PARENT SESSION
MA9- Contaminant Mass Budgets in Urbanized Estuaries
Chair: Baker, Joel1, 1 PO Box 38, 1 Williams Street, Solomons, MD, USA
8:00 AM to 12:00 PM - Monday, 18 November 2002
Room Ballroom E
(248) Mass Balance Model for Toxic Contaminants in New York/New Jersey Harbor.
Farley, Kevin*,1, Landeck-Miller, Robin2, Blumberg, Alan2, DiToro, Dominic1,2, St. John, John2, 1 Manhattan College, Riverdale, NY, USA2 HydroQual, Inc., Mahwah, NJ, USA
ABSTRACT- The Contaminant Assessment and Reduction Project (CARP) is currently being conducted to provide a technical basis for estuary-wide toxic contaminant reduction strategies for New York /New Jersey Harbor. An important component of this project is the development and application of a fine-scale mass balance model of the harbor and surrounding waterways. The modeling framework being employed for the CARP evaluation includes a hydrodynamic model (ECOM3D), a sediment transport model (ECOM3D-SED), an organic carbon/eutrophication model (SWEM), and a toxic contaminant model (RCATOX). The overall development of the model will be discussed, along with skill assessment for hydrodynamics and organic carbon. Application of the model to PCBs and dioxins will also be presented to demonstrate the role of hydrodynamics in distributing contaminants throughout the harbor, the importance of phytoplankton as a binding phase, and the use of organic carbon in specifying settling-resuspension rates.
Key words: toxic contaminants, New York/New Jersey Harbor, PCBs, dioxins