Ecological Effects of Sewage Discharge in the Marine Environment

Author(s): A. J. O'Sullivan
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, Vol. 177, No.
1048, A Discussion on Biological Effects of Pollution in the Sea (Apr. 13, 1971), pp. 331-351
Published by: The Royal Society
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Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B. 177, 331-351 (1971)
Printed in Great Britain

Ecological effects of sewage discharge

in the marine environment
BY A. J. O'SULLIVAN
Lancashire and Western Sea Fisherie8 Joint Committee, 16, Walton's
Parade, Preston, Lancashire

CONTENTS
PAGE
1. Introduction alnd background to the problem 331
2. Ecological effects of sewage discharge in the marine environment 332
(a) Oxidizable materials 334
(i) Effects on the benthic fauna of sheltered areas 334
(ii) Effects on benthic fauna of the open sea and exposed coasts 336
(iii) General effects on benthic and littoral fauna 338
(iv) Effects on bacteria and plankton 339
(b) Nutrient salts 339
(i) Sources 339
(ii) Effects 340.
(c) Inert suspended solids 343
(d) Bacteria 344
(e) Conservative materials 345
3. General aspects, some problems and a look forward 347
References 349

1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND TO THE PROBLEM

Man has always been faced with the problem of getting rid of the waste he pro-
duces. Our palaeolithic and neolithic ancestors who subsisted on oysters and other
shellfish in small coastal settlements simply threw the waste shells out of their
back doors to form kitchen middens which are now of great interest to the archaeo-
logist. In medieval times sewage and domestic waste was thrown into the streets
where it flowed along open channels. Rats were plentiful and provided food for
predatory birds such as the kite which were then common. In the nineteenth
century, the system of sewers and water carriage evolved which did not produce
many problems while the populations served remained scattered or reasonably
small, but which gave rise to pollution of rivers and streams as the size of towns
grew. The problems produced were mainly inland and terrestrial however; little
of the marine environment was affected apart from estuaries within the boundaries
of or close to large cities such as London.
The problem in inland waters became so serious however that a series of Royal
[ 331 ]

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332 A. J. O'Sullivan (Discussion Meeting)
Commissions was set up in the nineteenth century to report on methods of sewage
treatment. The last of these Commissions, that on Sewage Disposal which reported
during the first fifteen years of this century, may be said to have initiated modern
attitudes to pollution control in inland waters.
The passing of various legislative acts such as the Salmon and Freshwater
Fisheries Act 1923, the Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Act of 1951 and sub-
sequent acts did much to tighten up the control of river pollution in England and
Wales. A very important factor was also the setting up of River Boards in 1948
and their extension to River Authorities (with greater powers) in 1963.
The result of much of this effort was an unmistakable tendency to discharge
waste products into the sea where control is not so rigorous. Both raw sewage from
coastal towns and sludge from inland treatment works were deposited in increasing
amounts leading to ecological changes in the receiving water. Control of pollution
in the freshwater environment is now such that it is economically feasible for some
inland towns (and industries also) to have their wastes transported to the coast for
discharge to the sea by pipeline or tank vessel.
There is as yet in Great Britain very little effective control available to curb
this tendency (in comparison with inland waters). The Salmon and Freshwater
Fisheries Acts give River Authorities some jurisdiction over waters, including
marine waters, containing salmonid fish, but their existence is of little practical
significance in the marine environment as they relate only to direct damage to
salmonid fish.
The statutory powers of Local Sea Fisheries Committees are of greater signifi-
cance in that- they prohibit or regulate the deposit of substances detrimental to sea
fish or sea fishing. Interpretation of this power varies among the eleven sea
fisheries committees around England and Wales, but a number of them take what
could be considered an ecological view and regard substances that affect, say, the
larval biology, incidence of disease, availability of food or habitats to sea fish, to
be detrimental substances. This power of the Local Sea Fisheries Committees is at
present the only legislation under which pollution of the marine environment
outside estuaries and controlled waters can be curbed. Even though the Associa-
tion of Sea Fisheries Committees has drawn up a new form for a general by-law
which takes into account sublethal and other ecological effects such as I have
described above, the legislation suffers from two main disadvantages: (1) control
extends only as far seaward as the limit of territorial waters (3 miles or 4.8 km),
and (2) the by-laws do not apply to the discharge of domestic sewage by local
authorities under their statutory powers.

2. ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF SEWAGE DISCHARGE IN THE

MARINE ENVIRONMENT

The increase in the amount of waste discharged to the marine environment is also
partly the result of the assumption that the sea, with its enormous volume

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 Ecological effects of sewage di8charge 333
compared with that of our freshwater resources, has an almost infinite capacity to
receive and either dilute or oxidize waste materials. Unfortunately this is not the
case; perfect distribution does not occur either in coastal waters or the open sea
and materials may either accumulate or be concentrated by physical or biological
processes in certain types of areas. It is these areas or these particular ecosystems
in which the effects of pollution first became noticeable.
Before going on to consider these effects, however, it may be useful to see what
domestic sewage contains. The different constituents of sewage lead to differing
ecological effects which usually occur in combination but which may be distin-
guished in certain situations. Most sewage being discharged into estuaries and the
sea is untreated and therefore contains large amounts of organic matter. Hynes
(I960) quotes a figure of 0.25 lb (115 g) for the total oxygen demand of the waste
from each individual human per day, and Painter & Viney (I959) give the average
concentration of organic carbon in domestic sewage as 310 parts/106 of which
about 70 %is in suspension. A survey carried out last year in the Lancashire and
Western Sea Fisheries District which extends from Haverigg Point just north of
Millom on the northwest coast of England to Cemmaes Head near Newquay in
Cardigan Bay in Wales, showed that 55 %by volume of the sewage is discharged
untreated to the sea. Only nine out of the sixty-one authorities circularized gave
full treatment, and twenty-one gave partial treatment.
In addition to organic matter, sewage contains nutrient salts, mainly phosphate
and nitrate derived from partial mineralization of the organic material and from
detergents in which phosphates are used as suspension and dispersion agents
(Ward I96I). Run-off from smallholdings, gardens and allotments in urban areas
also finds its way into the sewerage system and contributes both phosphate and
nitrate. Silt and other inert; suspended solids also enter the sewage from road and
surface drainage, and although a proportion of this material is settled out if a
treatment plant is part of the system, the remainder will enter the marine
environment.
Both dead and living bacteria constitute a high proportion of human faeces; the
former contribute to the amount of organic matter present, the latter is a pollutant
with far-reaching effects on fisheries and other uses of marine waters.
The passing of the Drainage of Trade Premises Act in 1937 which gave industry
the right, under certain conditions, to discharge effluents into sewers, has meant
that most town sewage now contains industrial waste. Oxidizable organic matter,
nutrient salts and inert suspended solids are present in many industrial effluents
and add to the amounts of these substances occurring in domestic waste. In
addition, however, industrial effluents accepted into public sewers may contain
conservative materials which are either non-biodegradable or are broken down
only very slowly, such as heavy metals, some organic chemicals, pesticides and
synthetic detergents. These latter materials are readily bio-accumulated, both by
certain animals and in particular food chains, giving rise to lethal concentrations
in top carnivores including sea birds and fish.

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334 A. J. O'Sullivan (Discussion Meeting)
Effects of sewage discharges will therefore be considered under the following
headings:
(a) Oxidizable materials (organic matter)
(b) Nutrient salts
(c) Inert suspended solids (silt)
(d) Bacteria
(e) Conservative materials

(a) Oxidizable materials

Pollution by organic matter is not a simple problem, as it includes effects due to
oxidizable materials, nutrients derived from their breakdown, and a significant
amount of suspended solids. In most cases, and in our present state of knowledge,
we can only partially disentangle the effects of these various factors from one
another.
Oxidizable materials discharged to the marine environment consist mainly of
biodegradable organic materials, together with small amounts of inorganic re-
ducing agents. The immediate effect of both of these types of substance is to reduce
the amount of oxygen present in the water; the former by providing an energy
source for micro-organisms which use oxygen to respire, the latter by simple
chemical action.

(i) E:ffectson the benthic fauna of sheltered areas

Reish (I960) found that the effect of the discharge of domestic waste into Los
Angeles and Long Beach harbours was to reduce the diversity of the benthic fauna
and to encourage the presence of the polychaete Capitella capitata. Similar results
associating C. capitata with the presence of organic wastes had been reported by
Filice (I954) in San Francisco Bay and by Kitamori & Kobe (I959) in Japanese
bays. Reish's findings, regarding both the diversity of benthic fauna and the associa-
tion of C. capitata with polluted conditions, have since been confirmed by a number
of other workers.
Tulkki (I968), in his study of the effect of pollution by town sewage on the
benthos off Gothenburg, found a tendency for the areas of greatest faunal diversity
to move away from the polluted zone. At a station within the city, thirteen marine
euryhaline species occurred in 1922. In 1938 only two polychaetes, Eteone lonya
and Nereis diversicolor, were found; and in 1965 only two oligochaetes were found
at the same locality. 2.8 km down the fiord, fourteen marine benthic species and
three littoral forms were found in 1912, while in 1922 a total of only nine species
occurred. Further down the fiord, but still just within the polluted harbour area,
it was found that the number of benthic species had increased during the present
century. There were two species present in 1922, eleven in 1938, twenty in 1946
and twenty-seven in 1965. Among the species which appeared were Mya arenaria,
Cardium lamarcki, Corophium volutator and Paramphiascopsis longirostris (Har-
pacticoida). Capitella capitata was present in large numbers after 1922. It is

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 Ecological effects of sewaqgedischarge 335
interesting to note that an increase in macro-faunal diversity has also been recently
reported from a slightly polluted zone in Morecambe Bay, a large sandy intertidal
area on the northwest coast of England.
S. Anderson (personal communication) reported that close to the towns of
Grange-over-Sands and Morecambe, an increase in diversity was found which
could be probably correlated with enrichment by sewage. Absolute correlation
was uncertain owing to the fact that the number of species present was greatly
influenced by the proportion of small particles present in the substrate, and it was
found that both these fine materials and the organic matter from sewage tended to
accumulate in the same depositing areas. Fine materials in natural deposits lead
to higher concentrations of bacteria (Zobell 1938), and furthermore are richer than
the coarse sediments in organic carbon and nitrogen (Newell I965), making it
difficult to isolate effects due to pollution alone.
Both Mya arenaria anid Corophium volutator have been considered tolerant
species and are mentioned by Hynes (I960), but he was unable to distinguish
effects due to pollution from those due to salinity changes or differences in sub-
stratum in the light of the information available at that time. Fraser (1932), how-
ever, lists Iya arenaria as occurring in substrata of both stones and thick mud
in a polluted area of the Mersey Estuary.
Leppakoski (I968) recorded similar effects in his study of pollution in the
Gullmarsfjord on the west coast of Sweden. Pollution in this area is by both
municipal sewage and sulphite pulp mill waste. The latter waste contains both
inorganic reducing agents and wood fibres which are only slowly degraded but
have a very high oxygen demand (Paul I952). Leppakoski found that the benthic
fauna had totally disappeared outside the mouth of the river on which the pulp
mill was situated, and that the boundary region between this area and the un-
polluted part of the fiord was populated by Capitella capitata to a density of over
5000 individuals per square metre. Since 1932, the maximum density of the benthic
fauna has moved 2 km away from the pollution source, and the area of maximum
diversity has moved about 1.2 km in the same direction.
Effects of wood pulp alone have been examined by Pearson (I968) in Loch
Linnhe, Scotland. He found that over a period of 2 years the biomass of the macro-
benthic fauna increased by about 85 %,and that the greater part of the increase
was accounted for by an increase in the numbers of the two dominant molluscs
Myrtea spinifera and Thyasira flexuosa (both Eulamellibranchia).
Another species of polychaete also associated with pollution is the spionid
Polydora ciliata. It has been observed in great numbers in the harbour of Bergen
by Nair (I962), in Ostend by Persoone & de Pauw (I968), and within the harbour
area of Gothenburg (up to a density of 7250 individuals per square metre) by
Tulkki (I968). Occurring in the same area in large numbers was a second spionid
species Scolelepis fuliginosa.
This association of both Polydora ciliata and Scolelepis fuliginosa with polluted
situations was also noted by Smyth (I968) in the Firth of Forth. Here, on a shore

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336 A. J. O'Sullivan (Discussion Meeting)
polluted by domestic sewage and gas works effluent, Polydora ciliata formed dense
mats on low-level rocks; and in the close vicinity, Scolelepis fuliginosa occurred in
high densities in the mud. Another mat-forming polychaete Fabricia sabella was
common on rocks higher up on the shore. F. sabella was also found to thrive in a
polluted part of Ostend harbour by Persoone & de Pauw (I968).
Those authors also examined the meiofauna in the same area of Ostend harbour
and found that harpacticid copepods were very abundant, occurring in densities
of 100 000 to 150 000 per square metre. The dominant species was always Nitocra
typica, though Tisbe furcata occurred in large numbers during spring. Nematodes
were exceptionally abundant; the numbers per cubic centimetre of mud were
between 1000 and 2000, with a maximum of 7000. They found that the ciliates
were the most important group, however, 55 species occurring in the Polydora
ciliata mat (Aufwuchs). It is interesting to note here that J. R. Date (personal
communication) has found, in his study of polluted beaches on the North Wirral
coast in Liverpool Bay, that ciliates are less affected by pollution than the metazoa.
Any reduction in diversity which he found could be attributed to a reduction in the
number of metazoan species; the protozoa were similar in both polluted and
unpolluted areas.
When we consider littoral species that are eliminated or discouraged by organic
pollution, there seems less information available. Smyth (I968) thought that the
absence of Pomatoceros triqueter, Patella vulgata and Thais lapillus from the
polluted Granton shore, while they remained common on adjacent shores, was
probably significant. Other animals scarce or absent on the Granton shore but
found regularly nearby included Tealia felina, Pagurus bernhardus, Gibbula cine-
reria, Littorina obtusata, Flustrellidra hispida, Asterias rubens, Dendrodoa grossu-
laria and Botryllus schlosseri.

(ii) Effects on benthic fauna of the open sea and exposed coasts
All the work described so far has taken place in harbours, estuaries or fairly
sheltered coastal waters; much less is known about the effect of marine pollution
on benthic fauna in the open sea, mainly it appears because there are very few
open sea situations where the waste discharge is so great as to bring about pro-
nounced effects. Turner, Ebert & Given (I966), in their description of the area
around the end of a 2134 m long outfall off California, reported that the number
of species encrusting the last 30 m of the outfall pipe was limited. Species present
in number included the colonial anemone Corynactis californica, the polychaete
Dodecaceria fewkesi, the rock scallop Hinnites multirugosus and two species of
gorgonians. In general, the organisms attached to the pipe terminus and back at
least 6 m were abundant numerically, but exhibited markedly little diversity of
species.
Oliff et al. (I967), in their survey of some open sandy beaches and nearshore
submarine sediments off the coast of Natal, found that certain species are sensitive
to enrichment and were responsible for the large increases in density they observed

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 Ecological effects of sewage discharge 337
in polluted areas. On the sandy beaches they suggest that the following species
may be of particular value as indicators of pollution: the oligochaetes Paranais
littoralis and Achaeta spp., the isopod Angeliera phreaticola and the archiannelid
Polygordius madrasensis. They report a clear association between high total
numbers and great variety of species in contrast to what is generally reported in
more sheltered areas.
In the coastal sediments they found that the fauna of polluted areas was up to
ten times as dense as in unpolluted areas, and that there was a greater percentage
of capitellids (especially Capitella capitata which they did not find outside polluted
zones) and harpacticids close to organic outfalls. Abundance of animals was
associated with organic enrichment, absence with toxic pollutants.
A further source of pollution by organic matter in the open sea is the discharge
of sewage sludge, either by a long submarine pipeline or by a specially designed
vessel. Very large amounts are discharged to sea around the coasts of both Britain
and the United States. According to Brown & Smith (I969), nearly'4- million wet
tonnes (equivalent to 200 000 tonnes of dry solids) of sewage sludge were disposed
of by barge to the sea from the Atlantic coast of the United States in 1968. In this
country about 3.8 million wet tonnes are disposed of every year from London,
2- million wet tonnes fromn southeast Lancashire and a similar amount from
Glasgow. These sludges are dumped in the outer Thames Estuary, Liverpool Bay,
and the Firth of Clyde respectively. Very little is known of their effects on the
benthic fauna in the receiving areas, though at present (April 1970) an investiga-
tion is in progress into the effects of sludge dumping in Liverpool Bay.
In the United States, Pearce (I969) in a preliminary report of investigations
into the effects of the dumping of sewage sludge off New York, has found that an
area of between 31 and 47 km2 (12-18 mi2) is almost devoid of animal life with a
very low standing crop of organisms of a few species. The number of human
artefacts in the grab samples has been found to be a useful indicator of the level
of sewage sludge pollution. It is likely, however, that the seriousness of these
effects may be partly due to the presence of toxic materials in the sludge and to the
deposit of trade wastes (particularly acid wastes) in the vicinity.
Effects of the Hyperion outfall which discharges digested and screened sludge
into Santa Monica Bay, California, appear far less drastic. The standing crop of
plankton and the benthic fauna are affected; a reduction in diversity and an in-
crease in absolute numbers was noted around the outfall, while maximum popula-
tions occur at some distance from the outfall (Hume, Gunnerson & Imel I962).
Even less measurable effects were found by Domenowske & Matsuda (I969)
during their observations on the discharge of sewage sludge from a long sea outfall
into Puget Sound, Washington. No measurable sludge deposits appeared around
the outfall, and the benthic fauna in the immediate vicinity appeared normal in
numbers and species.

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338 A. J. O'Sullivan (Discussion Meeting)

(iii) General effects on benthic and littoral fauna

In considering the overall effects of organic pollution on benthic fauna, it may
be useful to use the arrangement suggested by Tulkki (I968) in which he divided
the affected species into three groups:
1. Regressive species which disappeared or retreated from the polluted region.
Among these were Nephthys hombergi, Eteone longa, Pectinaria (as Lagis) koreni,
Diastylis rathkei, and most sponges, echinoderms and ascidians. Halicryptus
spinulosus was one species that completely disappeared. To these could be added
the animals listed above in Smyth (I968).
2. Transgres8ive species, which have spread in the direction of the polluted
regions or which now occur there but were scarce or absent before pollution began.
Tulkki lists the isopods Cyathura carinata and Idotea chelipes and the bivalve
Nucula nitida. In very polluted areas could be added the polychaetes Capitella
capitata, Polydora ciliata, Fabricia sabella together with Nematodes.
3. Indifferent species whose distribution had not changed very much since the
onset of pollution. Examples given are Harmothoi imbricata, Cardium lamarckii,
Mya arenaria and Corbula gibba. Corophium volutator, Eteone longa, Nereis diversi-
color and Mytilus edulis could also be included in this list of tolerant species.
Beyer (I968) and Oliff et al. (I967) propose similar groups of species as indicators
of polluted, semi-polluted and healthy conditions. The latter authors recommend,
in addition, a number of chemical indicators. For example, they suggest that on
a 'normal' beach, the level of the permanganate value will lie between 0 and
0.06 mg/l, Kjeldahl nitrogen between 0 and 100 ,g/l and faunal density between
0 and 300 animals per 20 1. Greater levels indicate organic enrichment. In coastal
sediments they found that permanganate values greater than 1 mg/l, dehydro-
genase activity greater than 1 ,g/l, humic acid levels greater than 1 mg/l and animal
numbers greater than 2000/1 of sediment were indicative of polluted conditions.
A comparison of the groups of possible indicator species suggested by the
authors cited above would seem to show that, while it is not possible to equate
their findings directly to one another, nevertheless a pattern emerges in that a few
groups of invertebrates are commonly found world-wide in polluted areas. The
polychaete families Spionidae and Capitellidae, harpacticid copepods, nematodes
and ciliates are strongly represented in the list of transgressive species. Most of
these species are either detritus feeders (living on bacteria or organic detritus) or
filter feeders (collecting suspended food particles out of the water).
The greater variety of species eliminated by pollution-regressive species-is
probably the result of the replacement of a variety of environmental conditions by
a fairly similar range of systems dominated by the presence of organic matter.
Where mild pollution increased the faunal density, as, for example, in Morecambe
Bay and in the G6ta Estuary near Gothenburg, this could have been due to the
formation of small areas affected by pollution resulting in a diverse patchwork of
environmental niches (Lackey I96I).

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 Ecological effects of sewage discharge 339

(iv) Effects on bacteriaand plankton

A brief mention of bacteria and plankton may help to provide a concluding
illustration of the effect of organic pollution on the marine environment. Sewage
contains large numbers of bacteria of intestinal and other origin, but in addition
the organic matter it contains will have an effect upon the bacteria in the receiving
water. Persoone & de Pauw (I968) determined the number of estuarine bacteria,
i.e. bacteria able to grow on a medium prepared with seawater, in different parts
of the polluted Ostend harbour. Highest numbers (up to 830 000/ml) were found
at the mouth of the sewers, in two polluted canals (about 200 000/ml and 50 000/ml),
and on a beach close to the harbour mouth over which the ebb tide from the
harbour passes (100 000/ml). One kilometre further, the number of bacteria de-
creased to about 8000/ml. For comparison, in the North Sea figures from a few
thousands to 10 000/ml are given by Gunkel (I964).
The effects of sewage pollution on plankton have been noted in the Oslofiord
by Beyer (I968). At the most heavily polluted station, Oslo harbour, exceedingly
high concentrations of polychaete larvae, particularly Polydora ciliata, were found.
An oceanic species, Aglanthe digitale (Trachymedusae), showed a steady increase
up the fiord from about 30 individuals per 100 m3 of water at Drobak approxi-
mately 20 km from Oslo, to about 1600 per 100 m3 in the innermost basin of the
fiord which is heavily polluted. Rathkea octopunctata showed a similar trend. On
the other hand, Sagitta elegans, S. setosa and Calanus finmarchicus were much less
abundant in the inner polluted areas.

(i) Sources (b) Nutrient salts

Sewage currently discharged to estuaries or the sea is either untreated or else
treated to remove only settleable solids in the majority of cases. Even where full
biological treatment is given, such treatment merely oxidizes the organic matter
and does little to remove nitrates or phosphates from the effluent. Removal of
nitrogen compounds, in the form of suspended solids containing organic nitrogen,
is much affected by the method of disposal of the sludge. Where the sludge is
removed from the effluent and disposed of, for example, on land, the amount of
nitrogen discharged is considerably reduced; but where the sludge is treated
anaerobically, nitrogen salts are released and returned to the sewage treatment
plant (recycling process) to pass eventually into the receiving water.
Phosphorus removal is also incomplete even during full treatment; figures of
54 and 77 % being given by Hurwitz, Beudoin & Walters (I965) for two plants
receiving both sewage and industrial wastes, and only 37 % removal at a plant
treating domestic sewage alone.
According to a preliminary report of the American Water Works Association
(Task Group 2610-P I967) the phosphorus content of domestic waste varies from
about 0.68 to 1.8 kg per person per year and the nitrogen content from
about 3.6 to 5.4 kg per person per year. Based on removal during treatment of

22 Vol. i77. B.

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340 A. J. O'Sullivan (Discussion Meeting)
about 30 % for each of these constituents, the report estimates that the quantities
discharged to rivers, streams and groundwaters of the U.S.A. are about 90 000 to
250 000 tonnes/year of phosphorus and 500 000 to 725 000 tonnes/year of nitrogen.
Comparable figures for this country, estimated by Painter & Viney (I959), give
the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen contributed per person per day as 2 g and
9 g, equivalent to 0.79 kg per person per year and 3.55 kg per person per year
respectively. Hynes (I960) calculated that each day the population of Great
Britain wastes approximately 500 tonnes of saline nitrogen and 30 tonnes of
phosphate phosphorus in sewage effluents alone. In the Lancashire and Western
Sea Fisheries District, the coastline of which is 700 km long, last year's survey
estimated the amount of nutrients entering the sea from local authority sewers as
10 068 kg/day of nitrogen and 2240 kg/day of phosphorus in winter and 15 188 kg/
day of nitrogen and 3375 kg/day of phosphorus in summer. These figures do not
include trade wastes nor the amount of pollutants entering the sea from the dis-
charges of rivers.
The chief sources of nitrates and phosphates are shown in table 1, taken from
the report of Task Group 2610-P (I967). While man contributes most of the
phosphate in sewage, the complex sodium polyphosphates present in synthetic
detergents have been found to contribute about 21 % in this country. Man also
contributes most of the nitrogen, though stormwater has been shown to contain
up to 10 mg/l, representing 11 % of the nitrogen in crude sewage from the same
area (Graham I968).
TABLE 1. ESTIMATES OF NUTRIENT CONTRIBUTIONS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES TO
SURFACE WATER IN THE U.S.A.
From Report of Task Group 2610-P.
nitrogen phosphorus
source 106 kg/year 106 kg/year
domestic waste 500-735 91-230
industrial waste 454 insuffic. data
rural run-off agricultural land 680-6800 54-540
non-agricultural land 180-860 68-340
farm animal waste 454 insuffic. data
urban run-off 55-550 5-77
rainfall (contributed directly to 14-270 1-4
water surface)
(ii) Effects
Most, if not all eventually, of these nutrients will pass to estuaries and the sea
where they may bring about eutrophication similar to that caused when they are
discharged to lakes.
Eutrophication of lakes and rivers by sewage and land run-off has been
the subject of much concern in recent years, but much less is known concerning
the details of the essentially similar effects that occur in saline water. Graham
(I968) lists four marine areas where recorded oases of eutrophication have occurred.
They are Boston Harbour and the Potomac Estuary in the United States, Belfast

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 Ecological effects of sewage discharge 341
Lough and a number of Norwegian fiords in Europe. Oslofiord in particular
has been seriously polluted by sewage effluent to the extent that fisheries have
declined and shellfish have accumulated toxins as a result of dinoflagellate blooms
(Braarud I945; Ruud I968).
In most cases the effect of nutrients is altered by the effects of accompanying
organic matter and suspended solids, but in general fertility is increased leading
to greater primary and secondary production. Copeland (I967) found that the rate

1965

4JA,

1964

12 -

0 0.01 0.1 1.0 10

sewage concentration (%)
FiGuRE 1. Photosynthetic rate as affected by various percentages of sewage in a marine
micro-ecosystem (using a simulated community in a constant-environment chamnber).
The vertical lines indicate the range in photosynthetic rate. The curve is drawn through
the mean photosynthesis at each sewage concentration measured. (From Copeland i1967.-)

of photosynthesis increased with an increase in sewage concentration. Community

respiration increased at a similar rate, showing that the rate of turnover of
nutrients and organic matter had speeded up (figure 1).
Eutrophication is normally thought of as a positive factor in nature, yet it gives
rise to a number of undesirable effects which we term secondary pollution. As in
22-2

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342 A. J. O'Sullivan (Discussion Meeting)
the case of lakes which have become more eutrophic, 'desirable' species inhabiting
nutrient-lean water are replaced by 'less desirable' species having a preferencefor
nutrient-rich water. In ecological terms, the species adapted for concentrating
their input needs in dilute or oligotrophic systems (such as fish or actively
swimming plankton) are no longer at an advantage and become replaced by
populations of bacteria and phytoplankton previously limited by a lack of chemical
energy sources and nutrients.
In the marine environment, nitrates and phosphates are generally present only
in limiting quantities, and so any increase in their concentrationwill produce an
increase in phytoplankton growth. Directly, 1 mg of phosphorusleads to the pro-
duction of about 75 mg of organic material. This organic material can then either
sink to the bottom, be ingested by herbivores or, alternatively, as in the case of
certain plankton blooms, be subject to sudden mass mortality. In any case it is
eventually oxidized and, according to Stumm (I962), for the complete oxidation
of organic matter containing one atom of phosphorusat least 150 molecules of 02
are needed. This oxygen is equivalent to that set free initially by photosynthesis;
nevertheless the oxygen demand of the decomposing algal protoplasm may be
exerted either in deeperwater layers or over a much shorterperiod of time, thereby
bringing about effects similar to those caused by the addition of organic matter.
Among the phytoplankton groups whose proliferationhas been associated with
high nutrient concentrationsare flagellates, diatoms and Cyanophyceae.Excessive
growth or 'blooms' of these organisms can be either directly toxic to fish or they
can cause fish-kills by their decay and subsequent deoxygenation of the water.
A further type of pollution occurs when masses of the planktonic material drift
ashoreto decay on the beaches-a phenomenonthat takes place several times each
year on the coasts of North Wales and Lancashire, and has also been recordedon
the coast of Florida. One of the species responsiblefor blooms and beach-pollution
in the Eastern Irish Sea is Phaeocyst8s,and accordingto Jones & Haq (I963) there
is evidence that an essential growth factor for this organism is provided by
pollution or run-off from terrestrial sources. Noctiluca scintillans has been also
found to bloom in the area; in 1967 a bloom of it off MorecambeBay was found to
contain 1.4 million individuals per litre of water (O'Sullivan I967). According to
T. J. Hart (personalcommunication)this was equivalentto 20% of the volume of the
sample being occupied by Noctiluca and probably indicated concentration by
wind and other factors, and senescence of the bloom.
The toxic properties of dinoflagellateblooms can also be the cause of ecological
effects of considerable importance. According to Korringa (I968) dinoflagellates
are the cause of conditions detrimental to the settling of oyster larvae in the
Oosterschelde.In this country, Croft (I965) reported a local but severe irritation
of littoral and sublittoral marine animals, which, from his description, was the
result of a dinoflagellate bloom.
Several species of toxin-producing dinoflagellates can be filtered by mussels or
other shellfish which, if eaten, cause gastrointestinal disorders or paralytic shell-

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 Ecological effects of sewage discharge 343
fish poisoning in man. Korringa (I968) lists several occurrences of such poisoning,
and points out that in nearly all cases it has been connected with eutrophic
conditions.
The fairly recent (May--June 1968) outbreak of paralytic shellfish poisoning
which occurred in northeast England as a result of a bloom of dinoflagellates could
very well have had its primary cause in the excessive amounts of pollutants
present in the area. There is no direct evidence for this, except perhaps of a purely
associative sort in that most such blooms appear to be confined to inshore estuaries
close to major polluting sources. According to Clark (I968), the reason for these
occasional dinoflagellate population explosions are not fully understood, but
depend on the existence of rich supplies of inorganic nutrients.
Eutrophic effects on attached algae are less common, though Sawyer (I965)
describes a problem in Boston harbour as a result of excess growth of Ulva lactuca
which he ascribes to nutrients derived from domestic waste. In Chesapeake Bay
U. lactuca also appeared to be excessively prevalent in areas receiving domestic
waste, and caused secondary pollution due to its becoming detached from the
substrate and concentrated by wind and tide. The resulting decomposition pro-
ducts caused the water to become opaque and creamy in colour, and oxygen to fall
as low as 4.1 parts/106. The hydrogen sulphide liberated during decomposition
caused local complaints, and mortality of fish was also reported (Hanks I966).

(c) Inert suspendedsolids

Pollution by inert sewage-derived solids can also give rise to undesirable effects,
particularly in estuaries and nearshore coastal waters. Very little work appears to
have been done on this aspect of waste disposal ecology compared with the amount
done on the diffusion and dispersion of the soluble portions of the waste. The
behaviour of the suspended solids can be quite different from that of dissolved
material such as nutrients, or bio-degradable material such as organic matter. In
the case of dissolved material, water movements cause a net transport from
regions of high concentration to regions of low concentration, generally resulting
in dilution and transport away from estuaries and coastal zones. In the case of
suspended matter the reverse often occurs, and the material may be trapped and
accumulated in the nearshore environment. For fine-grained material the minimum
current velocity needed to pick it up (erosion or scour velocity) is considerably
greater than the minimum velocity necessary to keep it in suspension (critical
deposition velocity). This factor, acting in conjunction with estuarine circulation,
sets up a sediment trap in which water is able to flow seaward, but particles
heavier than water are retained and deposited as mud banks (Postma I967).
Other factors contributing to the accumulation and deposition of particulate
matter are salinity changes (which cause flocculation of clay-like and other particles
when the material passes from fresh into salt water) and the presence of organic
matter. Sewage-derived organic matter can be an important factor which en-
courages the settling, not only of inorganic solids in suspension in the sewage, but

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344 A. J. O'Sullivan (Discussion Meeting)
also of other naturally occurring silt fractions, as O'Connor & Croft (I967) have
shown in the case of the River Mersey.
The biological effects of inert suspended solids in sewage wastes cannot be dis-
entangled from the effects of accompanying organic matter and nutrients. It is
only from a consideration of the effects of industrial wastes and from theoretical
and laboratory work that such effects can be isolated.
The two principal effects are: (i) the smothering of benthic animals including
filter and detritus feeders, and (ii) the absorption of light and reduction of photo-
synthesis by phytoplankton.
In general, benthic animals are tolerant of a wide range of silty conditions,
especially those animals living in estuaries. Nevertheless, any change in the rate
of silt deposition, or in its composition, e.g. the replacement of coarse by fine
deposits, may have considerable ecological effects. Simpson (I969) reported some
preliminary results showing that the effect of china clay wastes off the coast of
Cornwall was to reduce the bottom fauna in the vicinity of the discharge, but that
over most of the area the fauna tended to be richer in species eaten by commercial
fish than the adjacent natural coarse sand.
Absorption of light and reduction of photosynthetic activity is fairly severe,
even when small amounts of suspended solids are present. However, since sewage-
derived solids are accompanied by nutrients which speed up production, both
effects usually cancel out. It has been suggested that some silt should be added to
nutrient-rich wastes in order to slow-down or prevent the formation of phyto-
plankton blooms.
Experimental and geochemical evidence also shows that a large variety of dis-
solved organic substances may be absorbed by clay minerals which form part of
the suspended solids present in sewage (Postma I967). Dissolved inorganic materials
such as trace metals are also accumulated in clay minerals as well as in iron
hydroxides, dead organic material and living plankton. Therefore many kinds of
toxic and other substances carried down into the sea may be caught by suspended
matter. In some instances these processes can reduce the toxicity of the wastes;
in others the danger is increased because the suspended material, together with its
absorbed toxins, may be ingested and concentrated by filter-feeding animals which
form part of a food chain leading to fish and man.

(d) Bacteria
The effect of bacteria present in sewage must be distinguished carefully from the
effects of sewage on bacteria naturally occurring in the marine environment which
were briefly mentioned in ? 2 (a).
Domestic sewage is a potential hazard to human health as it always contains a
certain amount of faecal material which includes pathogenic bacteria, viruses and
resistant stages of parasites. The amount of pollution is normally measured by
counting the number of Escherichia coli present in the water. Coliforms in them-
selves are not a danger but serve to indicate the likelihood of disease-causing

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 Ecological effects of sewage discharge 345
bacteria and viruses being present. Numbers of coliforms in the receiving water
can rise to very high levels but are subject to severe mortality as a result of a
number of factors such as sunlight and the presence of phytoplankton (see, for
example, Gameson & Saxon I967; Pike, Gameson & Gould I970).
Persoone & de Pauw (I968) estimated the number of coliforms in the polluted
water of Ostend harbour and found numbers ranging from 40 000/ml at the mouth
of the sewer, 24 000/ml and 1250/ml in the canals, to 26/ml on the beach close to
the harbour mouth. One kilometre further away the number decreased to 8/ml.
Direct contamination of bathers by sewage-derived pathogens is a subject with
an extensive literature which it is not proposed to deal with here. Nevertheless, it
appears that the risks to human health are not very great unless one bathes in
fairly heavily polluted waters (Medical Research Council I959).
Contamination through eating shellfish presents a much greater hazard how-
ever. Many commonly eaten shellfish such as mussels, oysters and cockles are filter
feeders and they ingest and accumulate material including pathogens from sewage.
Mussels in particular are very likely to accumulate sewage-derived bacteria, as they
are relatively insensitive to low salinity and mild pollution. Thus where other shell-
fish disappear from the polluted area, mussels thrive in large numbers and may
either form the basis of a commercial fishery or be collected in quantities by private
individuals to supplement their normal diet. Severe outbreaks of typhoid and
other fevers have occurred through eating uncooked contaminated shellfish, and
as a result of this, sanitary controls have been established.
There is again a very large literature on this subject, dealing mainly with the
cleansing of polluted shellfish. Only one aspect will be dealt with briefly here, how-
ever, and that is the effect of such controls on the fishing industry and on its
economics. No one denies the right of a public health official to place a Closing or
Regulating Order on a contaminated shellfish bed in order to protect the public.
In the Lancashire and Western Sea Fisheries District alone, fourteen closing orders
or shellfish regulations apply. All of the shellfish beds close to the populated areas
from the Duddon Estuary to the Menai Straits are subject to orders either of
complete prohibition or subject to cleansing or sterilization.
It does seem anomalous, however, that the fishing industry should have to bear
these extra costs and losses of what were once flourishing shellfish beds. If we look
upon our seas and coastal waters as a natural resource, it does not seem right for
cities, towns and in some cases industries to be able to destroy part of that resource
as far as one section of the population is concerned. There are sound humanitarian
and ecological arguments for the view that the authority responsible for pollution
of the shellfish beds should undertake the cost of remedial measures, e.g. cleansing
arrangements for the shellfish, or else should discharge its sewage in such a way
that no further pollution is caused.

(e) Conservative materials

These are substances which are either non-biodegradable or break down only very

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346 A. J. O'Sullivan (Discussion Meeting)
slowly with consequent risks of accumulation in some parts of the marine eco-
system. They may also become concentrated by various means to reach lethal or
toxic levels in some marine animals or in man. They will be touched upon only very
briefly as they do not come directly from pure domestic sewage but from the
incorporation into it of trade wastes.
Conservative materials include heavy metals, organic chemicals, pesticides and
their derivatives, and synthetic detergents. The number of non-biodegradable
materials, particularly in the field of biocides, polymers and chlorinated cyclic
carbon compounds, is steadily increasing. While polymers may be more or less
inert, accumulation can still occur. On the other hand, biocides and chlorinated
cyclic carbon compounds can be toxic at very low levels of concentration and, as
the recent extensive literature shows, can become concentrated in marine animals.
The recent deaths of seabirds in the Irish Sea, with which high levels of poly-
chlorinated biphenyls have been connected, though not identified as the cause, is
an example of the way in which a substance previously unknown in the environ-
ment, suddenly appears as a dangerous pollutant. Yet PCB-type peaks were
detected several years ago (Holmes, Simmons & Tatton I967; Holden & Marsden
I967) and the toxicity of PCB has also been known for some time (Holmes et al.
I967).
Synthetic detergents can now be made biodegradable and less toxic, but pesti-
cides are toxic at very low levels. Manwell & Baker (I967) cite a paper by Grosch
in which it is reported that Artemia salina, which can withstand considerable
changes in salinity or temperature, is killed by DDT at the fantastically low level
of 1 part DDT in 100 000 000 000 (1011L) parts of salt water.
Where waste is given biological treatment a safety factor can come into opera-
tion. Toxic materials going through the filter beds will wipe out many of the
animals present resulting in an immediate drop in effluent quality which will warn
those in charge of the works that something is amiss. Steps can then be taken to
track down the source of the toxin. Where sewage is discharged untreated, as it
generally is to the sea, no such prior warning is available, and our first realization
that something is wrong comes when physiological effects begin to be noticed in
marine organisms or unusual levels of a previously unrecorded substance begin to
be detected in their tissues.
Thus certain trade wastes can adversely affect the whole spectrum of the
sewage disposal process, from biological treatment to the ultimate ends of the food
web which begins in the receiving water. I would not deny that there are sound
reasons for treating trade wastes along with domestic sewage; economies of scale
become apparent, and the domestic sewage supplies nutrients which help in the
breakdown of what may be otherwise very intractable waste. However, there may
now be a strong case for ensuring that bio-accumulative or toxic conservative
materials do not enter the normal waste disposal stream, i.e. that they are re-
moved by preliminary treatment close to their source of origin in the industrial
process.

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 Ecological effects qf sewage discharge 347

3. GENERAL ASPECTS, SOME PROBLEMS AND A LOOK FORWARD

In the preceding sections we have seen how different aspects of waste disposal
in the marine environment are the causes of different effects and problems. Two
concepts in ecology may help to unify the manysided picture presented and to
indicate ways in which man may tackle the problems involved. The first concept
is that of the ecosystem of which man is an integral part; the other is that of
energy transfer in which we look at an ecosystem not in terms of a food chain or
even a food web but in terms of a flow of energy and nutrients from producers to
consumers to decomposers and back to producers again. There may be many inter-
mediate links, but one thing is certain-the process is cyclic in terms of necessities
like nutrients. Furthermore, in the case of most systems with which we are
familiar, it is reasonably homeostatic, i.e. it is inherently stable, a property closely
correlated with the number of species or diversity of the system.
The introduction of pollutants reduces the diversity and short-circuits the
energy flow; natural systems and man's systems of waste and nutrient transport
are, whether we like it or not, being linked together (Odum I967). The addition of
organic wastes provides energy in the form of chemical bonds, and the natural
ecosystem adapts from one fuelled by the energy of sunlight to that fuelled by
the oxidation of organic waste. There is an excess of respiration over photosyn-
thesis, and where the amount of waste is large anaerobic decomposition takes place
and the fauna which we consider normal is eliminated.
If nutrients are added, photosynthesis and respiration can increase where these
processes were formerly limited by the mineral cycling of nutrients. Metabolic
rates may also increase tremendously; Odum (I967) quotes the example of
Galveston Bay where the, addition of nutrients has pushed metabolic rates to
greater than 60 g/m2 per day.
Poisons and toxic substiances, together with sudden changes in environmental
parameters such as pH and oxygen levels, deliver a series of shocks to the eco-
system which have the effect of eliminating organisms already under stress and
reducing the diversity. This system tends to favour micro-organisms which may be
pre-adapted to dealing with chemical pollutants. Even if no such pre-adapted
species are available, i.e. if the effluent is new to the environment chemically,
micro-organisms are still favoured because of their biochemical diversity and
because they can mutate and evolve more rapidly to cope with the changing
situation.
Utilization of pollutants by particular ecosystems or parts of them, so that
energy and nutrients are once more channelled into the natural cycle, is what we
term self-purification. Using this natural principle may help us to deal with
pollutants in the marine environment. No one suggests that a marine equivalent
of a sewage filter bed is going to be a pleasant place, but I think that with greater
knowledge of the mechanism and requirements of natural systems, we could get them
to their use adaptive power to metabolize waste while retaining an aesthetically

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348 A. J. O'Sullivan (Discussion Meeting)
pleasing environment. Lenhard (I965) suggests that 100 % degradation of organic
matter may take place if polluted water is allowed to flow over and through
an active stabilized sediment. More recently Lucas (I967) has pointed out that
intertidal sandy beaches act in the same way as a sewage filter bed; that a signifi-
cant quantity of water is filtered through the sand on a falling tide, and that the
organic matter in the water is broken down and nutrients returned to the in-
organic form. Lucas suggests that if it were possible to enclose an area of sandy bay
completely and then to build into the sandy bottom, perhaps one foot down, pipes
which could recirculate the water from beneath the sand back to the surface, we
would have a system whereby organic matter instead of polluting the water and
not being available for harvesting as protein, could perhaps be recycled as nutrients
several times through the water, so that the added stock of nutrient could gradually
be harvested.
As yet we do not know how much load such a system could take, or how it would
affect the rest of the food chain. Recent work by J. R. Date (personal communica-
tion) at the Marine Science Laboratories, Menai Bridge, suggests however that
the purification capacity of a sandy beach may be quite high.
As well as the ecosystem changing or being changed to deal with the sewage, we
may also be able to change the composition of sewage to suit existing or desirable
ecosystems. The introduction of either excessive organic material or inorganic
nutrients can cause pollutional effects, and Stumm (i962) has suggested that if our
wastes contained the same stoichiometric relation between carbon, nitrogen and
phosphorus (106:16: 1) as does living matter, then such effects would be minimized.
He shows that most municipal sewages are nutritionally unbalanced in that they
are deficient in organic carbon and, furthermore, a significant fraction of the
organic carbon in sewage cannot be assimilated. Seen in this way, conventional
sewage treatment which mineralizes substantial amounts of organic substances,
but is not capable of eliminating more than 20 to 50 %of nitrates and phosphates,
would seem to accentuate rather than diminish the problem.
In conclusion, it seems that we have merely progressed from dumping domestic
waste in the streets to putting it in rivers and now to putting it into the sea.
Control of marine pollution and in some ways our understanding of it are now in
about the same state as river pollution was 70 years ago at the time of the Royal
Commission.
As one type of problem is overcome, so a new type develops. The effects of
pollution, obvious in former days and in fresh water, are now, in the marine
environment, often impossible to discern immediately and very difficult to prove.
Tts effects can be widespread and sublethal for a long time, and can suddenly
appear in places that we do not expect, e.g. PCB in seabirds. Nevertheless, we
have greater variety of tools and techniques to enable us to monitor and detect
accumulations or effects of pollutants before damage is caused. These include
serum electrophoresis, histochemical examination of vital organs, measurement of
enzyme activity, e.g. dehydrogenase activity used by Oliff et at. (I967), as well as

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 Ecological effects of sewage dtscharge 349
more quantitative and numerical ways of looking at animal populations, and more
refined and sophisticated chemical techniques. On the subject of animal popula-
tions, most of the work on the effects of pollutants has been based on numerical
presence or absence data. In view of the resilience of some animal populations, as
a result of which exposure to stress in the form of pollution may not change the
size of the standing crop but may change the rate of turnover of individuals in the
population, it may be that in future data will also have to be included on age or
size distribution. Evidence of a change of this type in a population of limpets
(Patella vulgata) exposed to oil pollution is given in the First Annual Report of the
Oil Pollution Research Unit (I969).
With a greater Inowledge of marine ecosystems such effects as the appearance
of PCB in seabirds should not be unexpected. In fact they would not be unexpected
if we used our present-day knowledge in an integrated way, avoiding compart-
mentalization and recognizing the study of pollution as a discipline which cuts
across many others.
The sea will cope with much of the waste we give it, but in the process will
slowly change in certain areas from a system fuelled by the energy of sunlight to
one fuelled by organic matter and populated mainly by microbes. In the end it is
our choice as to which type of system we want.

I should like to thank Dr H. A. Cole for the invitation to prepare and submit
this paper; Cdr N. V. Craven, Superintendent of the Lancashire and Western Sea
Fisheries Joint Committee, for permission to present it; and my wife for a number
of helpful suggestions and comments.

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