TO EVALUATE THE PATHWAYS AND IMPACTS OF LANDFILL CONTAMINANTS IN THE MARINE FOOD CHAIN DUE TO COASTAL EROSION: LYME BAY LANDFILL

评估海岸侵蚀导致的海洋食物链中垃圾填埋场污染物的传播途径和影响：莱姆湾垃圾填埋场

• 批准号: NE/G00773X/1
• 负责人: Thomas Hutchinson
• 金额: $ 3.18万
• 依托单位: Plymouth Marine Laboratory
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FG00773X%2F1
• 关键词: EVALUATE; PATHWAYS; IMPACTS; LANDFILL; CONTAMINANTS

The UK is a densely populated country with a long history of industrialisation and maritime trade, such that there are numerous waste landfills and chemically contaminated sites (commonly known as 'brownfield sites') around the UK coastline. There is potential for such contaminated sites to be affected by coastal erosion or flooding, depending on the complex interactions between short-term events (eg storm surges) or long-term processes (eg climate change and sea-level rise). Coastal communities also need to reflect on the lessons learned from recent flooding in river valleys, such as in summer 2007 where landfills and other infrastructure were flooded in Gloucestershire and the Severn valley leading to potentially serious public health impacts (Pitt Review 2008). Therefore, the climate change and chemical contaminants issue is highly relevant to the challenge of Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) for the UK, as shown by the new major environmental and health research programme involving NERC, other UK research councils, government agencies and industry. This 10 year multidisciplinary programme aims to provide decision makers and the public with the best information to effectively manage and protect vital ecosystem services (eg food security and public health) across the time and space scales which affect the UK economy. A real-world example of the 'LWEC-contaminants' challenge is currently happening on the Dorset coast, where coastal erosion and landslip activity has recently uncovered a historic landfill which is now falling into the sea within the World Heritage Jurassic Coast. At the present time, the landfill contents are being increasingly exposed due to unusually heavy June - July rainfall, leading to landfill waste (eg fridges and car batteries) falling onto the beach below and chemicals likely entering the waters of Lyme Bay. The affected area is both a nationally-important marine ecosystem and an important shellfishery, hence chemicals from the landfill could pollute the shellfish and shoreline of Lyme Bay and pose a potential risk to public health and local marine life. As the Lyme Bay landfill was used for mixed waste over more than 80 years, likely contaminants will include mixtures of toxic heavy metals, old paint, oil compounds and other organic chemicals. With advice and support for access from the Environment Agency and West Dorset County Council, we are proposing to address pollution pathways and potential affects of chemical mixtures in the marine life of Lyme Bay, especially local shellfish stocks. In these types of situations, it is essential to rapidly assess and mitigate contaminant threats, hence we propose to deploy the RAMP approach (Rapid Assessment of Marine Pollution) to provide a rapid and integrated assessment of the pathways and impacts of chemical mixtures. The overall objective of the research is therefore to rapidly evaluate the initial impacts of heavy metal and organic contaminant uptake into the marine food chain and define potential human and wildlife exposure pathways to a variety of organic and inorganic contaminants coming from landfill waste. Our specific research objectives are to assess: (1) potential exposure of the public to contaminants via the marine food chain (eg shellfish) along the Dorset coastline; (2) exposure of the public and pets to contaminants while on the popular nearby beaches and bathing waters (3) exposure pathways and impacts of contaminants on marine animals (with invertebrates as the priority group). These objectives will be met via cooperative working between Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) and the Marine Biological Association (MBA), addressing organic and heavy metal contaminants, respectively. In addition to the important relevance of this landfill incident in an LWEC context, this proposal is directly relevant to the NERC Strategic Theme on Environment, Pollution and Human Health, with an emphasis on the human - wildlife connection.

英国是一个人口稠密的国家，有着悠久的工业化和海上贸易历史，因此在英国海岸线周围有许多废物填埋场和化学污染场地（通常称为"布朗菲尔德场地"）。受污染的场地有可能受到海岸侵蚀或洪水的影响，这取决于短期事件（如风暴潮）或长期过程（如气候变化和海平面上升）之间的复杂相互作用。沿海社区还需要反思最近河谷洪水的教训，例如2007年夏天格洛斯特郡和塞文河谷的垃圾填埋场和其他基础设施被洪水淹没，导致潜在的严重公共卫生影响（Pitt Review，2008年）。因此，气候变化和化学污染物的问题是高度相关的挑战与环境变化（LWEC）的英国，如新的主要环境和健康研究计划涉及NERC，其他英国研究委员会，政府机构和行业。这个为期10年的多学科计划旨在为决策者和公众提供最佳信息，以有效地管理和保护影响英国经济的时间和空间尺度上的重要生态系统服务（如粮食安全和公共卫生）。"LWEC-污染物"挑战的一个现实例子目前正在多塞特海岸发生，那里的海岸侵蚀和滑坡活动最近发现了一个历史悠久的垃圾填埋场，该填埋场目前正在落入世界遗产侏罗纪海岸的海洋中。目前，由于6月至7月的降雨量异常大，垃圾填埋场的内容物正越来越多地暴露出来，导致垃圾填埋场废物（如冰箱和汽车电池）落到下面的海滩上，化学品可能进入莱姆湾的沃茨。受影响的地区既是国家重要的海洋生态系统，也是重要的贝类渔业，因此填埋场的化学品可能污染莱姆湾的贝类和海岸线，并对公众健康和当地海洋生物构成潜在风险。由于莱姆湾垃圾填埋场被用于混合废物超过80年，可能的污染物将包括有毒重金属，旧油漆，石油化合物和其他有机化学品的混合物。在环境局和西多塞特郡理事会的建议和支持下，我们提议解决污染途径和化学混合物对莱姆湾海洋生物，特别是当地贝类种群的潜在影响。在这些情况下，快速评估和减轻污染物威胁至关重要，因此我们建议部署RAMP方法（海洋污染快速评估），以提供化学混合物的路径和影响的快速和综合评估。因此，研究的总体目标是迅速评估海洋食物链中重金属和有机污染物摄入的初步影响，并确定人类和野生动物接触来自垃圾填埋场废物的各种有机和无机污染物的潜在途径。我们的具体研究目标是评估：（1）公众通过沿着多塞特海岸线的海洋食物链（如贝类）接触污染物的可能性;（2）公众和宠物在附近受欢迎的海滩和游泳沃茨接触污染物的情况;（3）污染物对海洋动物（无脊椎动物为优先群体）的接触途径和影响。这些目标将通过普利茅斯海洋实验室（PML）和海洋生物协会（MBA）之间的合作来实现，分别处理有机和重金属污染物。除了这一垃圾填埋场事件在LWEC背景下的重要相关性外，该提案还与NERC关于环境、污染和人类健康的战略主题直接相关，重点是人类与野生动物的联系。