A mobile pool of contaminated sediment in the Penobscot Estuary, Maine, USA

Abstract

The natural recovery of estuaries from contamination is largely determined by the timescale over which contaminated sediment is exported or buried and replaced by cleaner sediment that enters from the watershed or the ocean. That timescale depends on the size of the “pool” of contaminated sediment that resides in the estuary. The larger the pool, the longer the recovery timescale for a given rate of sediment input. A field study was undertaken as part of a study of mercury contamination in the Penobscot estuary to assess the mechanisms affecting the transport and fate of contaminated sediment. Based on measurements of water properties, currents and sediment transport and seabed samples analyzed for sediment properties and contaminant concentrations, a “mobile pool” of contaminated sediment with relatively uniform geochemical characteristics along a 20-km reach of the estuary was identified. This pool of sediment is mobilized seasonally by resuspension and trapping processes associated with salinity fronts that vary in location with discharge conditions. Sediment is transported down-estuary during high discharge and up-estuary during low discharge, with seasonal, bi-directional transport of sediment in the estuary significantly exceeding the annual input of new sediment from the watershed. This continual, bi-directional transport leads to homogenization of the chemical properties of the mobile sediment, including contaminant concentrations. The large mass of mobile sediment relative to the input of sediment from the watershed helps explain the long recovery timescale of contaminants in the Penobscot estuary.