Blue Crabs: A Biomarker of Persistent Dioxin Contamination in

The Lower Passaic River and Newark Bay Complex

Gary A. Buchanan(1) and Bruce Ruppel(2)

NJ Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Science, Research & Technology,

P.O. Box 409, Trenton, NJ 08625, (609) 984-6070, (609) 292-7340 fax, www.nj.gov/dep/dsr/

(1) gary.buchanan@dep.state.nj.us, (2) bruce.ruppel@dep.state.nj.us,

In 2004, the NJDEP collected blue crabs from various locations including the tidal Passaic River, Hackensack River, Newark Bay complex, and the Raritan Bay to examine levels of contamination in edible tissue.  The production of various herbicides and pesticides at a chemical plant along the Passaic River, Newark, New Jersey resulted in a large mass of 2,3,7,8 tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) being discharged to the sediments of this urban estuarine river.  Production of the pesticides responsible for the TCDD contamination ceased in 1969, yet concentrations persist decades later in the water, sediment, fish, crabs and other biota.  Initial data collected in the mid-1980s resulted in prohibitions on the sale and consumption of fish and crabs in the Passaic River and subsequently a ban on harvest of blue crabs in the entire Newark Bay Complex.  A summary is presented of the most recent data set collected from eleven sites along a gradient from the Passaic River to the Raritan Bay.  TCDD levels in 2004 ranged from non-detect to 12.9 pg/g in muscle of the blue crab, whereas levels on a dioxin toxic equivalent (TEQ) basis using dioxins, furans and dioxin-like PCBs, ranged from 0.03 to14.6 pg/g.  Crab hepatopancreas tissue, an efficient accumulator due to its relatively high lipid content, ranged from non-detect to 394 pg/g TCDD, and 22 to 545 pg/g TEQ.  TEQ values were 11 to 27 times higher at the Lower Passaic River site compared to the mid-Raritan Bay Site.  TCDD accounted for the majority of the TEQ at the Lower Passaic River site for both the muscle and hepatopancreas tissue.  In contrast, PCB coplanars accounted for the majority of the TEQ at the mid-Raritan Bay site for both tissues.  Comparisons to other sites and data will be presented.  For example, the geographical gradient of TCDD concentrations in crab tissue closely followed the average TCDD concentration in suspended sediment analyzed by the New Jersey Toxic Reduction Workplan for NY-NJ Harbor.  The persistent detection and elevated levels of TCDD in Passaic River and the Newark Bay Complex biota indicates continued bioaccumulation of this contaminant in these waters.  These data indicate the continuing need for the harvest ban of crabs from the Passaic River and the Newark Bay Complex. 

This project was funded by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.  For more information on the data and fish/crab advisories see: www.state.nj.us/dep/dsr/njmainfish.htm or www.FishSmartEatSmartNJ.org.