Author(s)

J.R. Proni & R.I. McMillen

Abstract

Distinguishing ambient and anthropogenic sediments at sensitive coastal ocean sites J.R. pronil & R.I. McMillen2 I Ocean Chemistry Division, NOAA, USA 2 Jacksonville District, US Army Corps of Engineers, USA Abstract Often during dredging, beach renourishment, or other coastal engineering activities, questions arise as to whether those activities are causing unintended, unexpected, deleterious environmental impacts. A typical question arising during dredged material disposal operations in a coastal zone, is whether any of the discharged dredged material is being transported out of the designated disposal site to a sensitive coastal ocean site of concern. In Florida (USA), and in the Caribbean, a sensitive coastal ocean site of concern is typically a coral reef location. In dredging operations in Ft Pierce Florida, local citizens expressed concern about a "mucklike" substance, observed covering a coral site, and wondered if it originated from the designated dredged-material disposal site, Proni

Keywords