Popis: |
New London Harbor is a major commercial, recreational, and military port in New England. Infrastructure improvement projects within the harbor have often been driven by the changing draft requirements of military vessels operating out of the US Navy Submarine Base in Groton, Connecticut. Sediments removed as part of deepening projects are transported to the New London Disposal Site (NLDS) in eastern Long Island Sound and deposited on the seafloor. In 1995, the US Navy selected the Groton Submarine Base in the Thames River, Connecticut as the homeport for the new Seawolf class submarines. In order to accommodate these larger vessels, improvement dredging was required within both the federal navigational channel and multiple submarine berths. Pre-dredging characterization of the project sediments detected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and trace metal (Cu, Cr, and Zn) contamination in a portion of the dredging area. |