this prey.
Due to the severity and extent of
cadmium contamination, the EPA
added Foundry Cove to the
Superfund program, a national
priorities list of abandoned
hazardous waste sites requiring
long-term cleanup.
• Foundry Cove Timeline 1979-1995
• Using Superfund authority, and with the advice of scientists and
residents, EPA designed the following remediation measures: (1)
dredging, draining, and treating contaminated sediments and replanting
acres of marshes along Foundry Cove, (2) excavating and treating
contaminated soil in an underground vault on the plant property and
tearing down plant buildings and processing towers, (3) decontaminating
and recycling books stored at the plant, and (4) excavating contaminated
soil from residential yards near the site and landscaping these yards.
• The EPA settled with the
former battery plant
owners to conduct the
cleanup, estimated to cost
$91 million. The
responsible corporations
also agreed to reimburse
EPA $13.5 million for past
cleanup and future
oversight costs.
• In 1992, the cleanup of
the plant's interior and the
recycling of the
contaminated books on
the property were
completed. Starting in
1993, East Foundry Cove
was dredged and the
contaminated sediments
were hauled away and
treated.
• Fig. 14. Aerial photograph of the site during restoration.
Note newly dug creeks to maintain flushing and
oxygenation. Also note the ring around the site. This was a
large rubber bladder that resembled an inner tube. It
protected the site from incursions of water as the cleanup
and sediment removal proceeded.
• Fig. 13. Towers Where Foundry Cove Sediment was Dewatered and
Processed for Shipment
•
• Fig 15. Railcars used to transport sediment from
Foundry Cove (Cove is in foreground)
• The top layer of contaminated soil was removed from
nearby residential yards and re-landscaped. Wetland
replanting efforts have just recently been completed, and
the battery plant and processing towers are coming
down; the site will soon be an empty lot. Wetland
recovery will be monitored for a number of years.
• The Hudson River serves as an example
of how ecosystem contamination may
have broad implications for long-term
ecological and economic sustainability.
Since the large scale release of Cd and
other metals into the Hudson River more
than 30 years ago, only recently has the
issue of how to clean up the Hudson been
resolved.