flows over, or rests on, these contaminated muds-or as they are dredged for navigation-pollutants such as DDT, PCBs, and heavy metals are released. These toxins are eaten by swimming or mud-burrowing organnisms that are in turn consumed by fish and their predators, including humans. Deformed birds, contaminated shellfish, cancerous fish, and threats to human health are the result of this toxic food chain.

Although there's no comprehensive inventory, a 1987 EPA study showed that nearly every major U.S. harbor and body of water likely suffers from sediment contamination. In the Great Lakes alone, 41 severely polluted sites have been identified. The news from the saltwater coasts is equally grim: Exposure to underwater sediments is directly responsible for diseased and toxic fish in such places as Washington's Puget Sound, Santa Monica Bay in California, and New Bedford Harbor in Massachusetts.

In such underwater wastelands, sed

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