ORIGINAL SOURCE: The Star-Ledger, Thursday, May 8, 2003. Pages 21 & 25.

"The Hudson affects the whole New Jersey coast.
It's been a long time since we've really looked at it."
SCOTT GLENN, OCEANOGRAPHER


                                                                                                        PHOTOS BY ANGELA JIMENENZ/THE STAR-LEDGER
Researchers abroad the Rosemary Miller approach the Verrazano Narrows Bridge yesterday during their first testing cruise.

 

A new sewage flow chart

Rutgers team helping to remap the trek of Hudson River toxins

BY ALEXANDER LANE
STAR-LEDGER STAFF

       

       A team of Rutgers University scientists launched a five-year study yesterday of just how far the sewage -tainted Hudson River crawls down the New Jersey coastline before it merges with the ocean.
       Using robots, satellites, sensors and radars that did not exist when the Hudson's "plume" was last mapped 25 years ago, the scientists will determine where the river's contaminants creep into the food chain.
       "The Hudson affects the whole New Jersey coast," said oceanographer Scott Glenn. "It's been a long time since we've really looked at it."
       The Earth's rotation drives water from the Hudson along the Jersey Shore, and has been found as far south as Cape May. Data gleaned from the $4.2 million study will guide future decisions on whether the coastline can handle any more sewage in the Hudson, which already carries the treated waste of some 20 million people.
        Glenn and other researchers spent yesterday dipping sophisticated sensors off the sun-drenched deck of the 95-foot Rosemary Miller, seeking out that nebulous zone where river becomes ocean.
      By Sandy Hook it was still some of both, with one sensor showing a salt content of 20 practical salinity units at the surface and 25 at depth. Most rivers have close to zero salt, while pure ocean can be defined at starting at 30 PSUs.

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
SOURCE: NASA Terra MODIS Image                                                                                      THE STAR-LEDGER

 

 

       

      Biologists will capture the tiny oceangoing plants and animals that fee on the nitrogen of the Hudson - a byproduct of the sewage treatment plants lining the river - and test them to see where in the river's course they absorb or consume the contaminants, allowing them to enter the food chain.
Ocean optics experts will shoot beams of light into the water and link their readings with the finding of the other scientists, advancing the nascent art of measuring contamination in water by its color in satellite photos.
       "In the end, we'll undoubtedly have the most sophisticated model of what the Hudson River really does as it mixes with the ocean," Chant said.

 

 

 
Bernards High School volunteers Ashley Lund-Pearson, left, and Jeff Wolfman check a water sample from the confluence of the Hudson River and Atlantic Ocean yesterday.

 

        Yesterday's data-gathering expedition was crucial for designing the first of the five planned dye experiments, scheduled to take place starting in May 2004. The dye, a non-toxic liquid called Rhodamine WT, will be injected into the water and then become invisible to the eye. Scientists' sensors will be able to track it for up to 100 miles.
       Few other river plumes in the world have received such attention, with notable exceptions being the Columbia, the Amazon and the Mississippi.
       Then again, few estuaries - places where freshwater and saltwater blend - are as abused as the Hudson River and Atlantic Ocean region. The Hudson absorbs treated sewage from most of New York City's 14 wastewater treatment plants, which churn out 1 billion to 2 billion gallons of treated sewage per day. The plume is mostly inorganic nitrogen, but also carries a long list of heavy metals and chemicals, mostly in trace amounts. 
      Though water from the Newark Bay, the Raritan River and other water bodies joins the Hudson plume, the Hudson itself is the dominant contributor to the coast-hugging column of water, spitting out some 500 cubic meters of water per second. That dwarfs the 50 cubic meters from the Raritan.
      If the tests go as expected, the occasional algae blooms, fish kills and clam-bed contamination that pester the Jersey Shore will cease to be such mysteries.
      Rutgers' Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences is leading the project, which is funded through the National Science Foundation and is called "Lagrangian Transport and Transportation Experiment." Collaborators include researchers from five other universities, including Columbia.
     The 10 year-old Rutgers institute, based in New Brunswick, is among the nation's top 10 ocean-research organizations.

Alexander Lane covers the environment. He can be reached at alane@starledger.com or (732) 634-1236. 

Deckhand Chris Graziano, left, and boast owner Glenn Miller haul equipment used to determine water conductivity back onto the Rosemary Miller during yesterday's research cruise.