Habitat Development Field Investigations Windmill Point Marsh Development Site James River, Virginia. Appendix E. Environmental Impacts of Marsh Development with Dredged Material: Metals and Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Compounds in Marsh Soils and Vascular Plant Tissues
Habitat Development Field Investigations Windmill Point Marsh Development Site James River, Virginia. Appendix E. Environmental Impacts of Marsh Development with Dredged Material: Metals and Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Compounds in Marsh Soils and Vascular Plant Tissues

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Published: 1978

Total Pages: 55

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Soil and vascular plant tissue samples were collected in October 1976 from three freshwater marshes located on the James River in Virginia. One marsh known as the Windmill Point marsh development site had been constructed using dredged material during the 1974-75 maintenance dredging of the James River navigation channel. The two other marshes were natural marshes. The marshes studied were similar in their substrate characteristics. All were fine-textured silt and clay with volatile solids values between 10 and 20 percent, and contained about 50 percent water. Elevation and plant community characteristics were similar. Soil samples were collected from the same three elevation zones in each marsh. Arrow arum (Peltandra virginica) seeds, barnyard grass(Echinochloa sp.) seeds, stems and leaves, and roots, and cattail(Typha sp.) stems and leaves and tubers were also collected from each marsh. Soil and tubers were also collected from each marsh. Soil and plant tissue samples were analyzed for the metals nickel, zinc, chromium, lead, and cadmium and the chlorinated hydrocarbon compounds DDT, DDD, DDE, lindane, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide, chlordane, endrine, dieldrin, Kelthane, Kepone, PCBs, and toxaphene. Plant stem and leaf tissue samples were treated before analysis to remove sorbed metal and chlorinated hydrocarbon materials. Marsh soil concentrations of chromium, cadmium, and lead were higher in the dredged material marsh; nickel and zinc concentrations were higher in the natural marsh. Low detectable levels of DDD, chlordane isomers, and Arochlor 1260 (PCB) occurred most frequently in dredged material marsh soils.

Habitat Development Field Investigations. Windmill Point Marsh Development Site, James River, Virginia, Summary Report
Habitat Development Field Investigations. Windmill Point Marsh Development Site, James River, Virginia, Summary Report

Author: John D. Lunz

Publisher:

Published: 1978

Total Pages: 147

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A marsh habitat was developed using fine-textured inorganically and organically enriched sediments dredged from the James River navigation channel in the winter of 1974-75. During the period between the autumn of 1974 and September 1977, engineering and ecological activities were accomplished to document marsh construction operations and environmental alterations that accompanied the marsh habitat development. The hydraulic construction of a relatively inexpensive sand dike on a soft river bottom foundation and the ability of the dike to contain fine-grained hydraulically dredged sediments were demonstrated. Ecological monitoring and experimental studies of plants, soils, sediment and water quality; fish, aquatic invertebrate, and wildlife communities; and metals and chlorinated hydrocarbon compound uptake by marsh plants were also conducted. The ecological studies contrasted preconstruction and postconstruction conditions and compared postconstruction conditions with those of a natural marsh habitat. The freshwater inter-tidal, semi-contained and upland dredged material substrate was nearly completely covered with over 75 types of naturally invaded plants within about 6 months following its construction.

Habitat Development Field Investigations, Windmill Point Marsh Development Site, James River, Virginia. Appendix D. Environmental Impacts of Marsh Development with Dredged Material. Botany, Soils, Aquatic Biology, and Wildlife
Habitat Development Field Investigations, Windmill Point Marsh Development Site, James River, Virginia. Appendix D. Environmental Impacts of Marsh Development with Dredged Material. Botany, Soils, Aquatic Biology, and Wildlife

Author: VIRGINIA INST OF MARINE SCIENCE GLOUCESTER POINT.

Publisher:

Published: 1978

Total Pages: 517

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A marsh island habitat was constructed in the James River between November 1974 and February 1975 from fine-grained dredged material partially contained by a sand dike. The marsh-island contained 4.9 ha of intertidal and low-lying upland substrate within the dike and an intertidal mudflat outside the dike. Benthic invertebrates, fish, wildlife (particularly birds), plants and soil characteristics of the habitat development site were studied from summer 1976 to fall 1977. Between the completion of site construction and the beginning of ecological studies, the island was sprigged and seeded with wetland and upland vegetation. The majority of the planted wetland species were grazed and destroyed by wildlife (particularly Canada geese); most of the upland seeded species were displaced by native plant invasion. The marsh island habitat development was beneficial to the region with respect to biological resources by providing an increase in both food and cover for fish and wildlife relative to the original shallow river bottom. The developed habitat compared favorably with natural reference areas in terms of fish and wildlife resources and productivity. The major threat to the island is severe erosion of its upstream end. Continuous erosion would expose the fine-grained interior of the marsh island to the energies of the mainstream James River.

Habitat Development Field Investigations Windmill Point Marsh Development Site, James River, Virginia. Appendix F. Environmental Impacts of Marsh Development with Dredged Material: Sediment and Water Quality. Volume II. Substrate and Chemical Flux Characteristics of a Dredged Material Marsh
Habitat Development Field Investigations Windmill Point Marsh Development Site, James River, Virginia. Appendix F. Environmental Impacts of Marsh Development with Dredged Material: Sediment and Water Quality. Volume II. Substrate and Chemical Flux Characteristics of a Dredged Material Marsh

Author: Donald D. Adams

Publisher:

Published: 1978

Total Pages: 505

ISBN-13:

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This volume is the second of a two-volume appendix presenting the results of chemical and sedimentological studies conducted at a dredged material marsh development site located near Windmill Point, on the tidal freshwater James River, 16 km below Hopewell, Virginia. Sediment and water quality studies conducted before, during, and shortly following dredged material disposal for marsh site construction are presented in Volume I. This volume presents results of substrate sediment studies conducted at the marsh development site and a natural reference marsh 6, 18, and 24 months after site construction. It also compares the physical and chemical transport characteristics of the two marshes based upon monitoring tidal water quality conditions 18 and 24 months following habitat development. Sediment cores were collected and processed using techniques designed to document horizontal and vertical physical and chemical gradients and allow comparisons between sampling periods. Temperature, pH, redox potential, water and volatile solids content, particle size composition, mineralogy, cation exchange capacity, and interstitial and total concentrations of nutrients, carbon, and metals were studied. Metal associations with organic, easily and moderately reduceable and residual sediment phases were also examined.