Abstract
Concentrations of selected heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, Fe, and Zn), nutrients (NO −3 and NH3), fecal coliform colonies, and other multiple physical–chemical parameters were measured seasonally from 12 locations in an urban New Jersey estuary between 1994 and 2008. Stepwise regression, principal component analysis, and cluster analysis were used to group water quality results and sampling locations, as well as to assess these data’s relationship to sewage treatment effluents and the distance to the mouth of the river. The BOD5, NH3, NO −3 and fecal coliform counts clustered as one group and positively correlated to the distances from treated effluent and the measures of magnitude at the discharge points. Dissolved solids and most metal species scored high along a single principal component axes and were significantly correlated with the proximity to the industrialized area. From these data, one can conclude that the effluent discharge has been a main source of anthropogenic input to the Hackensack River over the past 15 years. Therefore, the greatest improvement to water quality would come from eliminating the few remaining combined sewer overflows and improving the removal of nutrients from treated effluents before they are discharged into the creeks and river.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Joe Grzyb, Edward Konsevick, Yefim Levinsky, and Joseph Sarnoski for the field work and chemical analysis, as well as MERI GIS group for providing the geographical information. The authors also wish to thank Dr. Aridaman Jain of the New Jersey Institute of Technology for providing the statistical analysis for the data. This project was supported by the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission. Part of the statistical work on the manuscript was prepared by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea, funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Grant No. 2010-0009273).
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Shin, J.Y., Artigas, F., Hobble, C. et al. Assessment of anthropogenic influences on surface water quality in urban estuary, northern New Jersey: multivariate approach. Environ Monit Assess 185, 2777–2794 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-012-2748-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-012-2748-0