Assignment -

A new floating aquaculture facility has been proposed in Long Island Sound in deep water directly south of the Connecticut River. This facility will be a moored facility - anchored by a four-legged tubular structure that is fixed to piles that have been installed in the Long Island Sound seabed. Each leg is 7 feet in diameter and the mooring structure will cover a square area of sea bottom approximately 13,225 square feet. Sediments in this area tend to be primarily a mixture of sand and mud with occasional scattered oyster reefs. It is considered overall to be a healthy benthic community with a mixture of deep and shallow bioturbating infauna.

The intent is that this facility will run primarily on solar power. However, it will be pumping 200,000 gallons of Long Island Sound seawater through it on a daily basis. This water will run through the grow-out tanks containing a mixture of shellfish, sea bass, and lobsters and then be returned to the Sound. Fish food and phytoplankton will be grown separately onboard the facility and added to the tanks on a daily basis. The water temperature will need to be kept between 12°C and 18°C year round. The water will flow through a system of PVC and copper pipes before being returned to the Sound via an effluent pipe attached to the mooring.

As it so happens "they" also propose an oil and gas terminal in the vicinity of the aquaculture facility. The exact location is yet unknown. The facility will also be a moored structure (similar to the aquaculture facility) and run on solar power as much as possible. All other aspects have not been thought out yet because it is still in the planning phase although word got out.

1. You need to conduct a risk assessment for the planned structures. What type of risk assessment will you perform? If any contaminants will be released, how will the release etc. likely occur (be as specific as you can for each contaminant)? If no contaminants will be released, explain why.

2. What are the potential effects, if any, of the operations on the flora and fauna within the general vicinity of the facility?

Both facilities will be manned at all times by a crew of fifteen employees who will be divided into three shifts consisting of five people on each shift. A vessel will be used to transport the employees to and from the facility, thus the ship will make three round-trips per day.

3. What additional contaminants, if any, might be introduced by this operation? How might the effects of such contaminants be minimized?

The purpose of the aquaculture facility is to create a large-scale grow-out facility so that the owners can sell the products and supplement their research budget.

4. Will the fish and shellfish being raised on this facility be healthy to eat? Why or why not?

5. The Connecticut Audubon Coastal Society is worried that these facilities might present a hazard to birds and other wildlife in the area. Do they have any valid scientific reasons to be concerned? Why or why not?

The sediment that will be dredged for both structures will need to be dumped. In the proposal the idea is to dump the materials in the abandoned borrow pit at Morris Cove in New Haven Harbor.

6. How does this change the risk assessments? What do you need to account for now?

7. Are there any other alternatives?

Another option is to place these facilities on land close to shore. Any waste water from the facilities would have to be directed to a sewage treatment plant.

8. What other impacts, if any, need to be considered now?

Now you have a good understanding of potential environmental effects of both facilities.

9. If you had to model the impacts on a certain species (land or water), how would you go about that? For instance: what parameters and processes would you include and what type of model approach would you use?

10. What measures can (should) be taken to minimize the environmental impact of the facility?

11. Describe, in detail, a monitoring plan that you would put into place in order to assess whether or not this facility was causing long-term permanent changes to the flora and fauna in the region.

12. What would your recommendation be regarding the building of the facilities?

You are also familiar with the concept of the Tragedy of the Commons and the Prisoner's Dilemma.

13. Explain how both help us understand why pollution issues (like the ones above) are created and then not easily solved.

HINT: Make sure you look up eastern Long Island Sound and the Connecticut River and its industrial history.