Stony Brook Scientists Show Major Effect Of Superfund Cleanup On Hudson River

Research
Stony Brook Scientists Show Major Effect Of Superfund Cleanup On Hudson River

STONY BROOK, N.Y., November 2, 2006 — Stony Brook University researchers, in collaboration with a scientist at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation have discovered a dramatic decline of cadmium concentrations in blue crabs throughout the Hudson River, following a major Superfund cleanup of Foundry Cove. Their work, which demonstrates the positive impact such cleanups can have on edible species, is currently published online in Environmental Science and Technology, the American Chemical Society journal.

Foundry Cove, a bay on the east side of the Hudson River opposite West Point was severely polluted for decades with cadmium waste that was released from a nickel-cadmium battery factory, located in Cold Spring, N.Y. Sediments in the cove had concentrations that were thousands of times the EPA standard for unhealthy concentrations.

The analysis demonstrates that the cleanup reduced cadmium tissue concentrations (hepatopancreas and leg muscle) in an important fishery species, the blue crab Callinectes sapidus near Foundry Cove, and also across a broad reach of the Hudson River. Before the cleanup, cadmium concentrations in crabs were four to five times higher on average than after the cleanup, and geographic variation in crab cadmium concentration along the Hudson River estuary was strongly reduced after the cleanup.

“This study demonstrates how a cleanup in a small area of the Hudson can have geographically widespread impacts on the toxicity of edible seafood,” said Jeffrey Levinton, Ph.D., a Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook. “Our results show that a restoration project involving dredging of contaminated sediment can be done successfully with strong benefits to the environment.”

Before 1994, Foundry Cove, a small tidal bay on the Hudson River opposite West Point Military Academy, was one of the most polluted sites in the world. For decades, a nickel-cadmium battery factory had used the cove and the adjacent Hudson River to dispose of over 150 metric tons of metal-contaminated wastes, raising the cadmium concentration in some places to as much as 25 percent near a factory pipe source and over one percent cadmium over a large areas of the cove, which is 100,000 times the EPA standard for unhealthy contamination. Foundry Cove was declared a Superfund site in 1989, and from 1994-1996, a large marsh and open cove area was dredged and the marsh area was sealed, refilled with sediment, and replanted with marsh plants.
Levinton’s team, which included Sharon Pochron and Michael Kane from the New York State DEC, was funded by the Hudson River Foundation to study the effectiveness of the cleanup.

Because of the strong tidal exchange between Foundry Cove and the Hudson River, as much as a metric ton of cadmium was released each year into the main part of the Hudson before the cleanup. Throughout the Hudson, blue crabs had high cadmium concentrations, which caused New York State to issue a health advisory on eating the crabs. Cadmium is a toxic metal, known to cause kidney and liver poisoning and to generally affect cellular function. It was, therefore, important for scientists to find whether cadmium in edible blue crabs had declined following the 1994-96 Superfund operation.

Blue crab is a major sports fishery in the Hudson. The commercial blue crab industry in New York harvested more than 885,000 pounds of blue crab in 2004 which totaled approximately $270,000 in value.

Levinton’s team has been working actively on the strong effects of cadmium on natural selection, which has produced genetically based resistance to metals in the bottom animals that dominate the mud within Foundry Cove, which are potential prey for the estuarine food web. Some of the high cadmium was transferable through the food web and graduate student William Wallace demonstrated that such transfer produced negative effects on predators including disorientation of behavior needed to locate prey. Since the cleanup, this resistance has disappeared.

Now, Levinton's team has used the New York State toxic materials database to examine the impact of the cleanup on the blue crab, which is the only species for which a New York State health advisory concerning cadmium has been issued. This analysis followed an extensive sampling of blue crabs throughout the river, which could be compared with samples from the early 1980s.

Foundry Cove is of great historical significance and its extensive cadmium pollution arose from several eras of military activity During the Revolutionary War a great chain, with links each over three feet long, extended nearby, from the east side of the river across to West Point. It was laid to prevent Lord Howe and the Tory army from moving up the Hudson River and dividing the colonies in two. Later, during the Civil War, the foundry for which Foundry Cove is named produced military ordinance, including the famed Parrot Cannon, which helped the North win the war.

A battery factory in the Village of Cold Spring produced nickel-cadmium batteries, which were used in guidance systems for Nike missiles, an important line of homeland defense during the Cold War. Thanks to the Clean Water Act, the SuperFund Act, and persistent action by local citizens, the pollution at Foundry Cove commanded the attention of the government, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a plan to clean up the cove in 1989. This plan was enacted in 1994 and a major dredging and disposal action cleaned up the Cove.

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