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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2011
The objective of the Coal Waste Artificial Reef Program (C-WARP) is to explore the technical feasibility and environmental effects of ocean disposal of stabilized fly ash and flue gas desulfurization scrubber sludge from power plants. This demonstration program has involved the construction of an artificial reef in the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island, New York using 15,000 blocks of these stabilized coal waste materials.
In determinine the environmental acceptability of using stabilized copl waste blocks to build artificial reefs in the ocean, the two key considerations are whether the blocks will maintain their structural integrity, and whether the blocks will be a source of potentially toxic elements to affect the biological community. Analysis of the chemical composition of the blocks and an understanding of the processes occurring in them is necessary to address these questions. Therefore, this paper will focus on changes in chemical composition of blocks (e.g., Ca flux, Mg enrichment, and surface layer elemental concentrations) and compatibility of the blocks in terms of the physical and biological data collected during three years of monitoring.