Impact of disposal of dredged material on sediment quality in the Kaohsiung Ocean Dredged Material Disposal Site, Taiwan

Abstract

Kaohsiung Ocean Dredged Material Disposal Site (KODMDS) that located in the southwest offshore of Taiwan, has been annually disposed about 500,000 ton dredged sediments of Kaohsiung Harbor from 2003 to 2012. Five sediment cores collected from KODMDS and three from nearby reference sites were analyzed to evaluate their sedimentation rates, vertical profiles of heavy metal, and heavy metal pollution indices to assess the impact of dumping harbor dredged sediments into the ocean on the sediment quality in KODMDS. The sedimentation rate of 0.24 cm/y was estimated by the 210Pb method, which means that the effected depth of the top layer of a core of D1 was affected in the period of dumping dredging sediments. The vertical distribution of heavy metals in the sediment cores from KODMDS showed the concentrations of most heavy metals were slightly elevated in the top layers of the sediment cores, which may be affected by the dumping of harbor dredged sediments. According to the analyzed results of the heavy metal pollution indices, the level of heavy metal pollution, the potential eco-toxicity and the potential ecological risk of the sediments in KODMDS exhibited only a slight increase, which indicated that the increase in concentration of heavy metals may potentially pose the insignificant impact on benthos inhabiting the disposal site.