| Agricultural Period (1676-1780) |
|
|
|
| Whaling Period (1750-1900) |
|
- Built wharfs
- New Bedford - Fairhaven Bridge
- Industries
- Cleared more land for building
|
- Altered currents and sedimentation* 1
- Altered currents and sedimentation* 1
- Contaminated sediment in harbor
- Erosion, input sediment and nutrients
|
| Textile Period (1880-1940) |
|
- Built mills on wetlands
- Dramatic population increase led to increased sewage input
- Industries
|
- Loss of habitat and filtering capability
- Increased organic matter, low oxygen concentration, low species diversity, closed shellfish beds* 2, Typhoid fever* 2
- Contaminated sediment in harbor
|
| Post-Textile Period (1940 - 1980) |
|
- Electronics industries
- Other industries
- Hurricane barrier
|
- PCB contamination in harbor* 3,4
- Contaminated sediment in harbor* 5
- Altered circulation patterns6
|
| Environmental Awareness (1970 - present) |
|
- Fairhaven Water Pollution Control Facility – secondary (1969)
- New Bedford Wastewater Treatment Plant – primary treatment (1974)
- Industrial Pretreatment (1987)
- N. Bed. Wastewater Treatment Plant – secondary (1996)
- Long-term plan to reduce effluent from CSOs
- Dredge PCB-contaminated sediment
|
- Cleaner effluent
- Cleaner effluent
- Cleaner effluent
- Cleaner effluent
- Eliminate raw sewage from entering harbor
- Cleaner sediment
|
| 1 Dutton, 1853; 2 Commissioners on Fisheries and Game, 1916; 3 Summerhayes et al., 1977; 4Weaver, 1984; 5 Pruell et al., 1990; 6 Abdelrhman, 2000 |
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