Side-Scan Sonar Survey of the Massachusetts Bay Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Site

From 1946 until 1970, approximately 4,000 containers of low-level radioactive waste material were disposed of at the "Foul Ground" disposal site located 40 km east of Boston, Massachusetts. In 1980, public and Congressional concern was expressed over the potential public health hazard from these discarded wastes. In September 1981, the Environmental Protection Agency contacted the National Ocean Survey and requested a side-scan sonar survey to be conducted at disposal sites in Massachusetts Bay. The purpose was to identify those areas of the bottom which might contain radioactive waste disposal containers. This survey showed areas of the disposal sites littered with a considerable amount of material. Results of the survey can be applied to designing photographic and benthic sampling activities at the sites.