ECOS Researchers Examine Environmental Damage from the World Trade Center Attacks
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ECOS Researchers Examine Environmental Damage from the World Trade Center
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By Anne-Marie Kent and Sarah Oktay
On
September 11, when two terrorist-flown planes leveled New York’s
World Trade Center towers, the result was not only immense loss of life
and tremendous financial cost, but also significant environmental damage.
Debris literally rained down over a 16-block area and found its way
into the nearby Hudson River. Researchers from the Environmental, Coastal,
and Ocean Science (ECOS) Department hope to discover just how much of
it washed off the streets or was deposited atmospherically into the
Hudson River.
By studying the geochemical “fingerprint” left in the Hudson River, ECOS scientists Curtis Olsen and Sarah Oktay, and graduate student Joseph Smith, with the help of Environmental Studies Program Director and ECOS scientist Dan Brabander, hope to better understand the movement of sediments and potential contaminants in the lower Hudson River, as well as the environmental impact of the attack.
On October 12, Oktay, Olsen, Smith, and the small crew of a wooden rowboat supplied by the nonprofit group “Sail the Apple” launched out onto the Hudson River. They rowed along the western side of the estuary near “Ground Zero” to collect sediment cores, which are essentially samples of riverbed mud. The scientists will examine these for evidence of building materials from the Twin Towers, mainly powdered concrete and gypsum board containing high calcium and sulfur concentrations, and also asbestos and trace elements produced by the steel girders.
The ECOS scientists are hoping that their measurements will reveal new geochemical fingerprints useful for investigating short-to-medium-term sediment dynamics and quality in New York Harbor. This data could provide new insight into the way currents deposit hazardous materials in harbors. The information gained also can be used not only to plan the safe removal of any hazardous debris, but also to help environmental planners determine where material will build up in the harbor. The components present in the World Trade Center sediments will remain in the Hudson River sediment for years to come.
The impacts of certain catastrophic events provide signals in the sediment that allow scientists to assign dates to specific sediment layers. For example, the samples taken on the Hudson will reveal not only the impact of the World Trade Center explosions, but also earlier sources of pollution. In the early 1960s, global fallout from nuclear weapons introduced radioactive pollutants into the Hudson River, and in the early 1970s, controlled releases from the Indian Point Nuclear Facility 50 miles upstream introduced other radioisotopes. These occurrences can be used to “date” the core and document historical records of contaminant inputs to New York Harbor.
In addition, researchers will be measuring atmospherically deposited beryllium-7 in rain samples from the roof of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Measurement Laboratory in Manhattan and comparing those values to those in rain collected monthly at UMass Boston. Beryllium-7 is a short-lived radioisotope that enters with rainfall. High levels can indicate the presence of other contaminants and excess sediment deposition. Oktay explains, “The measurement of isotopes through our ecosystem in plant life, the water cycle, and soils can tell us much about the natural movement of chemicals and elements. Other areas that would benefit from this research include nuclear waste disposal and landfill remediation.”
The team is applying lessons learned from other major catastrophes. When Olsen was a research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, he did a similar study documenting the environmental impact of the 1941 Pearl Harbor bombing. “That one bombing event,” Curtis says, “introduced more lead into the harbor water and sediments than the total amount of lead that has been input during the following 50 years by naval operations and sewage disposal.” The research team will return to Hawaii to present a comparison between the Pearl Harbor and World Trade Center study results in February at the Ocean Sciences 2002 meeting.
ECOS Scientists Sarah Oktay, Joseph Smith, and Curtis Olsen joined personnel from “Sail the Big Apple” and John Kada from the Department of Energy’s Environmental Measurement Laboratory to take samples of the Hudson River near the altered New York skyline. Pictured in the foreground: Oktay and Smith. (Photo by Curtis Olsen)