Impacts Contaminants - Gulf of Maine · In North America, we share vital natural resources including air, oceans and rivers, mountains and forests. Together, these natural resources

Impacts of Contaminants on the Resources of the

Gulf of Maine

~ f o b a f Programme of ~c t ion

coalition for i$e calf of Maine

Impacts of Contaminants on the Resources of the Gulf of Maine

Final draft of a working paper prepared for the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation

This working paper was prepared by:

Horsley & Witten, Inc.

Sextant Hill, Unit 1

90 Route 6A

Sandwich, Massachusetts 02563

USA

Telephone: (508) 833-6600

Commission for Environmental Cooperation

Montreal, Canada

May 1998

This working paper was prepared for the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The views contained herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the CEC, or the governments of Canada, Mexico or the United States of America.

Reproduction of this document in whole or in part and in any form for educational or non-profit purposes may be made without special permission from the CEC Secretariat, provided acknowledgment of the source is made. The CEC would appreciate receiving a copy of any publication or material that uses this document as a source.

0 Commission for Environmental Cooperation, 1998

For more information about this or other publications from the CEC, contact:

Commission for Environmental Cooperation

393, rue St-Jacques Ouest, bureau 200

Montreal (Quebec) Canada H2Y 1N9

Tel: (514) 350-4300. Fax: (514) 350-4314

Profile of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation

In North America, we share vital natural resources including air, oceans and rivers, mountains and forests. Together, these natural resources are the basis of a rich network of ecosystems which sustain our livelihoods and well-being. If they are to continue being a source of future life and prosperity, these resources must be protected. Protecting the North American environment is a responsibility shared by Canada, Mexico and the United States.

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is an international organization whose members include Canada, Mexico and the United States. The CEC was created under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) to address regional environmental concerns, help prevent potential trade and environmental conflicts and to promote the effective enforcement of environmental law. The Agreement complements the environmental provisions established in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The CEC accomplishes its work through the combined efforts of its three principal components: the Council, the Secretariat and the Joint Public Advisory Committee (PAC). The Coundl is the governing body of the CEC and is composed of the highest-level environmental authorities from each of the three countries. The Secretariat implements the annual work program and provides administrative, technical and operational support to the Council. The Joint Public Advisory Committee is composed of fifteen citizens, five from each of the three countries, and advises the Council on any matter within the scope of the agreement.

Mission of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation

The CEC facilitates cooperation and public participation to foster conservation, protection and enhancement of the North American environment for the benefit of present and future generations, in the context of increasing economic, trade and social links among Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Global Programme of Action Coalition for the Gulf of Maine (GPAC)

Vision

A healthy marine and coastal environment in the Gulf of Maine where human use and biological diversity thrive in harmony.

Mission

The GPAC will work with all interested parties to assist in the application of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land Based Activities (GPA). This Coalition will draw from and build upon the existing work of the Gulf of Maine Council, the Regional Association for Research in the Gulf of Maine, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and other organizations and individuals committed to the protection of this shared public resource of world-class cultural, economic, ecological and intrinsic value.

The GPAC will assist public and private entities in the Gulf of Maine region identify pollution and habitat priorities and work to strengthen the capacity of these organizations and individuals to address them.

1998 Objectives

Identify and assess current knowledge on the marine and coastal habitats of the Gulf of Maine and the existing and potential effects of pollutants from land based activities on their sustainability.

Organize a workshop of multi-disciplinary and cross-sectoral participants to review this knowledge and produce a consensus list of the priority pollutants and critical habitats in the Gulf of Maine requiring immediate action.

Identify strategies and measures related to the management of priority pollutants and critical habitats identified during this first workshop.

Organize a second workshop of multi-disciplinary and cross-sectoral participants to assess management strategies and produce a regional response with immediate and long-term measures intended to reduce pollutants and protect and manage habitat in the Gulf of Maine. It will include financing mechanisms and a process for review and evaluation of implementation success.

Secure resources from interested stakeholders to begin implementation of actions to advance the elements of the Action Plan.

Results (late 1998-early 1999)

Broad-based, cross-sectoral stakeholder consensus on regional habitat and pollutant priorities and commitment to responding to them.

Implementation begins, within and across jurisdictions, including select demonstration projects.

Transitional seed financial support from the CEC for implementation.

Strengthened bi-national commitment to GPA implementation.

Conclusion of GPAC role as regional stakeholders initiate implementation

Introduction to the Scoping Paper

The Global Programme Of Action

The Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities, usually abbreviated to the Global Programme of Action or simply the GPA, was developed and adopted by the United Nations Environment Programme on 3 November 1995. The GPA calls for actions by each signatoly nation to preserve and protect the marine environment on a national, regional and international basis in order to reach the goal of "sustainable seas." The GPA goes into detail on recommended approaches for nine different source categories such as sewage, heavy metals and physical alterations.

In North America, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) was created as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations to facilitate cooperation and public participation to foster conservation, protection, and enhancement of the North American environment. In pursuing its mandate, the CEC decided to promote a series of pilot projects in North America to implement the GPA, and selected the Gulf of Maine (GOM) as a candidate site for one of the projects. The CEC brought together a diverse group of individuals with an interest in the GOM and the GPA to develop and implement a project of their own design, with some support from the CEC. The group, which has named itself the GP.? Coalition for the Gulf of Maine (GPAC), has formulated an action plan to this end. A key component in the plan is a workshop in Saint John, New Brunswick on 27 and 28 April 1998 at which participants will focus on impacts due to contaminants in the GOM and develop a consensus list of priority contaminants upon which an action plan to reduce or eliminate their impacts would be developed. The participants will include industry, community groups, municipalities, scientific institutions, First Nation~Tribal groups, provincial governments and the federal government. In order to focus that workshop on the priority contaminants, a scoping paper is needed for consideration by the participants prior to the workshop.

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A task group was established through the GPAC to provide advice to the Consultant and to review progress and final reports.

GPAC CONTAMINANTS TASK GROUP

CHAIR: - John D. Clarke, P.Eng. Environment Canada

45 Alderney Drive Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, B2Y 2N6

CANADA Tel: (902) 426-6135 Fax: (902) 426-3897

e-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Joseph H. Arbour Senior Advisor, Priority Issues Environmental Assessment and Pollution Prevention Division Environmental Protection Branch Environment Canada 45 Alderney Drive Dartmouth, NS B2Y 2N6 CANADA Tel: (902) 426-1701 Fax: (902) 426-2062, 426-8373 e-mail: [email protected]

William Ayer Manager Environmental Planning New Bmnswick Dept. of the Environment 364 Argyle Street P.O. Box 6000 Fredericton, NB E3B 5H1 CANADA Tel: (506)457-4846 Fax: (506)457-7823 e-mall: [email protected]

Sean Brillant Executive Director Atlantic Coastal Action Program - St. John One Market Square P.O. Box 6878, Station A St. John, NB E2L 4S3 CANADA Tel: (506) 652-2227 Fax: (506) 633-2184 e-mail: [email protected]

Alison J. Evans Integrated Coastal Planning Project Faculty of Architecture Dalhousie Universiw P.O. Box 1000 Halifax, NS B3J 2x4 CANADA Tel. (902) 426-7774 Fax: (902) 426-1489 e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Janice H w e y Director, Marine Conservation Program Conservation Council of New Brunswick 180 St. John Street Fredericton, NB E3B 4A9 Courier: #I930 Highway 127 RR#6 St. Stephen, NB E3L 2Y3 CANADA Tel: (506) 466-4033 Fax: (506) 466-2911 e-mail: [email protected]

Stephen Peter Hawboldt Program Director Clean Annapolis River Project (CARP) 158 St. Georee Street. P.O. Box 395 Annapolis ~:;al, NS 130s 1AO CANADA Tel: (902) 532-7533 Fax: (902) 678-1253 e-mail: [email protected]

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Stephen Jones Research Associate Professor Jackson Estuarine Laboratory University of New Hampshire Durham, NH 03824 USA Tel: (603) 862-2175 Fax: (603) 862-1101 e-mail: [email protected]

Percy A. Pacheco Environmental Engineer Strategic Environmental Assessments Division NIORCA 1 Office of Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment, NOAA 1305 East West Highway - SSMC4 9th floor Silver Spring , ~ ~ 2 0 9 i0 USA Tel: (301) 713-3000 ext. 155 Fax: (301) 713-4384 e-mail: [email protected]

Ron Perley Environmental Liaison Union of New B~unswick Indians 385 Wilsev Road - Com~artment #44 ~rederictoi, NB E3B 5 ~ ' 6 CANADA Tel. (506) 458-9444 Fax: (506) 458-2850

Pam Person Vice Chair Coalition for Sensible Energy 479 Back Ridge Road Orland, ~ a i n e 04472 I JSA - -. . Tel: (207) 469-6770 Fax: (207) 469-6770 e-mail: [email protected]

David VanderZwaag Professor Faculty of Law Dalhousie Law School Dalhousie University 6061 University Avenue Halifax, NS B3H 4H9 CANADA Tel: (902) 494-1045 Fax: (902) 494-1316 e-mail: [email protected]

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Gulf of Maine Watershed - Description The Gulf of Maine is located off the northeastern coast of the United States and Canada. Its watershed encompasses 69,115 square miles in three U.S. states and three Canadian provinces: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and a small portion of Quebec (Conkling 1995).

Square miles % of land % of within Gulf of within Gulf of total watershed

Maine watershed Maine watershed area New Brunswick 15,750 56 23 Nova Scotia 7,550 3 6 11 Quebec 2,700 0.45 4 Maine 33,215 100 48 New Hampshire 6,500 70 9 Massachusetts 3,400 4 1 5

Totals 69,115 100% Figures from Richard Kelly, Jr., Maine State Planning Office (in Conkling 1995)

The overall watershed may be sub-divided into 25 major watersheds (13 in the United States and 12 in Canada) and 11 minor coastal drainage areas (Pait 1994). Major river drainages in the watershed include the Menimack, Saco, Androscoggin, Kennebec, Penobscot, St. Croix and Saint John rivers (Conkling 1995).

Sub-watersheds within the overall Gulf of Maine watershed

Square miles % of total Watershed within watershed watershed area Annapolis 1,065 1.6 Saint John 22,240 32 Penobscot 8,975 13 Kennebec 6,030 8 7 Androscoggin 3,620 5.3 Saco 1,780 2.7 Merrimack 5,2 15 7.6 Charles 615 1 Others 19,575 28

Totals 69,115 100% Figures from S. Meyer, Island Institute (in Conkling 1995).

[Insert map of Gulf of Maine and its watersheds here] IGOMgifl

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According to NOAA's National Estuarine Inventory Data Base, there are 13 estuaries and one sub-estuary within the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Maine. Land-use data from U.S. watersheds adjacent to estuaries (circa 1975) show the significant amount of undeveloped land at that time. Nevertheless, the U.S. portion of the Gulfs watershed is the third most densely populated coastal region in the country (Gottholm and Turgeon 1992). The 1990 population for the Gulf of Maine watershed was 6.8 million with Boston and Saint John as the two largest metropolitan areas.

Land Use Data for the Gulf of Maine Watershed from 1975

Urban 1,382 square miles Agriculture 2,467 square miles Rangeland 167 square miles Forest 16,208 square miles Other (Wetland/Barren) 1,153 square miles

Total 21,377 square miles (NOAA 1987 in Gottholm and Turgeon 1992)

Objectives

The principal goal of this scoping paper is to provide a background on the state of knowledge regarding contaminants and their impacts in the Gulf of Maine, and to offer a basis for further action by the GPAC. Specifically, the topic of contaminants and their impacts will be discussed at a Workshop in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada scheduled for 28-29 April 1998. At this Workshop, the GPAC intends to establish a series of priorities for future actions.

Approach and Sources of Information

The Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities (GPA) categorizes contaminants as the following (not listed in order of priority):

1. sewage;

2. persistent organic pollutants;

3. radioactive substances;

4. heavy metals;

5. oils (hydrocarbons);

6. nutrients;

7. sediment mobilization; and

8. litter.

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In this document, we have chosen a slightly different format. Because the categories of sewage and sediment mobilization refer not to contaminants per se, but to sources or means of distribution of contaminants, we will not utilize them directly. Sewage and sediments as sources, sinks, or temporary repositories for contaminants will be incorporated into the discussions of virtually all of the contaminants. To the listing of contaminants, we have added pathogens; bacteria and viruses. The report does not include discussions of radioactive substances or litter, not because they are unimportant generally or in the Gulf of Maine in particular. In this case, limitations on time and budget precluded their inclusion.

The GPA includes litter and radioactive substances in its list of contaminants but GPAC has excluded them from further consideration at this time, in order to focus its limited resources and time for this initial effort. In the initial report by VanderZwaag and Pederson (1997) that started the GPAC process, radioactive substances were given a low priority. We recognized that there probably are very good local area data on radioactive substances but anticipated that broad regional data would be poor.

Litter, especially plastics, is essentially a physical issue-an aesthetic problem from the human perspective and a cause of mortality by entanglement or ingestion for marine creatures. The Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment and other groups have undertaken a number of initiatives to educate people to prevent the disposal of plastics and other litter into the water, and to clean beaches of what does get deposited.

This report deals with a limited number of a very large group of potential pollutants. The process of identifying priority pollutants is evolving, and future work may well consider radioactive substances, litter or other pollutants.

Consequently, the organization of this paper will be as follows:

1. pathogens

a) bacteria

b) viruses

2. persistent organic pollution

a) pesticides

b) PCBs

c) dioxinslfurans

3 . heavy metals

a) arsenic

b) cadmium

c) chromium

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d) copper

e) lead

9 mercury

g) tin

h) zinc

4. oils (hydrocarbons)

a) PAHs

b) oil spills

5. nutrients

a) nitrogen-based compounds

b) phosphorus

As much as possible, we have organized the information around the following attributes of each contaminant:

contaminant name,

trends in presence and impacts, including temporal and spatial distribution and concentration,

human health impacts,

ecosystem impacts,

economic impacts,

cultural impacts,

information base, including:

land-based source(s) of the contaminant

quantity of the contaminant released from the source(s),

pathways traveled to reach the Gulf of Maine and changes that occur during transport, and

gaps in information or data

Unfortunately, as will be clear in the following text, in many instances either the information is not available or we were not able to locate it in the time allotted for this project.

We began the data collection process by contacting the members of the Contaminant Task Force for their suggestions as to the most significant researchers and summary papers available relating

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to contaminants and their impacts in the Gulf of Maine. We followed by contacting those researchers as well as the appropriate state and federal agencies working in the field. A listing of the papers reviewed may be found in the Bibliography and References.

Methods for Assessing Contaminants An assessment of impacts from contamination within the Gulf of Maine must, of necessity, come from a review of a sizable number of data sets. Few of these were developed with the goal of assessing the Gulf of Maine in its entirety; rather they were collected, analyzed and reported for a wide range of purposes. In the limited time allotted to the preparation of this summary, the authors have attempted to identify the most comprehensive, incorporating more focused data sets as appropriate. The types of information reviewed included the results of state coastal monitoring programs, an inventory of point source loads, basic research on biological contaminants and their effects, and summary papers of research done in the Gulf of Maine.

Three aspects in particular were of interest:

sources of contaminants

Point source information was summarized in a 1991 inventory of point source loading prepared for the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment. This inventory was based on data from 1990 and earlier and was primarily taken from permitting information. Compliance is based on self-monitoring by permittees.

A review of nonpoint source inputs into the Gulf is currently underway, but was not available for the purposes of this paper.

contaminants in the Gulf

The most comprehensive set of data available on this topic is a contaminated sediments database under development by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) This summarizes data from the past 25 years, but unfortunately only covers the U.S. portion of the Gulf. Their preliminary data displays may be found on their Gulf of Maine web site at http:lloracle.er.usgs.gov/GoMaineldata.html (or go directly to examples of sediment maps at http:Noracle.er.usgs.gov/consedl). We were not able to locate a broad survey of similar data for the Canadian portion of the Gulf and the Bay of Fundy.

A number of more localized surveys of sediment contamination levels are available which serve to illustrate particular situations, many of which have been incorporated into the USGS summary.

contaminant uptake into biota

The Gulfwatch program was established in the early 1990s to measure uptake of various contaminants by utilizing blue mussels (Mytilus edulis)as indicators of

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exposure. In 1996, 18 sites were monitored; 3 in Massachusetts waters, 1 in New Hampshire, 6 in Maine, 3 in New Brunswick, and 5 in Nova Scotia.

A number of other studies have measured particular contaminants, or groups of contaminants in various species of animals. None of these were (or were intended to be) Gulf-wide surveys but they provide additional information about the movement of contaminants into the food web, and ultimately to human consumers.

These 1991 point source inventory, the USGS contaminated sediments database and Gulfwatch are the most complete surveys of conditions within the Gulf of Maine. They will be referred to with regularity throughout this paper.

In the process of mitigating the impacts of contamination, perhaps as important as understanding what contaminants are present is understanding how they got there. There are a number of transport mechanisms operating in the Gulf of Maine region including point source discharges and non-point sources from surface run-off, groundwater and riverine discharges as well as atmospheric deposition. The only available comprehensive summary related to transport mechanisms is the previously-mentioned point source inventory. An assessment of atmospheric deposition was conducted in 1995 by MacAdie for the International Joint Commission which identified several data gaps that require further study before an adequate evaluation can-be made for many of the contaminants of concern. The assessment did provide estimates of atmospheric deposition for certain metals (e.g., atmospheric deposition accounts for 25 percent of the total lead and 15 of the total cadmium loadings to the Gulf).

Sewage

Approximately 300 billion gallons of effluent from at least 378 wastewater treatment plants are discharged annually into the Gulf of Maine or waterbodies which drain directly to the Gulf (Pait 1994). This discharge contains a range of contaminants, depending on the level of treatment at the wastewater facility or pretreatment at industrial or commercial facilities connected to the sewer lines.

Wastewater Treatment Plants in the Watershed to the Gulf of Maine

StateIProvince Total WWTPs with WWTPs with WWTF's with WWTPs primary treatment secondary tertiary treatment

treatment Nova Scotia 5 3 3 50 -- New Bmnswick 73 4 6 8 1 Maine 136 10 125 1 New Hampshire 50 2 4 7 1 Massachusetts 66 8 49 9

Totals 378 2 7 339 12 (Summarized from Pait 1994)

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The contaminants in wastewater may include pathogens, bacteria or viruses. Most of the wastewater treatment plants on the Gulf, at a minimum, disinfect emuent or solids discharged. Pederson and VanderZwaag (1997 citing Conkling 1995) note one significant exception as Saint John, New Brunswick, from which 23,365 m3 per day (1.25 billion gallons per year) are discharged with no treatment.

Only a very limited number of facilities treat sewage for the removal of nutrients. Consequently, wastewater discharges can introduce significant amounts of these materials into Gulf waters.

Depending on connections to industrial or commercial facilities, levels and types of pretreatment, or connections to stormdrains, wastewater treatment facilities may provide point sources for the discharge for awide range of toxic materials.

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1. Pathogens a) Bacteria

Contaminant of concern

Fecal Coliform, as an indicator of pathogenic bacteria

Introduction

Fecal coliform bacteria live in the intestines of warm-blooded animals. Consequently, their presence provides an indicator of fecal contamination. The amount of these bacteria measured in the environment is utilized by managers as a threshold to determine whether harvesting of shellfish or water-contact recreation should be prohibited in order to avoid public health concerns.

Trends in presence and impacts, including temporal and spatial distribution and concentration

Gulf-wide, measurable fecal colifonn levels are found in estuaries and nearshore waters. Concentrations tend to be higher at low tide than at high, largely as a function of greater dilution and better mixing in the latter situation. There are some indications that there are also seasonal variations in fecal coliform levels, but these appear to be more related to seasonality in run-off rather than to sewage discharge (Jones in press). Higher bacteria levels are also generally associated with larger population centers.

Many of the most productive clam beds and mussel harvesting areas in the Bay of Fundy are closed to harvesting because of sewage contamination or as a precaution against wastewater treatment facility failure (Conkling 1995). A number of communities in that region dump untreated, or minimally treated, sewage directly into the sea, or into the rivers and estuaries that flow into it. For example, prior to 1994, the City of Moncton, New Brunswick, discharged over 100,000 cubic meters (-.25 million gallons) per day of untreated sewage into the Petitcodiac River Estuary at the head of the Bay. By 1995, the effluent was treated to remove solids, but this did little to reduce the input of organic matter, toxic chemicals and noxious bacteria (Conkling 1995). As mentioned above, a significant volume of the sewage from Saint John, New Brunswick, is dumped untreated into the harbor (CARP 1996a).

In the 1980s, the North Atlantic region of the U.S. (Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts) experienced the greatest nationwide increase in percentage of estuarine shellfish growing waters closed for harvesting: from 12 percent in 1985 to 31 percent in 1990. During that period, eight of the 15 estuaries in the region were downgraded in their classification of shellfish growing waters

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(more acreage closed to shellfishing), while five were upgraded (had shellfish beds re-opened). Efforts to improve water quality by municipalities and statelprovincial agencies in t h e ~ u l f have produced some "re-openings" since 1990 (Pederson & VanderZwaag 1997).

Shellfishing Trends in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts 1985-1995

Maine

Estuarine

Non-Estuarine

New Hampshire

Estuarine

Non-Estuarine

Massachusetts

Estuarine

Non-Estuarine

(NOAA 1997b)

Total classified acreage in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts increased by over one million acres between the 1990 Register and the 1995 version; 80 percent of this new acreage is located in non-estuarine waters. Approved waters decreased from 84 percent in 1990 to 80 percent in 1995. While all three North Atlantic states reported increases in the total amount of shellfish bed acreage, the biggest change occurred in Massachusetts, where classified non- estuarine acreage almost tripled.

(in thousands of acres)

The top three pollution sources identified as affecting harvest limitation in estuarine and non- estuarine waters are wastewater treatment plants, direct discharges and urban run-off. Jones (in press) reports that fecal bacterial concentrations have decreased in New Hampshire coastal waters since the 1990s.a~ a result of improvements to wastewater treatment facilities, but that they were higher in 1995-6 than previous years, perhaps due to increased rainfall during that period.

Approved

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Prohibited

Shellfishing

ters) Acres Closed:

Estuarine (US portion of Gulf of Maine II

Administra- tive Reasons

Reason for Closure

59,696 (of 1,041,895) 57.30%

25,994 (of 36,936)

Acres Closed: not surveyed or reported

Passamaquoddy Bay Failing on-site septic systems, urban 175 run-off Discharges from WWTP, Failing on- site septic systems, marinas, wildlife, agricultural run-off Direct discharges and failing on-site septic systems Direct discharges and failing on-site septic systems Point and nonpoint discharges

I 70% 3,434

6

529

15,458

Englishman Bay

Narraguaus Bay

55,287 (of 383,545) 1 4%

3,542 (of 134,080)

3,048 (of 3,526) 86%

Blue Hill Bay

I Muscongus Bay

4,538 (of 11,818) 38%

14,942 (of 53,475) Sources not reported I 13,741 I 28%

Sheepscot Bay 39,296 (of 68,218) Sources not reported I 29,021 I 58%

Casco Bay 55,846 (of 100,435) Administrative closures I 1,371

Sources not reported I 98 I 56%

80% Great Bay I 3,547 (of 3,951)

Saco Bay

Sources not reported 1 2,842

10,394 (of 13,081)

Massachusetts I I Non-Estuarine 1 16 1,384 (of 999,092) ( Sources not reported I 40906 I 112,745

New Hampshire Non-Estuarine

Great Bay

252 (of 5 1,240) 0.4%

1,813 (of 9,421) 19%

I 16% I

2% I I (NOAA 199%)

I

Massachusetts Bay

Cape Cod Bay

Sources not reported


Menimack River 2,646 (of 2,646) I Sources not reported I 0 0 100%

182,089 (of 21 1,335) 86%

6,154 (of 336,359)

6

471

105

589



93,922

404

29,761

0

Human health impacts resulting from contaminants

The closure of shellfish beds to harvesting or beaches to water-contact activities appears to be a reasonably effective means of protecting public health; there have been only limited numbers of reports of human health-related problems from fecal bacteria.

A recent epidemiological study in Santa Monica Bay, California, provides a strong suggestion that run-off through storm drains (with suspected illegal connections to septic sources) can be linked to human health impacts. People who swam in front of flowing storm drains were 50 percent more likely to develop symptoms than those who remained 400 yards away from the drains. The "closer" group of swimmers experienced a broad range of adverse health effects including fever, nausea and gastroenteritis, as well as cold and flu-like symptoms. Increased health risks were associated with high bacterial indicator counts, although it was not clear what the causative agent(s) was for the symptoms (Haile et ai. 1996).

Ecosvstem impacts resulting from contaminants

We were unable to find any quantifiable measures of impacts to the Gulf of Maine ecosystem from pathogenic bacteria. Apparently, little has been published about whether or how bacterial diseases are spread from humans to other segments of the marine ecosystem, particularly in this region.

Economic impacts resulting from contaminants

Shellfish closures, while effective in protecting public health, have direct economic impacts to coastal communities and their citizens through the loss of shellfisheries and restrictions of - recreational uses. For example, losses to the coastal economy in Massachusetts from bacterial contamination of shellfish and recreational waters exceed $75 million annually (Weiskel et al. 1996).

Cultural impacts resulting from contaminants

In addition to economic impacts, shellfish closures due to potential bacterial contamination also have cultural impacts. Loss of full-time or part-time jobs disrupt traditional ways of life in smaller communities as well as First NatiodTribal groups. In some First NatiodTribal groups, hunting and gathering traditions are still important from both a cultural and economic basis. The inability to harvest shellfish curtails a traditional activity and removes a traditional foodstuff from the community (Leighton 1998, pers. comm.).

Tribal and First Nation groups feel disenfranchised in cross-boundary issues related to wastewater treatment plant discharges and other pollution issues. The International Joint

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Commission (UC) has no tribal representation and a staff member from the Passarnaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point, Maine, expressed that they felt that they had no input on sewage issues in the St. Croix River/Passamaquoddy Bay complex (Leighton 1998, pers. comm.).

Information base

Land-based source(s) of the contaminant

In urban areas, stormwater run-off and wastewater treatment plants are the primary source of fecal coliform bacteria and related pathogens. This may vary, depending on the level of technology utilized by the wastewater treatment plant, the sewer system design (particularly as related to combined sewer overflows) and frequency of plant failure. In more rural areas, the primary sources may stem from waterfowl or other wildlife, pets and run-off of manure from agricultural sites.

Point source data from 1991 identified the South Essex (MA) WWTP as the largest contributor of fecal coliform bacteria in the Gulf of Maine. The second largest source was identified as the Moncton (NB) Sewerage Commission and the third was the Yarmouth (NS) sewage treatment plant (Pait 1994).

A modeling study of fecal loads done for the Casco Bay Estuary Project cites the two principal sources of fecal coliform bacteria impacting Maquoit Bay as agriculture and residential land use (in order of relative importance). Fecal coliform loading via streams and shoreline seeps appears to be responsible for the long-term shellfishing closures there (Horsley & Witten 1996).

Quantity of the contaminant released to the Gulf of Maine

Although the total volume of effluent from wastewater treatment plants into the Gulf of Maine and its watershed can be measured to a fair degree of accuracy and the levels of fecal coliform bacteria can show locations of potential concern, very little has been reported about the amount and types of pathogenic bacteria reaching the waters of the Gulf At the time of this writing, there is little in the way of comprehensive data available for nonpoint source inputs.

Pathways traveled to reach the Gulf of Maine and changes that occur during transport

Bacteria travel to the Gulf of Maine from both point and non-point sources. Those associated with human sources are discharged into the marine environment primarily when sewage systems, either on-site or wastewater treatment facilities, are not functioning properly. Generally, bacterial loadings are associated with highly populated areas, particularly those that have limited facilities

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to deal with wastes. A second primary vehicle for fecal coliform transport to receiving waters is stormwater run-off (Horsley & Witten 1996).

Fecal colifom bacteria can survive in saltwater for up to 30 days, and possibly longer. In addition, they may become entrained in sediments and along the wrack line and be re-released into the environment long after their original introduction (Weiskel et al. 1996).

Gaps in information or data

Currently there is a general lack of information regarding non-point source loading to the Gulf of Maine. The non-point source model presently under development does not have a fecal colifom component and it is unclear whether or not such an element can be incorporated. It is possible that pathogens, reflected by fecal coliform contamination, are affecting the Gulf of Maine on a broad scale basis, but there has been no comprehensive study to demonstrate this or ascertain the extent of the problem. Most reported impacts are human health-related, i.e., illness due to ingestion of shellfish exposed to sewage or swimming in waters contaminated by run-off or discharge. The effects of these contaminants on wildlife species was not reported in the papers we reviewed

An additional question related to pathogens is whether coliform bacteria are an accurate indicator of pathogen inputs or their presence.

1. Pathogens b) Viruses

Contaminant of concem

Pathogenic viruses

The movement and impacts of viruses in the coastal and marine waters of the Gulf have received limited attention. However, their ability to move through the system and survive for significant periods suggests that this is an area suitable for further investigation.

Viruses tend to be between one and two orders of magnitude smaller than bacteria and consequently are generally not filtered out as septic effluent percolates through the soil, with the exception of movement through soils with high clay content. The most significant factor in determining viral survival (or inactivation) in groundwater is temperature. In coastal Maine the groundwater temperature is approximately 7-8 degrees Celsius year-round. At this temperature, viruses can be expected to survive for periods of 800-1,000 days (Horsley & Witten 1996). If groundwater moves on the order of one foot per day, septic systems within a 1000-foot distance from the shore could be expected to contribute some level of viral contaminant load.

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 17- Horsley & Witten, Inc. 17 April 1998 Final Dr&

2. Persistent Organic PoIIutants

Introduction

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) include a wide array of chlorinated compounds, among which are polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). These compounds do not readily degrade in the environment and tend to bioaccumulate in mammals. Pesticides have been widely used on agricultural and forested lands in the Gulf of Maine watersheds and thus enter the marine system through nonpoint sources such as mn-off and atmospheric deposition. The characteristics that made these synthetic chemicals usehl, their toxicity to pest species, also makes them toxic to other, non-target organisms. Unfortunately, when these chemicals were being spread widely, little was known about their adverse effects and resistance to degradation.

Due to the nature of these compounds, their persistence in the environment, and their mobility, it is difficult to accurately estimate the total amount that reaches the Gulf of Maine and for what period it remains there.

Many animals show reproductive problems that have been linked to POPs, but marine mammals such as whales, dolphins, seals and polar bears may face the greatest jeopardy, particularly over the long term. Persistent chemicals accumulate and concentrate greatly in the marine food web, potentially exposing the long-lived predators to high levels of contamination. These chemicals are passed to offspring through breast milk (Colborn et al. 1997).

Recent research suggests that exposure to persistent organic pollutants may pose significant risk to a much larger proportion of the general human and wildlife population than previously thought. Some POPs are now known to act as endocrine disrupters mimicking the body's hormones, turning off and on important developmental processes at critical times. Some scientists believe that fetal exposure to endocrine disrupters or estrogenic chemicals (including some organochlorines such as DDT, some PCBs, dioxins and furans) may be responsible for declining sperm counts and the rising incidence of abnormalities in human male reproductive tracts (CEC 1997b).

A recent study of organic chlorine contamination in porpoises from the coast of Newfoundland, the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Westgate et al. 1997) indicates that PCBs and chlorinated bornanes (historically referred to as toxaphene and polychlorinated camphenes) were the dominant contaminants in all porpoises. Results indicate that there have been significant declines in both PCBs and DDT in Bay of Fundy Harbor porpoises since the 1970s. Addison et al. (1984 in Westgate et al. 1997) documented declines in PCBs and DDTs in east coast gray and harp seals between the early 1970s and early 1980s. PCB and 4,4'-DDE levels in harbor seals from the Gulf of Maine have also been reported to have declined between 1980 and 1990-1992 (Lake et al. 1995 in Westgate et al. 1997). The report speculates that the magnitude in the decline

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 18- Horsley & Witten, Inc. 17 April 1998 Final Dmft

recorded in harbor porpoises could reflect the fact that the spraying that previously took place in the forests surrounding the Bay of Fundy (some of the heaviest in North America (Addison 1984 in Westgate et al. 1997)) has been largely curtailed.

For some First Nation/Tribal groups, bioaccumulation in marine mammals can be a significant issue for human health. A report from a representative of the Passamaquoddy Tribe &eighton 1998, pers. comm.) at Pleasant Point, Maine, notes that porpoise remains a traditional food source. Tribal members take approximately 50 porpoises a year for traditional meals. Of particular concern is that tribal members consume virtually all of the animal, not merely the muscle tissue, with the liver being a particular delicacy. A similar situation occurs with the consumption of fish. Tribal members typically consume the entire fish, not only the fillets of muscle tissue. Most fish sampling done by government health officials, however, focuses on fillets, not the entire body burden of contaminants. This, combined with a strong tradition of use of marine species, suggests that TribalRirst Nation members may be consuming a greater load of contaminants than the general population.

2. Persistent Organic Pollution a) Pesticides

Contaminant(s) of Concern

Chlorinated pesticides P D T , lindane, dieldrin, aldrin, chlordane, toxaphene, heptachlor, DDD and DDE),

Organophosphorus pesticides (parathion, malathion, systox, chlorthion, disyston, diupthon and metasystox).

Trends in presence and impacts, includinq temporal and spatial distribution and concentration

Chlorinated pesticides have been used widely as insecticides, hngicides and herbicides in agricultural and forestry activities in the region of the Gulf of Maine.

A survey by NOAA on pesticide use in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts indicates that the major harvested crops include hay, corn, alfalfa and blueberries. Over 254,000 pounds of the inventoried pesticides were applied for agricultural purposes in areas draining to the region's estuaries in 1987. This is lower than other regions of the U.S., in large part because these three states have the lowest (7 percent) amount of agricultural land use within their estuarine drainage basins. The major crop-growing estuarine drainage areas in the three states are Sheepscot Bay, Penobscot Bay and the Menimack River. Within the three states, the Sheepscot Bay estuary had the highest pesticide use. Penobscot Bay, Muscongus Bay and Great Bay were cited as having

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 19- Horsley & Wittes Inc. 17 April 1998 F i Draft

the "highest hazard normal application" of pesticides for the region. The hazard normal rating system was developed to rank the inventoried pesticides in their potential to impact estuarine organisms (primarily fish and crustaceans), and to rate the estuarine systems in the application of the more hazardous pesticides in NOAA's inventory (Pait et al. 1992).

Of the herbicides inventoried, Atrazine was the most heavily applied in the Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts region. Metriam is the most commonly used of the fungicides (Pait et al. 1992).

More than 5 million kg of DDT were sprayed on forests in New Brunswick and Quebec between the early 1950s and the late 1960s (Nigam 1975 cited in Noble 1990). Large tracts of forest in New Brunswick were sprayed with DDT to combat spruce budworm infestations and the insecticide and its residues entered the Bay of Fundy as run-off from the Saint John River. Every 4 years between 1972 and 1988, the eggs of four seabird species were sampled for organochlorine contamination. The species were the Double-crested Cormorants from Manawagonish Island at the mouth of the Saint John River, Leach's Storm-Petrels from Kent Island, Atlantic Puffins from Machias Seal Island and Hening Gulls from all three areas. In all four species residues of DDE and PCBs declined significantly (Noble 1990) as did dieldrin in the eggs of puffins and commorant. The decline in DDT was attributed to the cessation of forest spraying. Declines in PCBs suggested that local pollution, since ceased, had been contributing in the past. Other organochlorine compounds such as HCB, HCH, oxychlordane and heptachlor epoxide levels were variable, but just as high in 1990 as they were in the mid-1970s (Noble 1990).

DDT and chlorinated pesticides are highly resistant to degradation in the marine environment and may accumulate to high concentrations in both sediments and biota but relatively few data exist for the Gulf of Maine. The livers of winter flounder From Boston and Salem (Massachusetts) Harbors contain some of the highest concentrations of DDT found on the east coast of the U.S. (Larsen 1992 based on data from NOAA Status and Trends 1987) and are ranked first and third respectively in the country in terms of total chlorinated pesticides. Lipophilic organic contaminants were found in fish liver samples from Boston Harbor and Quincy Bay including high concentrations of DDT, other chlorinated hydrocarbons and total PCBs (Gottholm and Turgeon 1992).

Concentrations of individual pesticides in sediments from the Kennebec River Plume are as high or higher than in sediments from urban harbors such as Boston.

In the few areas of the U.S. coastline for which long-term data sets exist, the concentrations of chlorinated hydrocarbons in sediments and tissues of marine organisms appear to have been declining since the late 1960s and early 1970s (Meams et al. 1988 in Capuzzo 1995). Larsen (1992) reported substantially lower DDT concentrations in porpoises in the Bay of Fundy region than what was measured in the 1970s. Similar declines in body burdens of DDT were noted in east coast gray and harp seals between the early 1970s and early 1980s. Levels of 4,4'- DDE in harbor seals from the Gulf of Maine have also been reported to have declined between 1980 and 1990-1992 (Lake et al. 1995 in Westgate et al. 1997).

Contamnanrs Scoping Paper - 20 - Horsley & Witten, Inc. 17 April 1998 F i Draft

Lindane (used as an insecticide) concentrations in atmospheric deposition samples in Nova Scotia indicate a pattern of diminishing concentrations from 1980 to 1988 (Environment Canada 1992).

Levels of TOW DDT found in Muucl Tiuue in the Gulf of f i n e

Lev& of T a d Orpochlorine Pntirida found in Mussel Tisue in the Gulf of M i n e

Sites of stations reported in Gulfwatch data reported above

Code Location Code Location MA-SN Sandwich. MA ME-PI Pickerine Island, ME

ME-KN ~&nebec ~ i i e r , ME NS-YR Yarmouth, NS ME-FP Fort Point, ME NS-AG Argyle, NS (Compiled from data in Chase et al. 1997)

-


MA-MH ~arb lehead , MA NB-SC St. ~ro i ;~ iver , NB MA-ME Merrirnack River, MA NB-CH Chamcook, Nl3 NH-HS Hampton/Seabrook Est., NH NB-LN Letang Estuary, NB ME-CC Clarke Cove, ME NS-FI Five Islands, NS ME-BH Brave Boat Harbor. ME NS-DI Digby, NS ME-RY Roval River. ME NS-BC Broad Cove. NS

Potential Effects of Selected Pesticides on Human Health

Pollutant Cancer Reproductive NeurologicaV Immuno- Endocrine Other

Behavioral logical

Restrictions Non-

Chlordane Probable b' b' b' b' Liver Toxicity

DDTDDE Probable I / b' b' Liver Toxicity

I Dieldrin Probable b' b' b' b' Liver Toxicity I Kidney and Liver Toxicity I

I Tomphene Probable b' b' b' b' ~ o v a s c u l . I effects a d Liver Toxicity

(CEC 1997a)

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 21 - Honley & W i t t e ~ lnc. 17 April 1998 Final Draft

Winter flounder collected near Lynn, Massachusetts, contained heptachlor in amounts close to the US Food and Drug Administration limit for humans, and also contained elevated levels of DDT (Connolly 1991 in Langton et al. 1994).

Ecosystem impacts resulting from contaminants

None of the organochlorine contaminants detected from monitoring efforts in the eggs and tissues of Canadian seabirds reported by Noble (1990) were at levels high enough to kill birds that had fledged. However, there were adverse effects on reproduction in some Canadian seabirds. During the early 1970s, 20 percent of the Double-crested Cormorant eggs laid in eastern Canada contained more than 15 mgkg DDE, theoretically enough to cause a 20 percent reduction in eggshell thickness in these species. No information is available on the reproductive success in those colonies. Small amounts of eggshell thinning probably occurred in a number of other species, including Leach's Storm-Petrels from the Bay of Fundy, in the early 1970s (Noble 1990).

Pesticides have been implicated in abnormal gastrulation and a high incidence (39 percent) of vertebral deformities in developing eggs from winter flounder experimentally exposed to very low (sub-lethal) doses of DDT (1-2 ppb) (Smith and Cole 1973 in Langton et al. 1994). Similar experiments with dieldrin did not elicit the same response. Chlordane in high doses induced severe liver damage in laboratory experiments with winter flounder (Langton et al. 1994).

Economic impacts resultine from contaminants

In our review of articles related to pesticides, we did not note any data on economic impacts. However, it is possible that the use of pesticides may have had an impact on fisheries by affecting the ability or juvenile stages to reach reproductive age or to successfully reproduce- thereby having population impacts. This may have had some level of impact on fisheries resources


The limited information we were able to gather on First Natioflribal use of fisheries was insufficient to ascertain whether increased body burdens of pesticides in fish or marine mammals has had any cultural impacts.


Information base


Most of the chlorinated and organophosphorus pesticide residues in the Gulf ecosystem appear to have come from agricultural and forestry practices. Data summarized by Hauge (1988 in Larsen 1992) suggest that agricultural run-off may contribute large inputs of chlorinated pesticides, such as aldrin, chlordane and heptachlor to the Gulf through the Kennebec estuary.

Although the use of DDT has been banned in the U.S. and Canada for many years, some amounts may make their way into the Gulf via long-range atmospheric transport from countries that still produce and utilize this pesticide. Because DDT persists in soils for long periods of time, other current inputs may enter the Bay of Fundy and other portions of the Gulf in run-off from basins that were "contaminated many years ago (Westgate et al. 1997).


Virtually no information was located regarding the amounts of pesticides reaching the waters of the Gulf of Maine, either overall or as specific types.


Pesticides were originally sprayed over land areas. While some may have been sprayed accidentally over water, most entered aquatic systems adsorbed onto fine-grained materials. These could either travel via air or water to coastal waters. Once in the marine system, they typically become part of the sediments to be resuspended or taken up by benthic organisms.

Gaps in Information or Data

Few data are available on the impacts at the population level from pesticides, particularly on economically-important species. The comparative inputs from contemporary sources such as nonpoint run-off, atmospheric deposition or mobilization of contaminated sediments are poorly defined.

2. Persistent Organic Pollution b) Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

Contaminant(s) of concern

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 2 3 - Honley & Witten, Inc. 17 April 1998 Final Draft

Introduction

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) contain a mixture of biphenyls with chlorine atoms attached at any of the carbons resulting in at least 210 possible PCB compounds, or arochlors. In 1979, the US EPA banned their manufacture, processing and distribution (LaGrega, Buckingham, Evans 1994 in Conkling 1995). Similarly, the sale, manufacture and import of PCBs is prohibited in Canada (CEC 1997b).

The principal use of PCBs was as insulating material in electrical transformers and capacitors. "Escape" into the environment occurred during manufacturing activities and as electronic components broke down. PCBs were also utilized in many other dispersive ways, including such things as carbonless copy paper. They are very persistent in the environment, do not dissolve readily in water and easily adsorb onto fine grained particles--all traits which make their movement through the watershed into the marine ecosystem possible and extend the potential for exposure for both humans and wildlife. Because of their affinity for fine-grained particles, PCBs are also available for atmospheric deposition.


Surveys in 1982 and 1983 found trace amounts of PCBs in sediments in Penobscot Bay and in the deep offshore basins of the Gulf (Larsen et a1 1986) but, in general, only limited data exist for PCB levels in sediments (Mearns et al 1988 in Capuzzo 1995).

Levels of Total PCB found in Mussel Tissue in the Gulf of Maine

Stations



Code Location Code Location MA-SN Sandwich, MA ME-PI Pickering Island, ME MA-MH Marblehead, MA MA-ME Merrimack River, MA NH-HS Hampton/Seabrook Est., NH MECC Clarke Cove, ME ME-BH Brave Boat Harbor. ME ME-RY Royal River, ME ME-KN Kennebec River, ME ME-FP Fort Point, ME

(Compiled from data in Chase et al. 1997

NB-SC St. ~roiCRiver, NB NB-CH Chamcook, NB NB-LN Letang Estuary, NB NS-FI Five Islands, NS NS-DI Digby, NS NS-BC Broad Cove, NS NS-YR Yarmouth, NS NS-AG Argyle, NS

Obsenrations in Nova Scotia of concentrations of PCBs in precipitation show a decrease to non- detectable levels in mid-1983 (Environment Canada 1992). Since 1985 only a few observation of PCBs in precipitation have been made (Environment Canada 1992).

After the manufacture of PCBs was banned in the 1970s, there was a marked decrease in inputs. However, global-scale recycling of PCBs between the atmosphere and land and ocean surfaces is probably reaching an equilibrium and the rapid improvements seen in the 1970s will probably not continue (Norstrom 1988). Trends in PCB concentrations within the Gulf of Maine ecosystem appear to be mixed. Larsen et a1 (1984b) found increases in Casco Bay sediments in the early 1980s. Nordstrom (1988) noted declines in body tissues of petrels from the North Atlantic between 1968 and 1984. There are indications that there have been significant declines in the body burdens of marine mammals of the Gulf since the 1970s as reported in harbor porpoises, gray and harp seals (Addison et al. 1984 in Westgate et al. 1997), and harbor seals (Lake et al 1995 in Westgate et al. 1997).

A recent study of lobster digestive glands (King et al. 1996 in Chase 1997) from specimens taken from four maritime harbors of Atlantic Canada showed PCB-derived toxic equivalent concentrations exceeding the Canadian toxic level of 20 pg/g. This same study noted that the dioxin tolerance was exceeded by factors of 1-10 times while total PCB concentrations of the same samples did not exceed the Canadian PCB tolerance concentration of 2 ug/g wet weight.

In a survey of trace contaminants in fish livers, the NOAA National Status and Trends Benthic Surveillance program for the years 1984-1987 found high concentrations of total PCBs in Boston Harbor and Quincy Bay (Gonhoim and Turgeon 1992).

PCBs were the most prominent organic contaminants in porpoises from the Bay of Fundy region (Westgate et al. 1997) but the data do not indicate where or when the contaminants were acquired.

Gulfwatch data in 1995 indicate, as in previous years, that within the Gulf there is a general trend toward higher PCB concentrations in mussels as one moves southwards (Chase 1996).

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 25 - Horsley & Witten, Inc. 17 April 1998 F i Draft


Potential Effects of PCBs on Human Health

Pollutant Cancer Reproductive NeurologicaV Immune- Endocrine Other

Restrictions Behavioral logical Norrcanoer

PCBs Probable / / d liver toxicity

(CEC 1997a)

The effects on people who consume fish or shellfish with these contaminants is largely undefined, but there are suggestions that at least some forms of PCBs may be carcinogenic or disrupt reproductive functions (Gulf of Maine Council 1994). Despite the lack of certainty, there has been sufficient concern that fishery advisories have been established based on elevated PCB levels. For example, two advisories have been issued by the State of New Hampshire related to fish consumption, both based on elevated PCB levels. One is directed at tomalley of lobsters taken from the Great Bay estuary. The other was issued in 1987 and pertained to bluefish (NOAA 1987 in Jones in press).


Toxic effects of PCBs in marine life include liver damage, tumors, a wasting syndrome, neurotoxicity, reproductive failure, immunotoxicity, birth defects and death (Eisler 1986). The response to PCBs depends on the specific form or mixture and the age, sex and species of the exposed animal. Most of the effects appear to be from chronic exposure, toxicological thresholds are generally high. Some species of fish, particularly those which migrate over large distances (e.g., bluefish, striped bass and coho salmon), have been found to have readily detectable and sometimes greatly elevated concentrations of PCBs in their edible tissues. These same species do not exhibit a high prevalence of hepatic or other neoplasms (Eaton et al. 1986 in Gulf of Maine Council 1994).

We found almost nothing describing ecosystem impacts from PCBs.


We did not encounter any data quantifying economic losses due to PCBs. However, it seems reasonable to assume that health warnings related to consumption of lobster tomalley or bluefish may have had some level of "chilling" effect on overall consumption, harvesting and price of catch.

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 26 - Horsley & Witteq Inc. 17 April 1998 Final Drafi I

Cultural impacts result in^ from contaminants

The limited amount of data were not sufficient to indicate any measurable cultural impacts.

Information Base


As mentioned above, the original sources of PCBs have been curtailed. Remaining PCBs are released to the marine ecosystem through run-off, atmospheric deposition and re-mobilized sediments. Sediments can be expected to be a source for uptake into the food web and transfer back to humans well into the future.


Estimates of PCB loading to Massachusetts Bay suggest that it is dominated by atmospheric inputs. Menzie-Cura (1991) base their summary on 1970s data and suggest that, because production of PCBs declined in the late 1970s, it is likely concentrations have decreased.-


The primary pathways into the Gulf of Maine are through atmospheric deposition, continuing discharge from sites which were historically contaminated and from resuspended sediments. The pathways from the environment to biota are through ingestion of sediments or trans-dermal movement in benthic species or through bioaccumulation within the food chain.


Most sampling done for PCBs measures total PCB concentration, while there are clear differences in half-life, uptake, and impacts from the 210 different forms. Very little information is available assessing the impacts of the individual forms.

There is very limited information available on the current input to the Gulf of Maine from nonpoint sources.

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 27 - Horsley & Winen, Inc. 17 April 1998 Final Draft

2. Persistent Organic Pollution

Contaminant(s) of concern

Dioxins and Furans including:

polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDD),

tetrachlorodibenzodioxins(TCDD) and

polychlorinated dibenzofuran (PCDF).

Introduction

There are 75 different isomers of dioxin, the most toxic of which is the chlorinated 2,3,7,8-TCDD isomer. Dioxins are found in chlorophenols, certain pesticides and in PCB mixtures. They are highly persistent in the environment, have a strong affinity for fine-grained sediments and accumulate in biological tissue. These contaminants accumulate in fish in proportion to the body lipid content and the age of the animal. PCDDs are particularly resistant to biological breakdown, concentrate in fatty tissues and are not readily excreted. Consequently, repeated exposures can rapidly increase body burdens.


The Department of Environmental Protection in Maine monitors rivers which flow past pulp and paper mills for dioxin and they have reported TCDD and dioxin toxic equivalents @TE) in all fish samples collected below point source discharges and rivers in Maine. Concentrations in these fish exceed Maine's acceptable concentrations to avoid an increased risk of cancer and reproductive effects. Consequently, the state has issued fish advisoty warnings for 235 miles of rivers. Dioxins have been discovered in the tomalley of lobsters taken in several locations in Maine which led to a state public health advisory warning in 1994 which is still in place today. We have been unable to locate similar data for other areas where pulp mills are currently or historically been in operation.


There are increasing concerns about the effects of exposure to low levels of chlorine-containing chemicals on the development of living creatures, including humans. According to the US EPA,


consumption of contaminated fish is a major source of human exposure to toxic chemicals such as dioxin.

The 1996 Gulfwatch report, which measures concentrations of contaminants in mussels around the Gulf of Maine, reported that the summed chlorinated biphenyls and polychlorinated dioxins (PCDDPCDF TEQs) are well below the Canadian 20 pglg tolerance level designed to be protective of human health for the consumption of seafood.


It has been shown that some dioxin and furan compounds are toxic to some animals at exposure levels of less than one part per billion (Eaton et al. 1994 in St. Croix 1997). PCDDs are extremely toxic to some animals with cumulative effects of small doses of primary concern. Population impacts were not described in the papers reviewed.


We were unable to identify economic impacts from the articles surveyed. As with other fishery advisories or closures, it is reasonable to assume that there is some level of impact on fishermen

- and consumers.


The Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point, Maine, expressed concerns about dioxins in the St. Croix River, indicating that they had not seen the results of any testing of fish tissue from that river (Leighton 1998, pers. comm.). As mentioned earlier, members of TribaUFirst Naaon communities typically consume more of fish than just the muscle tissue. Consequently, it is important for their needs to sample for the entire body burden. A tribal representative expressed concerns about discharges from the Georgia Pacific wastewater treatment plant and its potential for discharging persistent organic pollutants. Their perception is that the various governmental agencies are not providing sufficient monitoring of conditions in the St. Croix (Leighton 1998, pers. comm.).

Information Base


Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDD) and polychlorinated dibenzohran (PCDF) originate from a number of anthropogenic sources. The latter include industrial sources such as companies manufacturing chlorinated chemicals; pulp and paper mills; dry cleaning distillation residues;

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 29 - Honley & Witten, Inc. 17 April 1998 Final Dml%

thermal or combustion sources such as municipal waste incinerators, automobile exhaust, burning of fossil fuel for thermal generation by homes and industry and escape from contaminant reservoirs such as sewage sludge, compost and contaminated soils (Jones in press).

Dioxins enter the environment through accidental release during chlorophenol production, aerial application of herbicides, smoke from combustion in municipal and industrial incinerators and in the effluent of kraft bleach paper mills. Pulp and paper mills that use elemental chlorine in their bleaching processes are a well-documented source of dioxins and furans. Another key source is the incineration of plastic, e.g., from municipal incinerators and at some IandfiIls. Contaminants produced and released from burning may be transported considerable distances by winds. Even seemingly benign activities such as washing clothes may release dioxins to sewers, WWTPs and receiving environments, as dioxin has been detected in clothing made from cotton grown with some pesticides (World Wildlife Fund, Canada 1995a in St.Croix Eshlary Project 1997.) In Maine, the largest volumes of chlorines discharged into freshwater are associated with the old Great Northern pulp mill in Millinocket, which legally discharges 14,000 pounds of chlorine into the Penobscot River annually (Conkling 1995).


We were unable to identify an overall loading to the Gulf. The available information focuses on specific point discharges rather than receiving waters. Little quantitative information is available on nonpoint source loadings.


The pathways traveled to reach the Gulf of Maine depend on the type of source. Pipes from industrial operations may discharge directly in estuarine or river waters. Residue from incineration reaches the Gulf principally via atmospheric deposition.


Particular gaps are the total loadings, especially those from nonpoint sources. Because there are such a wide variety of forms of these chemicals, there is little information about the human health and ecosystem impacts from particular isomers. Consequently, there are virtually no data on additive or synergistic effects.


3. Heavy Metals

Introduction

Much of the information related to metals discusses them in an aggregate manner. Consequently, the generalize discussion below is designed to reflect those discussions and limit duplication in subsequent portions of this paper. Information or data on specific metals will be review under those headings.

Heavy metals, or trace metals, have been major environmental contaminants since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Several are highly hazardous to aquatic life and humans. Being basic elements, they do not biodegrade and are very long-lived in the environment. Many New England rivers and estuaries were heavily loaded with metals during the 19th century from industries located on rivers in the region. Heavy metals include those that are essential to biological processes (e.g., copper, chromium, nickel, and zinc) and those that are non-essential (e.g., cadmium, mercury and lead). The non-essential metals are the most toxic and of greatest concern (Sowles 1997~).

Point sources of metals to waters in Maine as summarized in Sowles (1997~).

Source of Discharge # in Metals Discharged Maine

Tanneries 2 chromium, mercury, zinc

Metal fiNshing/electroNcs 7 chromium, copper, lead, mercury, zinc

Pulp and paper

Textile

Chemical products

Municipal sewage

(Sowles 1997~).

17 chromium, copper, lead, mercury, zinc

11 chromium, copper, lead, mercury, zinc

6 arsenic, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, zinc

100+ arsenic, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, zinc

For the majority of the Bay of Fundy, heavy metals in the sediments are at or near natural levels for unpolluted coastal sediments. The anomalies include an area near Grand Manan, where higher concentrations of some metals result naturally from their occurrence in rock formations in the area. Off Saint John is a disposal site for dredged harbor sediments where concentrations of metals are higher than normal. Levels of some metals are also higher in sediments in

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 31 - Horsley & Witten, Im. 17 April 1998 Final Draft

Passamaquoddy Bay because fine contaminated sediments in the Saint John River plume are swept into the area by coastal currents and deposited there. Heavy metals have been detected in the meat of scallops taken from Saint John Harbor (Robinson 1996 cited in Saint Croix Estuary Project 1997). Satellite images of the Kennebec River show a plume of contaminated sediments at the river's mouth which ultimately brings toxic metals into the Gulf of Maine (Conkling 1995). Trace metals are found in high concentrations in New Hampshire's estuarine sediments (Jones in press).

Blue mussels, indigenous species to the Gulf of Maine, are used as a bioindicator of contaminants at 33 sites throughout the region as part of the Gulfwatch program. Field-exposed mussels were observed to take up cadmium, copper, mercury, silver, chromium, lead, nickel, and zinc to different extents. Four metals that are indicative of anthropogenic activities, silver, copper, chromium, and mercury, are found in higher concentrations in Boston and New Hampshire mussels than those further north. The body load of these mussels represents what is in the water currently either from resuspended sediments or new inputs ( Conkling 1995). Blue mussels from Boothbay Harbor, ME, had large kidney concretions resulting from the accumulation of heavy metals. The mean body burden of lead in Boothbay Harbor mussels was the highest of ten sites sampled along the Maine coast (Larsen 1992).

The Maine Department of Environmental Management monitors heavy metal concentrations in lobster meat and tomalley annually.

Moderate to high concentrations of trace metals were found in Casco Bay, Boston Harbor, Salem Harbor and Quincy Bay during the 1984-1987 sampling of trace contaminants in fish livers by the NOAA National Status and Trends, Benthic Surveillance program (Gottholm and Turgeon 1992).

Copper, cadmium, zinc, and total mercury concentrations were determined for liver, kidney, and muscle tissues sampled from Bay of Fundy harbor porpoises in 1989 (Johnston 1995 in Wells et al. 1995). Copper and zinc in Bay of Fundy porpoises were similar to values previously published for conspecifics from other locations (Falconer et al. 1983 in Wells et al. 1995) and to other cetaceans in Canadian waters (Wagemann et al. 1990 in Wells et al. 1995).

Potential Effects of Selected Metals on Human Health

Pollutant Cancer Reproductive Neumlogicall Immuno- Endocrine Other

Behavioral logical

Restrictions N o ~ x ~ r e r

Cadmium Probable b' b' b' Resplratoryl kidney toxicity

Lead Probable b' r/ b' kidney toxicity

M e c q b' b' b' b' kidney toxicity

(CEC 1997a)

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 32 - Honley & Wineq Inc. 17 April 1998 F i Draft

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published a series of "Guidance Documents" for cadmium, chromium, lead and nickel. These are alert levels and, by themselves, do not warrant issuance of health advisories. For 1996, no metals sampled as part of the Musselwatch program in U.S. waters, approached the guideline levels. There are also screening values prepared by the US EPA for cadmium, merculy, and selenium; 11 organochlorine compounds; one chlorophenoxy herbicide; total PCBs; and dioxins/dibenzohrans. None of the contaminants sampled at 1996 Gulf watch stations exceeded these screening values, including metals (Chase 1997).

Sites of stations reported in Gulfwatch data reported below

Code Location Code Location MA-SN Sandwich, MA ME-PI Pickering Island, ME MA-MH Marblehead, MA NB-SC St. Croix River, NB MA-ME Memmack River, MA NB-CH Chamcook, NB NH-HS Harnpton/Seabrook Est., NH NB-LN Letang Estuary, NB ME-CC Clarke Cove, ME NS-FI Five Islands, NS ME-BH Brave Boat Harbor. ME NS-DI Digby, NS ME-RY Royal River, ME NS-BC Broad Cove, NS ME-KN Kennebec River, ME NS-YR Yarmouth, NS ME-FP Fort Point, ME NS-AG Argyle, NS

Levels of Cadmium in M-l Tiisme in the Gulf of Maine

Levels of C o w in M-l Tissue inthe Gulf of Maine

LNdr of Chmmitlm in Mussel Tirsme in the Gulf of M a i n

LevcLs of Lead in Mussel T i u e in the Gmlf of M i n e

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Levelaof Memmy in Mm-1 Tisac in the Gulf of Maine

3. Heavy Metals a) Arsenic

Arsenic is widespread in the environment and is continuously changing form and location through oxidation, reduction or mobilization. Some forms are more bioavailable than others and that availability is greatly affected by physical aspects of the environment. Arsenates adsorb onto sediments rich in organic matter much more readily than do other forms and is the typical form . .

found in oxygenated situations; arsenite is more typically found in anaerobic conditions (Eisler 1988). Arsenic may be bioconcentrated at the bottom of the food chain, but does not seem to

3. Heavy Metals b) Cadmium


Cadmium is a natural element in the earth's crust and is usually found as a mineral combined with elements such as oxygen in the form of cadmium oxide. It does not corrode easily and has many uses in industry and consumer products, e.g., batteries, pigments, metal coatings and plastics. Cadmium enters the air from mining and industrial activities, burning of coal and disposal of household wastes and can travel via the atmosphere for long distances before being deposited. It binds strongly to particles and some cadmium-based compounds will dissolve in water. Cadmium does not break down in the environment but can change forms. Fish, plants and animals take up cadmium from the environment and it will remain in an organism's system for an extended period of time. Exposure of many years to low levels will build up significant body burdens.

Cadmium was detected at low levels in most east coast seabirds. The highest levels were found in the kidneys of Double-crested Cormorants at Heron Island in Chaleur Bay in 1970-71. The cormorants have not been retested since then (Noble 1990).

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Long et al. (1995) compiled data from numerous modeling, laboratory and field studies performed with marine and estuarine sediments. From these data they developed guideline values (effects range low (ERL) and effects range medium m)) to provide a sense of the potential impacts of contaminants on biota. For a number of contaminants, they established concentrations which would produce rare (below the ERL), occasional (between ERL and E M levels) and frequent (above E M ) incidences of adverse effects. The USGS segmented data using the ERLERM thresholds provided by Long et al. Unpublished material from the USGS contaminated sediment data set show one site in Casco Bay above the ERM and several locations in Boston Harbor, Salem Harbor Great Bay and the southern Maine coast between the ERM and ERL thresholds.

Human health impacts resultine from contaminants

As shown in the table above (CEC 1997a), cadmium is listed as a probable carcinogen and has been implicated in reproductive, neurological/behavioral, immunological, respiratory and kidney difficulties in humans.


Research in the Baltic Sea found that cod which have elevated levels of cadmium in livei and kidney tissue, also had externally visible skeletal deformities such as compressions of the spine and deformities of the jaw (Land and Dethlefsen 1987 in Langton et al. 1994).

Information Base

Land-based source@) of the contaminant

MacAdie (1995) summarized information available on cadmium inputs into the Gulf of Maine by pathway as presented in the table below.

Cadmium inputs into the Gulf of Maine by pathway

Source Input in kglyear

Atmospheric Deposition

Wet Deposition 11,900

Dry Deposition 43,000

Tributaries 2,100

Water Transport (from ocean side) 305,000

Direct Discharges 5,400

Totals 367,400

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Estimates of cadmium loads to Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays indicates that permitted discharges accounted for between 17-34 percent of the total load. Nonpoint sources appeared to be relatively important with runoff accounting for 30-66 percent and the atmospheric inputs were estimated to be between 17-31 percent (Menzie-Cura 1991).

3, Heavy Metals c) Chromium

Introduction

Chromium is found in a number of forms in the environment. It is an essential element in mammals for a number of life-sustaining processes. Excessive amounts of some of the chemical forms, however, can prove toxic or produce a range of carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic effects.


Unpublished material from the USGS contaminated sediment data set show levels above the ERM of Long et al. (1995) in Boston Harbor, Salem Harbor, Great Bay, off Saco and in Casco Bay. Levels between the ERM and ERL were found in several sites in Casco Bay and in other scattered locations along the Maine coast. The NOAA Status and Trends Program found Salem Harbor sediments to have the highest concentrations nationally (Gottholm and Turgeon 1992).

The Status and Trends Musselwatch program found Boston and Salem Harbors to be among the 20 most contaminated sites in U.S. Coastal waters (Capuzzo 1995). With the exception of Frenchmans Bay, all winter flounder livers in the Gulf of Maine had chromium concentrations at or above the U. S. (Gottholm and Turgeon 1992).

elevated levels of chromium in the Great Bay estuary 0, the Saco River (ME) and Salem Harbor (MA) are attributed to the input of tannery wastes over the years (Capuzzo 1995)


As mentioned above, chromium, at elevated levels, can have carcinogenic, mutagenic or teratogenic effects. Some forms have been linked to changes in enzyme activity, lowered resistance to pathogens, neurological changes, and disrupted feeding (Eisler 1988).



Elevated levels of chromium has also been noted to inhibit photosynthesis in plants and result in alterations in populations and their dynamics (Eisler 1988)

3. Heavy Metals

d) Copper


The NOAA Status and Trends Program found the sediments of Salem Harbor and Quincy Bay (both in Massachusetts) to have higher levels of copper than other areas in the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Maine (Capuzzo 1995) Gottholm and Turgeon (1992) reported that the mean concentration levels of copper in Salem and Boston Harbor area were substantially higher than the mean concentrations anywhere else in the Gulf

The Musselwatch program found Boston Harbor and Salem Sound to be among the 20 most contaminated sites in U.S. Coastal waters (Capuzzo 1995) but Gottholm and Turgeon (1992) note that there is little variation in mean concentration levels of copper in mussel tissue throughout the Gulf. Winter flounder liver concentrations range from a low of 15 ppm at Quincy Bay to a high of 69 ppm at Casco Bay.


Copper is an essential element for animals. Excess ingestion, however, leads to accumulation in tissues, particularly in the liver, where it may disrupt that organ's metabolism. Toxic symptoms appear when the liver accumulates 3 to 15 times the normal level of copper. High levels also inhibit essential enzymatic action. (Eisler 1988). Copper does not appear to be mutagenic but is a teratogen and possible carcinogen.


Copper can be acutely toxic, primarily through its caustic nature, as is evidenced by its use in anti-fouling paints for boat bottoms. Ecosystem impacts were poorly defined in the papers reviewed.

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3. Heavy Metals e) Lead

Trends in presence and impacts. including temporal and spatial distribution and concentration

Most of the lead which reaches Massachusetts Bay is deposited from the atmosphere. Urban run-off and combined sewer overflows also contribute a significant portion of the loading. Permitted discharges accounted for less than 10 percent of the total load to the Bay (Menzie- Cura 1991). Atmospheric deposition of lead has decreased, apparently due to restricted use of leaded gasoline. In Canada, it has been reported that emissions decreased 86 percent between 1973 and 1987 (Hillborn and Still 1990).

Lead does not biomagnify to a great extent in food chains, although accumulation by plants and animals has been documented. Older organisms typically contain the highest tissue lead concentrations, with the majority of the accumulation in the bony tissue of vertebrates.

Unpublished material from the USGS contaminated sediment data set show levels above the ERM in Boston and Salem Harbors, Great Bay, and PortsmouthKittery. Areas with concentrations between the ERM and the ERL include Massachusetts Bay, Great Bay, Casco Bay, Penobscott Bay and other scattered sites at river mouths in Maine. The sediments of the following harbors showed high concentrations of lead as surveyed by the NOAA Status and Trends Program (Capuzzo 1995): Cape Ann, Salem Harbor, Boston Harbor and Quincy Bay (all in Massachusetts.

MacAdie (1995) provides an estimate of inputs of lead into the Gulf of Maine. These estimates are summarized in the table below.

Lead inputs into the Gulf of Maine by pathway

Source Input in kgfyear

Atmospheric Deposition

Wet Deposition 52,400

Dry Deposition 65,000

Tributaries 18,900

Water Transport (from ocean side) 28 1,700

Direct Discharges 45,600

Totals 463,600


The 1995 Gulfwatch mussel sampling program found a trend for higher concentrations of lead in population centers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Lead concentrations in mussels at half of the sites sampled in 1996 in Maine exceed that state's reference concentrations. Concentrations of lead were consistently low among sites in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (Chase 1996).

High concentrations of lead in mussels from sites in New Hampshire may be associated with Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Sites in Portsmouth Harbor that contain elevated lead concentrations are in close proximity to the Jamaica landfill and the defense re-utilization and Marketing Office on Seavy Island. Both are known sources of lead contamination from past discharges of waste plating sludge and disposal of lead batteries (Chase 1996).

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released a "Guidance Document" in 1993 for lead (USFDA 1993 in Chase 1996). Gulfwatch samples from 1996 showed levels of lead in all replicates from Boston Inner Harbor which exceeded these thresholds. (Chase 1996). The Status and Trends Musselwatch program found Boston Harbor to be among the 20 most contaminated sites in U.S. Coastal waters (Capuzzo 1995).


Because lead does not tend to biomagnify, to have impacts, there must be direct exposure to significant amounts of lead compounds. Children are the most susceptible among humans. In cases of lead poisoning, there has typically been evidence of neurological damage and disrupted blood chemistry (Eisler 1988).

3. Heavy Metals f ) Mercury

Mercury has become a contaminant of significant concern for a number of reasons; the impacts it can have on humans and species of commercial importance, its relatively wide-spread presence and its ability to accumulate in the marine food web

The US EPA Report to Congress (1998) reports that since pre-industrial times the amount of mercury deposited into the global marine environment has increased approximately Cfold. Mercury accumulates very efficiently in the aquatic food web. Predatory organisms at the top of the food web generally have higher mercury concentrations. Toxicity is influenced by the form of mercury, the environmental medium, environmental conditions, the sensitivity or tolerance of the organism and the life history stage. Inorganic mercury is less acutely toxic to aquatic organisms than methylmercury, but the range in sensitivity among individual species for either compound is

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 3 9 - Horsley & Witteq Inc. 17 April 1998 F i Draft

large. Toxicity was found at elevated temperatures, lower oxygen content, reduced salinities in marine environments, and in the presence of metals such as zinc and lead. Nearly all of the mercury that accumulates in fish tissue is methylmercuxy. Inorganic mercury, which is less efficiently absorbed and more readily eliminated from the body than methylmercury, does not tend to bioaccumulate (US EPA 1998).

In general, toxic effects occur because mercury binds to proteins and alters protein production or synthesis. Toxicological effects include reproductive impairment, growth inhibition, developmental abnormalities, and altered behavioral responses. Early life cycle states are the most sensitive. Mercury can be transferred from tissues of the adult female to developing eggs.

Fish consumption dominates the pathway for human and wildlife exposure to methylmercury. There is a plausible link between anthropogenic releases of mercury from industrial and combustion sources in the United States and methylmercury in fish but concentrations of methylmercury in fish also result from existing background exposure. Because of the nature of both its chemical parameters and its mode of transport (i.e., atmospheric deposition), it is not possible to quantify how much of the methylmercury in fish is contributed by any one location or even any one country. Fish-eating birds and mammals are more highly exposed to mercury than any other wildlife.

Trends in presence and impacts. including temporal and spatial distribution an concentration

Unpublished material from the USGS contaminated sediment data set show concentrations of mercury above the ERM in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts Bay, Salem Harbor, Great Bay and scattered sited along the Maine coast. Many of these same sites also show concentrations between the ERM and the ERL.

The NOAA Status and Trends Program found that the sediments of the following harbors showed high concentrations of mercury; Salem Harbor, Boston Harbor and Quincy Bay (Capuzzo 1995).

A recent review of sediments in Maine's coastal sediments and rivers indicate that the Upper Penobscot Estuary and River at Orrington have mercury concentrations that exceed-by orders of magnitude-any others found in the country (Land and Water Resource Council 1998).

Preliminary comparison of concentrations of mercury in mussels from Maine with the rest of the country indicate high concentrations and confirms similar data that Maine waters in general have abnormally high concentrations of mercury for North America &and and Water Resources 1998). These levels appear to be associated with historical or recent industrial activity.

Mussel watch data indicate that concentrations in mussels in the Gulf are unusually high compared with other locations. Mean values of mercury in mussels from various coastal regions worldwide are about 0.1 to 0.4 ug/g dry weight (Kennish 1997 in Chase 1997). Over half of the Gulfwatch samples exceed the upper limit of this estimate. Maine mussels contain significantly more mercury in their tissues than those collected from either the east or west coast of the United States. (Land and Water Resource Council 1998).

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Levels of mercury contamination in striped bass in the Saint John River are almost five times higher than what is considered acceptable for human consumption (Conkling 1995).

Elevated levels of mercury were detected in the eggs of seabirds in 1971-72 from New Brunswick, Bay of Fundy area and in the livers of Double-crested Cormorants collected in Chaleur Bay, New Brunswick, in 1969. Data to determine whether levels have declined since that time is lacking (Noble 1990).

Marine mammal tissues have some of the highest concentrations of mercury found in all marine organisms, with the liver generally having the highest total mercury concentration. Although many juvenile and adult marine mammals feed primarily on fish, which contain high percentages of methylmercury, high concentrations of inorganic mercury are found in adult mammal specimens. Apparently, adult marine mammals can mineralize methylmercury into inorganic mercury. Juvenile marine mammals have lower concentrations of total mercury than adults; but unlike fish and invertebrates, the percentage of methylmercury is higher in juvenile mammals.

Mercury levels measured in the early 1990s in harbor porpoises and seals were lower than those measured a decade earlier (CARP 1996a).


Neurotoxicity is the health effect of greatest concern following high dose exposures to methylmercury to developing fetuses. Dietary methylmercury is almost completely absorbed into the blood and distributed to all tissues including the brain. It also readily passes through the placenta to the fetus and fetal brain. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has advised that admissible levels of methylmercury, expressed as mercury, are less than 6.7 pprn dry weight or 0.5 ppm wet weight. In Canada the levels are less than 3.3 ppm dry weight or 0.5 ppm wet weight. The highest concentration of mercury found in the 1996 Gulfwatch project was 1.01+/- 0.39 ppm dry weight, at Royal River Maine, well below the action concentrations of both countries.

Biomagnification of mercury can lead to concentrations in fish flesh that exceed safe levels for human consumption. Mercury can be toxic to both humans and animals, causing impairments in nervous systems and kidney functions. Although there are no seafood consumption advisories, some fish concentrate mercury and are near or exceed the US FDA action level of 1 ppm methylmercury, the toxic form found in fish (Pederson & VanderZwaag 1997).

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Toxic effects of methylmercury in aquatic life typically include impairment of central nervous system functions, which are often manifested in reduced survival (sometimes by reduced ability to avoid predators), growth or reproduction. The magnitude of toxicity varies among taxa, with annelids, fishes, gastropods and ctustaceans being characterized by an increasing magnitude of response. Adverse effects of mercury on fish, birds, and mammals include death, reduced reproductive success, impaired growth and development, and behavioral abnormalities.

Information Base


Modeling attempts estimate that 47 percent of the deposition of mercury that occurs in the northeast is due to sources located within the northeast region. Municipal waste combustors in the northeast are the source of 42 percent of that deposition, while 17 percent is due to municipal waste combustors outside of the northeast (Land and Water Resources Council 1998). Recent estimates of mercury loading to Boston Harbor, based on improved analytical techniques, support atmospheric inputs as the major route into coastal environments (Pederson. and VanderZwaag 1997).

Most of the emissions of mercury are produced when waste or fuel containing mercury is burned. The US EPA has finalized emission limits for municipal waste combustors and medical waste incinerators and by the year 2000, emissions from these categories are expected to decline at least 90 percent from 1995 levels. In addition, mercury emission limits have been proposed for hazardous waste incinerators (US EPA 1998).

The largest remaining identified source of mercury emissions is coal-fired utility boilers. Although a number of mercury control techniques are being evaluated for utility boilers, most are still in the research stages (US EPA 1998).


Menzie-Cura (1991) estimates that, for Massachusetts Bay, the dominant pathway for loading is via permitted discharges. For the Gulf of Maine, the dominant pathway is most probably atmospheric deposition because of its areal extent.


Mercury cycles in the environment as a result of natural and anthropogenic activities. Most of the mercury in the atmosphere is elemental mercury vapor, which can circulate for up to a year before deposition, and consequently can be widely dispersed and transported thousands of miles

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from sources of emission. Most of the mercury in water, soil, sediments or plants and animals is in the form of inorganic mercury salts and organic forms of mercury (e.g., methylmercury). The inorganic form of mercury, when either bound to airborne particles or in a gaseous form, is readily removed from the atmosphere by precipitation and is also dry deposited. Wet deposition is the primary mechanism for transporting mercury from the atmosphere to surface waters and land. Even after it is deposited, mercury is commonly emitted back to the atmosphere, either as a gas or associated with particles, to be re-deposited elsewhere. As it cycles between the atmosphere, land and water, mercury undergoes a series of complex chemical and physical transformations many of which are not completely understood (US EPA 1998).

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Insert hgcycle.jpg here

3. Heavy Metals g) Silver


Generally, concentrations of silver in mussels increase from north to south, with the highest concentrations being found in mussels from a Massachusetts station (Chase 1996). These exceptionally high silver concentrations in samples taken from station off Sandwich, Massachusetts (MASN) were observed in 1993, 1994 and 1995 but not in 1992 samples. The high concentrations of silver in mussels suggest wastewater effluent (Gulfwatch 1997).

The Status and Trends Musselwatch program found Boston Harbor to be one of the 15 most contaminated sites in U.S. Coastal waters (Gottholm and Turgeon 1992). Levels in winter flounder livers are moderate in Casco Bay and Boston Harbor. Levels in winter flounder were consistently higher than in longhorn sculpin (Gottholm and Turgeon 1992).

3. Heavy Metals h) Tin

Tributyltin has been used as a biocide in antifouling paints since 1961. In the late 1970s it was found that it was toxic in the marine environment. Abnormal growth, shell deformations and inhibition of reproduction were associated with the Pacific Oyster (C. gigas) in France when


exposed to increased levels of TBT. Other marine organisms that have shown toxic effects to TBT include lobster (Homarusamericanus), blue mussel (Mytilus erhrlis) and algae--all at concentrations less than 0.001 ppm. TNT binds to the sediments and becomes less bioavailable but its sorption is reversible depending upon salinity and water movement.

The US and Canada put restrictions on the use of TBT in the mid 1980s. A 1990 Canadian survey revealed that even with these restrictions, TBT was entering into the marine environment through spent blasting material.

National Status and Trends Program found high concentrations of tin in the sediments in the following areas: Merriconeag Sound, Cape Ann Salem Harbor, Boston Harbor, and Quincy Bay (Capuao 1995).

3. Heavy Metals a) Zinc

Zinc concentrations generally reflect human activity associated with tire wear, galvanized materials, and industrial discharges. Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine had consistent concentrations of zinc among sampled sites (Chase 1997).


Mean concentrations of zinc in sediments in the Gulf are at or below the national mean. Concentrations in mussel tissue vary little throughout the U.S. portion of the Gulf (Gonholm and Turgeon 1992

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 4 1 - Horsley & Witten, Inc. 17 April 1998 Final Draft

a) Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons @AH)

Of the petroleum hydrocarbons, PAHs are the chemical species of most concern. They derive from raw petroleum products and the combustion of wood, coal and petroleum. Sixteen PAHs are on the US EPA's priority pollutant list because of their toxicity. High molecular weight PAHs are less acutely toxic but more carcinogenic and teratogenic than low molecular weight PAHs. High molecular weight PAHs also degrade more slowly and therefore accumulate in sediments (Sowles 1997~).

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are groups of aromatic rings containing only carbon and hydrogen. They may be considered as two or more benzene rings fused together with at least two common carbons. There are numerous PAH compounds, each differing in the number and arrangement of benzene rings. The low molecular weight PAHs (2-3 rings) tend to be more acutely toxic while higher molecular weight compounds (4-7 rings) tend to be carcinogenic, teratogenic, or mutagenic to a number of receptors.

Contarninant(s) of concern

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)

Trends in presence and impacts, includine temporal and spatial distribution and concentration

Because urban activities are most apt to generate PAH, it is not surprising to find the ;.:ghest concentrations in adjacent harbors, generally as a mixture of combustion-sourced PAH and petroleum-sourced PAHs with the former being most often in predominance. This group of contaminants is relatively non-volatile and has a low solubility in water. Degradation is slow in sediments and therefore the bottoms of harbors are the major environmental sink. In the air, soil and water, PAHs generally adsorb to particulate matter on which they are transported (ACAP- Saint John 1997). PAHs from petroleum sources apparently are more bioavailable than those from pyrogenic sources as Mussel Watch samples display more of the former.

Low molecular weight PAHs (2-3 rings) can be broken down through microbial degradation. Higher molecular weight PAHs are removed from the marine system by sedimentation and photochemical oxidation. Fish metabolize some PAHs, including some known carcinogens such as benzo(a)pyrene, very efficiently. Therefore, the amounts of materials detected in these animals do not indicate the degree of prior chronic exposure, which has a cumulative effect with respect to carcinogenesis. Shellfish have very little capacity for metabolism of hydrocarbons. Therefore, shellfish accumulate these compounds to levels higher than those appearing in fish from the same environment.

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PAHs, like PCBs, induce the enzyme P-450 that transforms or breaks down these chemicals. High levels of this enzyme, therefore, serve as a biomarker for exposure to these contaminants. In Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays, many vertebrates, including fish, birds and whales, have highly induced P-450. Such induction suggests exposure to diverse carcinogens, tumor promoters and developmental disrupters. In some, the consequences are evident; tumors in winter flounder from several sites and in Fundulus sp. from the Island End River, Massachusetts.

Sites in the Gulf of Maine with high concentrations of PAHs in sediments include Boston Harbor, Casco Bay and Penobscot Bay. Loadings to Massachusetts Bay alone are estimated to be between 2.1 to 13.7 metric tons per year (Menzie-Cura 1991). The areas near combined sewer overflows in Boston Harbor are among the most contaminated locations (Menzie-Cura 1991).

Larsen et al. (1983a) noted high concentrations of PAH in Casco Bay sediments with the highest in Portland Harbor. The PAHs appear to come from multiple sources including, automobile and aircraft traffic, petroleum handling facilities and municipal sewer systems.

Penobscot Bay showed elevated levels of PAHs in reports by Johnson et al. (1985 in Larsen et al. 1986). In this instance, a spatial gradient decreasing seaward from the head of the bay was noted. The authors suspected a pyrogenic source with atmospheric transport and river run-off as the main means of distribution.

The NOAA Status and Trends sediment stations reported (Capuzzo 1995):

Penobscot Bay both low and high molecular weight aromatic hydrocarbons,

Casco Bay (Kennebec River ) low molecular weight aromatic hydrocarbons,

Cape Ann high molecular weight aromatic hydrocarbons,

Salem Harbor low and high molecular weight hydrocarbons

Boston Harbor low and high molecular weight hydrocarbons

Quincy Bay low and high molecular weight hydrocarbons

In Saint John Harbor, ocean disposal of dredge spoils containing more than 2.5 ppm of PAH is prohibited but harbor sediments near the discharge of Marsh Creek at Courtenay Bay currently exceed this level (ACAP-Saint John 1997).

PAHs have even reached the sediments ofthe central Gulf of Maine as Larsen et al. (1986) reported an accumulation in depositional basins there.

No PAHs were detected in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia mussel tissue samples taken in 1995 from inshore Gulfwatch stations (Chase 1996).

Liver tumor prevalence in winter flounder from Deer Island Flats in Boston Harbor has fallen from above 10 percent in the mid to late 1980s to zero in recent years (Capuzzo 1995).

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In general, PAHs show little tendency to biomagnify in food chains despite their high lipid solubility. This is thought to be because most organisms rapidly metabolize and excrete PAH compounds. Where assimilation of ingested PAHs has been demonstrated, metabolism and excretion were rapid.

Levels of Total PAH f o u n d in Musse l Tissue in the Gulf of Maine

Stations


Code Location Code Location MA-SN Sandwich, MA ME-PI Pickering Island, ME MA-MH Marblehead, MA NB-SC St. ~ r o i x ~ i v e r , NB MA-ME Merrimack River, MA NB-CH Chamcook, NB NH-HS Hampton/Seabmok Est., NH NB-LN Letang Estuary, NB ME-CC Clarke Cove, ME NS-FI Five Islands, NS ME-BH Brave Boat Harbor. ME NS-DI Digby, NS ME-RY Roval River. ME NS-BC Broad Cove. NS ME-KN ~ l m e b e c River, ME NS-YR Yarmouth, NS ME-FP Fort Point, ME NS-AG Argyle, NS (Compiled from data in Chase et al. 1997)


PAHs are considered to be possible or probable human carcinogens and hence their distribution in the environment and possible exposure to humans is the focus of much attention.

It is thought that toxicity associated with PAHs is due not to the initial compound, but rather metabolized intermediates. The majority of enzymatic activity associated with the

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metabolization of PAH compounds takes place in the liver with the first step in the metabolic process being the oxidation of PAHs by cytochrome P-450 enzyme systems. The metabolic by- products go through a series of reactions, ultimately forming diol-epoxides and phenol oxides, which are believed to be the carcinogenic intermediate of PAHs.

PAHs can be potent immunotoxic compounds, suppressing hormonal and cell-mediated immune response. Many PAHs have been shown to adversely affect host tumoricidal activities, resulting in tumor formation. It appears that PAH compounds which are carcinogenic are also immunosuppressive.

Limited information is available on human health effects of the consumption of contaminated shellfish. Published tolerance or action levels for PAHs in commercial marine species are not available in Canada or in the United States. In marine areas where PAH contamination may be a human health concern, closure of commercial fisheries are dealt with on a case by case basis (Chase 1996).


Biological effects of PAHs on marine organisms and ecosystems are dependent on the persistence and bioavailability of specific hydrocarbons, the ability of organisms to accumulate and metabolize various hydrocarbons, the fate of metabolized products and the interference of specific hydrocarbons with normal metabolic processes that may alter an organism's chances for survival and reproduction in the environment (Capuzzo 1990).

Because PAHs are hydrophobic, they can be taken up by many marine organisms across gill surfaces and other surfaces and partition into the organisms. PAHs can also enter organisms by way of food.

Hydrocarbons in the "sea-surface microlayer" (less than a millimeter thick) can impact many organisms. Researchers studying in Puget Sound, Washington State, found that chromosome abnormalities existed in up to 63 percent of fish embryos exposed to the contaminated microlayer and, in an experimental setting, observed dramatic decreases in fish larvae hatching after just six days of immersion in microlayer samples (Mele 1993 in St. Croix Estuary Project 1997).

Under laboratory conditions, neoplastic effects such as liver tumors in aquatic organisms have been associated with exposure to PAHs. Field evidence also supports this association. In Vancouver Harbor, neoplastic liver lesions were observed in up to 75 percent of the English sole caught in areas where sediments are highly contaminated by PAHs. Winter flounder in Quincy (Massachusetts) Harbor, Boston Harbor and New Bedford (Massachusetts) Harbor all showed elevated levels of hepatic and epidermal neoplasms and the sediments of each of these harbors show elevated levels of PAH.

Different species have different capacities for the metabolism of PAHs. The capacity for PAH metabolism can also change within a single individual as a result of exposure to the PAY or in

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different life stages. Invertebrates have lower rates of PAH metabolism than fish. (Stegeman and Lech 1991)

Risks are evident at the population level for benthic invertebrates in contaminated areas (e.g urban harbors). Effects are apparent for demersal fish species in some coastal areas and embayments; however it is unclear if the reported effects result in population-level effects (Mende-Cura 1991).


We did not encounter any economic data in the review of these papers. However, it may be assumed that either toxic impacts or sub-lethal effects on reproductive activities may result in a loss of fishery stocks-although no quantifications of this possibility were noted.


We encountered no data on cultural impacts from PAHs.

Information base


PAHs originate from both natural and anthropogenic sources. The natural sources can include forest fires, which release approximately 2000 metric tons of PAHs per year and are the largest contributors of these contaminants from Canadian land areas. Since forest fires are geiierally widely separated in time and space, they do not produce chronic exposure in any specific area (ACAP-Saint John 1997). Other sources include oil spills; chronic inputs from human activities; natural seeps and erosion of ancient sediments; the incomplete combustion of coal, oil or gas; creosote; industrial processes such as the wasting of carbon electrodes in certain electrochemical industrial processes, e.g. some aluminum production and early diagenesis of organic matter in surface muds (Massachusetts Bays Program 1995).

Atmospheric deposition of PAHs in Nova Scotia have been measured at Kejimkujik, Nova Scotia, from 1981 to 1989. The concentration in precipitation shows a seasonal pattern, with higher levels being detected from November to April (Environment Canada 1992).


The largest source of anthropogenic PAHs released into the atmosphere from Canadian sources are aluminum smelters (925 metric tonslyear) with most of these emissions being released from smelters that use the Horizontal Stud Soderberg process. The major sources of PAHs to the


aquatic and soil environments include creosote-treated products (up to 2000 metric tonslyr), spills of petroleum products (76 tonslyear), metallurgical and coking plants (4 tonslyr) and deposition of atmospheric PAHs (unknown amount) (ACAP-Saint John 1997).

Total annual estimated discharges of PAHs to Massachusetts Bay

Sources Volume

Atmospheric deposition 3,770 kglyr

Combined Sewer Overflows 43 - 5,100 kgiyr

Dredged material disposal 300 - 1,400 kgiyr

Wastewater Treatment Plants 21,000 - 35,400 kg/yr

Other point sources 1,635 kgiyr

River transport (Merrimack River contributes most by far) 2,900 - 7,400 kglyr

Total annual input 29,650 - 54,705 kglyr

(Massachusetts Bays Program 1995)

Mende-Cura (1991) estimates that loadings of PAHs to Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays are largely due to permitted discharges. They report that the majority of sediments in the Bays are in the less than 10 ppm range. Highly contaminated sites are located closer to land.


Transport mechanisms include wastewater treatment plant outfalls and industrial discharges, atmospheric deposition, dredged material disposal and other resuspension of sediments, river flow and nonpoint source run-off and combined sewer overflows. Anthropogenic sources are numerous and result in emissions of PAHs into all environmental compartments. About 35-40 percent of hydrocarbons likely stay in the water while the remainder are released to the atmosphere (US EPA 1991 cited in Mele 1993 cited in St. Croix Estuary Project 1997).

Many PAHs entering the marine environment end up in the surface sediments. (Massachusetts Bays Program 1995)


The principal gap in the data is the for transfer of PAHs to humans and what the impacts will be on various segments of the population. These chemicals do not appear to biomagnify through the food chain. Information was also sparse on the potential for population impacts in species of economic interest.

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 50 - Horsley & Witte~ Inc. 17 April 1998 F i Draft

4. Oils/Hydrocarbons b) Oil Spills

The Gulf of Maine is one of the busiest oil handling areas on the Atlantic Coast of the U.S. and Canada with significant amounts of product being off-loaded in Boston (MA), Portsmouth (NH), PortlandfSouth Portland and Searsport (ME) and Saint John (Nl3). With this level of product handling comes the risk of oil spills, either in a catastrophic form with a large discharge or in smaller, less visible, losses. Other sources of oil spills include run-off from land-based activities and discharge from engines of, or of bilge water from, recreational boats.

Impacts from spills vary widely, depending on the amount lost and the type of product involved. In the case of large spills of a heavy product (e.g., crude or bunker C) the concern is most often suffocation of individuals or coating of birds or marine mammals-generally more of a physical impact than toxic. Lighter, more refined products, are typically more toxic and may be mutagenic or teratogenic. For the purposes of this paper, large spills of heavy, unrefined product will not be addressed and will be considered a habitat issue rather than one of contamination. Chronic discharges of refined product, however, should be considered as a form of contamination.

While there are few data on the amounts and types of small, chronic spills in the Gulf of Maine, Sowles (1997a) suggests that such impacts may be greater than those from professional product- handling activities. Long-term and broad ecological impacts are not well studied (Sowles 1997a) but generally soft, exposed substrates (e.g., mud flats) or vegetated areas along the shore (e.g. salt marshes) and the surface layer in open waters are most susceptible.

Contaminants Scop~ng Paper - 51 - Horsley & Witten, Inc. 17 April 1998 Final Draft

5. Nutrients

Introduction

Nutrients commonly thought of as pollutants include nitrogen and phosphorus. In marine waters, nitrogen is generally of concern because it is most ofien the limiting nutrient controlling primary productivity. The critical concentration for marine waters can be as low as 0.2 mgA, depending on the rate of tidal flushing (Buzzards Bay Project 1991). Excessive nitrogen to marine ecosystems can result in algal blooms, decreased water clarity and declines in eelgrass beds-important shellfish and finfish habitat. In marine waters, nitrate is the predominant inorganic form of nitrogen, although the majority of nitrogen occurs as dissolved organic nitrogen (Valiela 1984).

In the eastern United States and western Europe, contemporary nutrient loading of rivers is probably 10-50 times greater than prehistoric loadings Wnga et al. 1991 in Langton et al. 1994). Between 1974 and 1981, coastal rivers entering the Northwest Atlantic showed a trend of increasing nitrate loading concurrent with decreasing phosphorus loading (Langton et al. 1994). No subsequent information on this trend was available.

5. Nutrients a) Nitrogen-based compounds

Contaminant of concern

Nitrogen-based compounds; nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, total nitrogen

Trends in presence and impacts. including temporal and spatial distribution and concentration

Most nitrogen appears to enter the Gulf of Maine from the ocean (Townsend 1992 in Langton et al. 1994). A mass balance approach to the inputs of nitrogen into the Gulf described by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggests that sources from the open ocean are larger than anthropogenic inputs (Pait 1994). Nitrogen inputs entering via the Northeast Channel and Scotian Shelf have been estimated at 2 million metric tonslyear (Schlitz and Cohen 1984 in Langton et al. 1994) compared to terrestrial and atmospheric inputs (both natural and anthropogenic) of approximately 0.1 to 0.2 million MTIyear. In this ecosystem-wide analysis, the magnitude of human sources via rivers and atmospheric deposition is quite small when compared to natural sources of new nitrogen from offshore (Langton et al. 1994).

As noted above, most nutrient problems exist in estuarine and coastal embayments, where nutrients originating from non-point and point sources throughout the watershed first enter the


marine environment. However, quantitative relationships between nutrient loadings and degradation of estuarine ecosystems are poorly understood @ow and Braasch 1996).

Summary of physical and hydrological characteristics, nitrogen discharges, and predicted nutrient concentration status for estuarine systems bordering the Gulf of Maine

Englishman Bay 900 76 16 8 0 12 150 0.014L

Nanaguagus Bay 400 7 0 9 63 17 104 0.016L

Blue Hill Bay 800 115 13 24 1 28 154 0.016L

Penobscot Bay 9400 361 161 725 5 8 7808 0.102M

Muscongus Bay 300 72 6 85 6 7 5 6 0.013L

Sheepscot Bay 10100 103 176 118 66 8745 0.077L

Casco Bay 1200 164 2 1 191 172 1412 0.086L

Saco Bay 1800 17 36 15 7 1 1257 0.057L

Great Bay 1000 15 2 0 5 243 636 0.098L

Memmack River 5000 6 8 4 2 423 10,111 1.021H

Massachusetts Bay 1200 364 2 9 786 2228 7995 0.216M

Boston Bay 700 6 9 18 5 0 2789 N/A N/A

Cape Cod Bay 800 548 18 1178 3 92 377 0.026L

Data sources: NOAA Strategic Assessment Branch: NOAAtEPA Team on Near Coastal Waters (in Gottholrn and Turgeon 1992)

Concentration status: L= low; M =medium; H = high,

Estuarine

System


Passamaquoddy Bay 3200 157 62 315 11 293 0.008L

Water

S d .

Area

(mi2)

Total

Drain.

Area

(mi2)

The most obvious impact from increased levels of nitrogen is eutrophication in embayments and nearshore coastal waters. This condition often results in algal blooms. The increased amounts of algae can produce mats which smother submerged aquatic vegetation and the habitat it provides, can decrease light levels reaching submerged aquatic vegetation and reduce dissolved oxygen levels

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 53 - Harsley & Witten, Inc. 17 April 1998 F i Draft

Average

Daily

freshw.

inflow

(10' cfs)

Volume

(lo9&)

1980

Pop.

Density

(#/mi2)

Total

Nitrogen

Disch.

(tonlyr)

Nitrog.

Conc. &

Status

( m g )

as it decomposes. All of these can have significant impacts on habitat for fish and shellfish-and the latter can lead to fish kills. Chronic impacts can lead to changes in speciation and diversity.

Algal mats or algae washed up on the shore and fish kills resulting from oxygen depletion can have significant impacts on recreation and tourism economies.

Eutrophication has not been noted in the open waters of the Gulf of Maine nor have hypoxic conditions been noted in offshore bottom waters of the Gulf (Langton et al. 1994), primarily due to dilution, mixing and flushing. Eutrophic conditions occur in nearshore waters, and particularly embayments, because focused inputs of nitrogen are coupled with warm waters, which speed chemical actions and biological activities, and poor flushing.

However, it has been speculated that the addition of nitrogen into the central portion of the Gulf may be altering the composition of the phytoplankton community, in some cases giving rise to blooms of noxious algal blooms (Smayda 1991 in Langton et al. 1994). Of particular concern are:

recurring blooms of Alexandrium famarense in the western Gulf of Maine,

discovery of toxins having the potential of causing Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) in bivalve mollusks on Georges Bank, presumably from the toxic phytoplankter A. famarense,

blooms of the ichthyotoxic dinoflagellate Gyrodrnium aureolum and several "red tide" species as well as

extensive blooms of Emiliania hwley.


Nutrients can produce vast changes to the ecosystem of marine waterbodies. The typical initial - ~ -

response is a shift from submerged aquatic vegetation such as eelgrass to a predominance of algae and phytoplankton. As eelgrass beds offer important habitat to a range of marine invertebrates and fish, Their loss can be critical. If algal mats form on the bottom, the habitat is further degraded.

Changes in phytoplankton populations and species can also lead to changes in community and ecosystem make-up as well as disrupt trophic level energy dynamics.

In extreme situations, the decomposition of algae can lead to lowered dissolved oxygen levels and fish kills.


Economic impacts can be expected from loss of shellfish or juvenile stages of commercially important fish. We were not able to locate specific data on this issue for the Gulf of Maine

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 54 - Horsley & Winen, Inc. 17 April 1998 F i Draft

Losses in tourism and recreation is possible as algae overpopulate an area or water clarity declines, but we were unable to find information of this possibility within the Gulf of Maine.


We were unable to locate any information regarding cultural impacts from increased levels on nutrients in the Gulf of Maine.

Information base


Nutrients from land-based activities flow into the Gulf of Maine from both point and non-point sources. Most wastewater treatment plants discharging into the Gulf of Maine are not equipped for nutrient removal. Agricultural activities and suburban landscaping use of manure and fertilizers lead to discharge through groundwater or run-off from storm events or snow melt.

Atmospheric deposition of biologically available nitrogen has been estimated to represent a potentially significant (2s30percent) contribution to estuarine and coastal nutrient budgets (Langton et al. 1994). This source to the world's oceans has increased by 5-fold over pre- industrialized times, largely due to emissions from increased biomass burning and energy utilization (Prosper0 et al. 1996 in Krahforst 1997).

Nitrogenous wastes from aquaculture operations are also a growing concern. Most aquaculture operations are located in the more northern reaches of the Gulf of Maine, off the coast of Maine and in the Bay of Fundy, and consist primarily of salmon and shellfish farming. Pen culture of finfish is of particular concern because of its potential for localized inputs of nutrients ;a the foms of fecal wastes and uneaten feed. While coastal water quality and habitats can be affected by aquaculture, a review of Maine waters suggests that it has not been shown to cause irreversible or unacceptable adverse impact to water quality or habitats there (Sowles and Churchill 1997).


There have been attempts to quantify the nitrogen inputs to the Gulf of Maine. Point source loads estimate that the.Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWR.4) wastewater treatment plant, located in Massachusetts Bay, is contributing the largest anthropogenic load of nitrogen-26,707 million pounds (12.1 metric tons) of nitrogen annually into the Gulf (Pait 1994).

Schlitz and Cohen (1984 in Langton et al. 1994) estimated the relative loadings to be 97.39 percent from offshore sources, 0.9 percent from river discharge and 1.89 percent from rainfall. An estimate by Loder and Becker (1989 in Langton et al. 1994) suggested that the contribution from


rivers has been underestimated by a factor of 2-3. The relative importance of human sources of nutrients will be greater in estuarine and nearshore coastal areas (Langton et al. 1994).


Nitrogen from land-based, anthropogenic sources reaches the Gulf of Maine environment through a wide range of mechanisms, including atmospheric deposition, groundwater inputs, riverine systems carrying loadings from stormwater and point sources from industrial and wastewater treatment facilities, and direct discharges to Gulf waters from wastewater treatment facilities.


Better estimates for atmospheric deposition, both wet and dry forms, are necessary to refine anthropogenic inputs. Nonpoint source data are generally lacking for the Gulf of Maine as a whole. It is not clear whether Schlia and Cohen (1984 in Langton et al. 1994) or Loder and Becker (1989 in Langton et al. 1994) incorporated point source data in their assessments. An important aspect in predicting impacts from nutrients is the flushing rates of semi-enclosed embayments and estuaries. This information is generally lacking.


5. Nutrients b) Phosphorus

Of the nutrients, phosphorus is generally considered of lesser concern than nitrogen-based compounds. Consequently, we have not prepared an extended discussion here.


Summary of physical and hydrological characteristics, phosphorus discharges, and predicted nutrient concentration status for estuarine systems bordering

the Gulf of Maine

Estuarine

System

Passamaquoddy Bay

Total

Drain.

Area

(mi2)

3200

Water

Surf

Area

(mi2)

157

Average

Daily

freshw.

62 3 15 1 1

Total Phos.

Englishman Bay 900 7 6 16 8 0 12 22 0.002L

N-%uagus Bay 400 7 0 9 63 17 1 1 0.002L

Blue Hill Bay 800 115 13 24 1 2 8 35 0.004L

Penobscot Bay 9400 361 161 725 58 771 0.10M

Muscongus Bay 300 72 6 85 67 16 0.004L

Sheepscot Bay 10100 103 176 118 66 64 1 0.006L

Casco Bay 1200 164 2 1 191 172 465 0.028M

Saco Bay 1800 17 36 15 7 1 193 0.009L

Great Bay 1000 15 2 0 5 243 203 0.031M

Memmack River 5000 6 84 2 423 1625 0.164H

Massachusetts Bay 1200 364 2 9 786 2228 4091 O.llOH

Boston Bay 700 69 18 50 2789 N/A N/A

Cape Cod Bay 800 548 18 1178 392 187 0.013M

Data sources: NOAA Strategic Assessment Branch: NOAAEPA Team on Near Coastal Waters (in Gonholm and Turgeon 1992)

Concentration status: L= low; M = medium; H = high.

Contaminants Scoping Paper - 57 - Honley & W i t t e ~ Inc. 17 April 1998 Final Draft

chromium

copper

lead

mercury

tin

5 jurisdiction hot spots

5 jurisdiction

5 jurisdict, offshore

5 jurisdict, offshore, some hot

spots 5

jurisdict

phosph.

general decline as sources

eliminated

' c

C'

unclear,

general decline as sources

eliminated

inshore, estuarine, developed

areas nearshore, estuarine

toxic neurolog,

liver toxic

neurolog, liver toxic

neurolog, liver toxic

neurolog, liver

toxic neurolog,

liver

increasing

appears increasing

direct effect on species direct

effect on species direct

effect on species direct

effect on species

direct effect on species

indirect effect on habitat

'C

loss of fishery

loss of fishery

loss of fishery

loss of fishery

loss of fishery

limited loss of

recreation

6 6

lifestyle changes

lifestyle changes

lifestyle changes

lifestyle changes

lifestyle changes

3

3

atmospher deposition needs to be

defined

High

Medium to low

Medium to Low

Medium to Low

Medium to Low

High

Medium to Low

established scientific

data

"


data established scientific

data established scientific

data


data


data

General Comments

a Very little is known about additive or synergistic effects of contaminants

The nonpoint source data base is weak

Relatively incomplete data sets Gulf-wide

Pathogens-Bacteria:

Noted in both Canada and US but generally a localized issue

Generally decreasing problem as WWTPs improve, some notable exceptions (e.g. Saint John)

CSOs a continuing problem in major urban areas as is stormwater runoff; leads to seasonal/rainfall-related trends in some areas

Isolated areas of septic system failures, particularly in rocky areas where emuent runs through fissures

Agricultural runoff an issue in some areas due to manure spreading

a Better testing, particularly in non-estuarine areas, has led to more shellfish beds closed, does not seem to be more discharge of bacteria

Many areas are closed as administrative precaution due to proximity to WWTP or marinas, rather than due to test results

Once source is eliminated, system cleans quickly.

POPS

When found in sediments, generally near the source. Atmospheric deposition can distribute widely. Many POPS are transported and magnified through the food chain.

a The various species of pesticides, PCBs and dioxinslfurans act differently in both transportation and impacts.

There seems to be a general trend to improvement, probably due to bans on manufacture and use, but hot spots remain in sediments, and some atmospheric deposition from distant sources.

sampling design varies in various jurisdictions

Metals

Generally below public health thresholds

Levels tend to be lower in the Bay of Fundy than in more urbanized areas to the south

Tend to decline in availability as sources eliminated and are covered in sediments; can be resuspended in dredging or other perturbations

Atmospheric deposition remains potential, but undefined source

Nonpoint source data weak

Sediment sampling not consistent throughout Gulf

Gulfwatch data only 5 years old; difficulty finding conclusive trends

PAHs

Sources from fossil fuels, spread by atmospheric deposition, will continue, as will road runoff in urban areas.

Nutrients

direct measurements of nutrients in marine system can be misleading

Horizon issue comments

1 The effectiveness of E. coli as indicator has been questioned

2. There is limited information about viruses in the Gulf of Maine and their impacts, but the potential exists for significant impacts, particularly in colder waters

3 Impacts of nutrients on toxic planktonic forms unclear as are impacts on populations of plankton in central Gulf

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