MP1 Governance and Law - Case Studies
Monday, 14 November 2005: 8:00 AM - 6:30 PM in Exhibit Hall

(AAA-1116-005087) Science, policy and the management of sewage materials: The New York City experience.

O'Connor, T¹, Swanson, R², Bortman, M³, Stanford, H¹, ¹ NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Silver Spring, MD, USA² Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA³ The Nature Conservancy, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA

ABSTRACT- Development of national policy on sewage sludge management is a classic example of incremental policy formulation. Policy has developed piecemeal, and results are in some ways different than intended. We demonstrate this by examining the management of sewage materials by New York City from near the turn of the 20th century, when ocean dumping was viewed as a means to alleviate some of the gross pollution in New York Harbor, to when ocean dumping was banned, to the present where sludge is applied to land as "biosolids." Lessons learned during this long, sometimes contentious history can be applied to present situations.

Key words: sewage, ocean dumping, biosolids, land application