United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Off ice of Water
(4305)
EPA-823-N-98-007
Number 22
Fall 1998
&EPA Contaminated
Sediments News
JM3JD2. . .
2 Abyssal Seafloor
Isolation of Contami-
nated Sediments
4 Regional
Activities...
Ottawa River, Ohio
New York/New Jersey
Harbor
7 Participants Wanted
for American
Wetlands Month '99
Q Researchers Use In
Vitro Technique to
Measure Bioavaila-
bility of Sediment
Contaminants
1 O Activities Timeline
•| Q Creature Feature
•^ ^ Announcements
Dredged Material
Management Plan Guidance
1996 Annual Reporton
Regional Monitoring Program
for Trace Substances
CSNews is produced by the EPA
Office of Science and Technology
(OST) to exchange information on
contaminated sedimentsandto
increase communication among
interested parties. To obtain copies
of this report orto contribute
information, contact Jane Marshall
Farris, EPA OST, mail code 4305,
401 M Street S.W., Washington,
DC 204BOat (202) 260-8897.
To be added to the mailing list or
to make changes to your address,
please fax your request to Jane
Marshall Farris at (202) 260-9830.
EPA's Contaminated Sediment
Management Strategy Published
To address the ecological and human
health risks that contaminated sedi-
ment poses in many U.S. water-
sheds, the Agency has published EPA 's
Contaminated Sediment Management
Strategy.
Also available for review, through the Of-
fice of Water Docket (202 260-3027), is
the Response to Public Comments Docu-
ment.
The Strategy is an EPA workplan describ-
ing actions the Agency believes are needed
to bring about consideration and reduction
of risks posed by contaminated sediments.
In it, EPA summarizes its understanding of
the extent and severity of sediment con-
tamination, including uncertainties about
the dimension of the problem and describes
the cross-program policy framework in
which EPA intends to promote consider-
ation and reduction of ecological and hu-
man health risks posed by sediment con-
tamination.
The Strategy establishes four goals:
1) To control sources of sediment con-
tamination and prevent increases in
the volume of contaminated sediment.
2) To reduce the volume of existing (in-
place) contaminated sediment.
3) To ensure that sediment dredging and
dredged material disposal are managed
in an environmentally sound manner.
4) To develop a range of scientifically
sound sediment management tools for
use in pollution prevention, source
control, remediation and dredged mate-
rial management.
EPA 's Contaminated Sediment Manage-
ment Strategy sets forth a plan to accom-
plish a number of key actions.
• Agency programs will use consistent
and scientifically sound sediment as-
sessment methods in their prevention or
remediation processes.
• Agency programs will
use the first National
Sediment Quality Sur-
vey Report to Con-
gress (EPA 823-R-97-
006) and future biennial
updates to target chemi-
cals and watersheds for fur-
ther assessment, pollution preven-
tion, and remediation.
• Where watersheds are clean, EPA will
prevent sediment contamination
through point and nonpoint source con-
trols, promoting best management
practices, and by testing new pesticides
and other chemicals to ensure that they
will not contaminate sediment.
• Where watersheds are being contami-
nated, EPA will take appropriate action
through its point and nonpoint source
control programs to reduce or eliminate
contaminant inputs.
• Where watersheds are already contami-
nated, EPA will develop risk manage-
ment strategies and implement source
controls.
Continued on page 3
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No. 22
Summer 1998
Artist's rendering
of the monitoring
scheme for
contaminated
sediment disposal
in the Hatteras
Abyssal Plain
Study of Abyssal Seaf loor Isolation of
Contaminated Sediments Concluded
Recognizing the rapidly decreasing avail-
ability of disposal sites on land, in 1993
Congress directed the Department of De-
fense to assess the technical and scien-
tific feasibility of isolating contaminated
dredged material on the abyssal seafloor.
The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)
conducted and managed the assessment,
which was funded during its first year by
the Strategic Environmental Research and
Development Program and in the follow-
ing two years by the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency. NRL carried
out the projects in collaboration with par-
ticipants from academic institutions and
industrial organizations.
The seafloor isolation concept is an at-
tractive management option for contami-
nated dredged material because, if abyssal
isolation is feasible and environmentally
sound, air, land, or water supplies would
not be contaminated. The participants
concluded that it is technically and envi-
ronmentally feasible. In ports where ship-
ping costs are high, abyssal seafloor iso-
lation is a cost-competitive strategy. They
also outlined the architecture of a system
to monitor conditions at the site and to
detect and measure possible leaks of con-
taminated m aterial.
Suitable Disposal Site Found
Material should be placed in as few sites
as possible, ideally only one, to minimize
the affected area. This is a major con-
straint. Introducing dredged material,
with its high organic content, into the
abyssal environment can be expected to
alter the local geochemical and biological
conditions for hundreds and possibly
thousands of years.
After extensive analysis of oceano-
graphic, meteorologic, geologic, and eco-
nomic constraints, the project team iden-
tified a suitable area in the Hatteras
Abyssal Plain, about 1,600 km (992 mi.)
south of Boston and 1,100 km (620 mi.)
east of Jacksonville.
MEASURING:
SULPHIDES, Eh,
pH, PORE WATER
PRESSURE
GRADIENT
MEASURING:
OXYGEN, WATER VELOCITY,
WATER TEMPERATURE,
WATER SALINITY,
TRANSMISSIVITY,
NEPHELOMETRY,
HEAVY METALS SELECTIVELY,
ORGANICS SELECTIVELY
MEASURING:
ALL OF MOORED
SENSOR SUFTE
PLUS SEAFLOOR
PHOTOGRAPHY
ROV/AUV
'Y/ ' \ \
~ WASTE APRON _" i^
V PROBE
N."
-------
During its first year, the project deter-
mined that the optimal means of trans-
porting material to the site would be large
bags made of synthetic fabric that holds
400-800 cubic meters of material. Barges
would haul the containers from a dredg-
ing site to the ocean isolation site, where
they would be released to fall freely to the
abyssal seafloor. Container walls and
seams would be strong enough not to tear
during release from the barge and the
subsequent 5,000-meter descent and im-
pact on the abyssal seafloor.
Only one probable pathway for contami-
nants to enter the productive surface eco-
system was identified: the eggs of certain
abyssal fish. However, the quantity of
transport would be negligible.
Monitoring System Designed
In the last year, the project has identified
several types of sensors and platforms
that could be used to monitor the isolation
site for possible leakage. The monitoring
system architecture was formulated (see
the drawing on page 2) to deploy, oper-
ate, maintain, and retrieve data from the
sensor suite. This was challenging due to
the levels of measurement sensitivity and
the stability required in the high pressures
and low temperatures of the abyssal re-
gions.
For More Information
Findings of Years One and Two address-
ing the engineering system and environ-
mental consequences of such a contami-
STRATEGY Continued from page 1
Copies of EPA 's Contaminated Sediment
Management Strategy (document number
EPA-823-R-98-001) are available from:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
National Center for Environmental Publi-
cations and Information
11029 Kenwood Road., Building 5
Cincinnati, Ohio, 45242.
Copies may be ordered by phone at (800)
490-9198; by fax at (513) 489-8695; or
on the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/
ncepihom/orderpub.html. The Strategy
can be viewed or downloaded from the
Office of Science and Technology's home
page, at http://www.epa.gov/ost/cs/.
nated dredged material management con-
cept are available in NRL reports and
conference proceedings; peer-reviewed
papers are in publication. Findings of
Year Three will soon be published in NRL
reports.
For more information, contact Philip Va-
lent of the Naval Research Laboratory at
(228) 688-4650, by fax at (228) 688-
4093, or by e-mail at phil.valent@
nrlssc.navy.mil.
Ordering the Proceedings of the
1996 National Sediment
Bioaccumulation Conference
The proceedings of the National Sediment
Bioaccumulation Conference sponsored by
EPA's Office of Science and Technology
(OST) and Office of Research and Devel-
opment in September 1996 are now avail-
able from EPA. The document number is
EPA-823-R-98-002.
To order a copy, contact:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
National Center for Environmental Publi-
cations and Information
P.O. Box 42419
Cincinnati, OH 45242
Copies may be ordered by phone at (800)
490-9198; by fax at (513) 489-8695; or
on the Internet at www.epa.gov/ncepihom/
orderpub.html.
The document can be viewed or down-
loaded from OST's home page at
www.epa.gov/ost/cs/conftoc.html.
Questions about the proceedings may be
directed to OST at (202) 260-7055.
No. 22
Summer 1998\
CSN
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No. 22
Summer 1998
^y^
EPA Great Lakes National Program Office
Ottawa River, Ohio: Contaminated
Sediment Remediation Project Completed
Concentrations of polychlorinated biphe-
nyls (PCBs) in the sediment of a former
tributary to the Ottawa River in Toledo,
Ohio are less than 10 parts per million
(ppm) following completion of a $5 mil-
lion remediation project in May.
The project was the result of a partner-
ship between the City of Toledo, the Ohio
Environmental Protection Agency
(OEPA), the U.S. Environmental Protec-
tion Agency, and GenCorp, Inc. To help
"jump start" the effort and demonstrate
the effectiveness and efficiency of a part-
nership approach to addressing sediment
contamination, U.S. EPA's Great Lakes
National Program Office awarded a
$500,000 grant to OEPA. An additional
$140,000 came from an OEPA solid
waste settlement with the City of Toledo,
and approximately $4,500,000 came from
GenCorp.
Part of Maumee Area of Concern
The Ottawa River flows into Maumee
A back hoe excavates Bay in Lake Erie's western Basin and is
contaminated sediment part of the Maumee River Area of Con-
"in the dry" behind a cern. The remediated tributary is 975 feet
coffer dam built across iong and 90 feet wide. It is located about
an Ottawa River five miles upstream from Maumee Bay.
tributary.
PCB concentrations in the tributary had
ranged up to 74,000 ppm, and fish found
in the vicinity contained PCBs at concen-
trations over 500 ppm. A consumption
advisory for eating fish taken from any-
where in the Ottawa River, issued by the
Ohio Department of Health, remains in ef-
fect.
The PCBs came from a variety of
sources. The primary source was an in-
dustrial facility bordering the tributary and
formerly owned by GenCorp. The facility
used a heat exchange fluid that contained
PCBs, and some of the PCB fluid entered
the tributary. Several landfills near the
tributary are also suspected sources of
PCBs. Two are being remediated under
the Superfund Accelerated Cleanup
Model.
Assessment and Clean Up
Prior to remediation, a comprehensive as-
sessment and characterization program
delineated the boundaries of the PCB-con-
taminated sediment. Then, several reme-
dial options were investigated.
The chosen option called for a sheet pile
coffer dam to isolate the tributary
hydraulicly from the Ottawa River's main
stem. Once the dam was in place, water
was pumped and treated on site, and
about 8,000 cubic yards of contaminated
sediment were removed. The sediment
was transported to a Michigan landfill li-
censed under the Toxic Substances Con-
trol Act. An estimated 56,000 pounds of
PCBs were removed. The excavation was
conducted "in the dry" to minimize any
potential impacts due to resuspension of
the highly contaminated sediments.
After the project was finished, the tribu-
tary was backfilled with 5 to 10 feet of
clean clay, and a new swale was con-
structed about 100 yards to the west. The
Continued on page 5
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EPA Region 2
Program EvaluatesTechnologies to Treat Contaminated
Sediments from New York/New Jersey Harbor
ing sediments from New York/New Jer-
sey Harbor. As a result, a multicultural
team was formed. It included representa-
tives of government, industry,
academia, and the general public. The
WRDA Program is the responsibility
of EPA Region 2 and the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineer's New York
District. The Department of
Energy's Brookhaven National
Laboratory is the technical project
manager.
The program has progressed
through demonstrations of various
technologies at the bench and pilot
scales and is now moving toward the
construction of commercial-scale facili-
ties. This step-wise procedure has re-
duced the number of participants through
specific selection criteria, including tech-
nical performance, demonstration costs,
public-private cost sharing, beneficial re-
use of treated material, and corporate
evaluations of the business potential for
sediment decontamination.
Federal funding available under WRDA
provides assistance to the commercializa-
tion process, but the private sector will
provide the capital needed for facility
construction and operation. The program
participants believe this type of coopera-
tive approach will be useful in the New
York and New Jersey region—and may
have features of interest to other U.S.
ports that must dispose of contaminated
sediments.
Dumping Options Dwindle
Stricter regulations have reduced the
amount of dredged material considered
suitable for dumping in the coastal Atlan-
tic Ocean, thus creating an operational
crisis for the New York/New Jersey Har-
bor. On September 29, 1997, EPA de-
designated and terminated the dredged
material ocean disposal site and simulta-
neously designed the Historic Area
Remediation Site (HARS). The HARS can
receive only dredged material suitable for
Continued on page 6
No. 22
Summer 1998\
CSN
More than 400 million cubic yards of
sediments are dredged from U.S. water-
ways each year, and close to 60 million
cubic yards are disposed of in the ocean.
The need to protect the environment from
the undesirable effects of sediment dredg-
ing and disposal is gaining increased at-
tention from the public and government
agencies.
The handling of contaminated sediments
in the Port of New York/New Jersey ex-
emplifies this problem. Each year, be-
tween 4 million and 7 million cubic yards
of sediment must be dredged there to per-
mit safe navigation and commerce. That
sediment contains contaminants that are
among the highest concentrations in the
country. Heavy metals, chlorinated pesti-
cides, polynuclear aromatic hydrocar-
bons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and di-
oxins/furan are the major contaminants of
concern. Several contaminants detected
in the sediments and in fish and shellfish
have resulted in fishing advisories.
A Team Approach
The Water Resources Development Act
(WRDA) of 1992 (section 405 C) and
1996 (section 226) mandated a demon-
stration of the feasibility of decontaminat-
Ottawa River continued from page 4
former tributary was graded and reseeded
with a native wetlands seed mix.
The remediation will have positive short-
and long-term impacts on the Ottawa
River, Maumee Bay, and Lake Erie. The
cleanup has removed a major source of
PCB contamination in the Ottawa River,
and a significant source of contamination
to Maumee Bay and Lake Erie.
Fish and sediments in the Ottawa River
will continue to be evaluated to monitor
the reduction of exposure as a result of
these remedial efforts.
For More Information
Additional information on this project is
available from Marc Tuchman, Sediment
Team Leader, Great Lakes National Pro-
gram Office, at (312) 353-1369 (e-mail:
tuchman.marc@epamail.epa.gov).
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No. 22
Summer 1998
SEDIMENT TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES EVALUATED Continued from page 5
use as "Material for Remediation," de-
fined as "uncontaminated dredged mate-
rial (i.e., dredged material that meets cur-
rent Category I standards and will not
cause significant undesirable effects, in-
cluding those caused by bioaccumu-
lation)."
Current proposed solutions to the port's
dredged material disposal problem in-
clude:
• Continued unrestricted ocean disposal
of uncontaminated material to the
HARS.
• The use of confined disposal facilities
(both upland facilities and contain-
ment islands).
• Subaqueous borrow pits.
• Processing/treatment of contaminated
materials.
A complete solution to the dredging prob-
lem will likely include a combination of
many, or all, of these alternatives.
Decontamination is one component of the
overall dredged material management
strategy. It can reduce the magnitude of
the contamination, and may provide a
treated product that can be sold for reuse,
thus simplifying disposal and possibly re-
ducing the overall cost of treatment.
Seeking Economic Alternatives
Goals of the WRDA Program include
demonstrating sediment decontamination
technologies and creating a treatment
train capable of annually processing as
much as 500,000 cubic yards of contami-
nated sediment. This treatment train in-
cludes sediment assessment (3-D sedi-
ment visualization), dredging, materials
handling, decontamination and beneficial
reuse of the post-treated material.
Bench- and pilot-scale tests of various
technologies were completed in Decem-
ber 1996. The technologies included ther-
mal destruction and desorption processes,
stabilization/solidification, sediment wash-
ing, advanced chemical treatments, sol-
vent extraction methods, and manufac-
tured soil production. The development of
an overall conceptual plan for implement-
ing a large-scale facility is underway.
Various contaminants are present at a
wide range of concentrations in material
dredged from the New York/New Jersey
Harbor. This fact necessitated the devel-
opment of several types of decontamina-
tion technologies to provide comprehen-
sive treatment. In each case, the
processed materials have beneficial uses
and can be sold to offset a portion of the
decontamination costs.
In 1998, the WRDA Program is focusing
on a system of low- to high-temperature
technologies that can accommodate a
range of sediment contamination. These
approaches include a sediment washing
method developed by BioGenesis Enter-
prises, Inc., a high-temperature process
developed by the Institute of Gas Tech-
nology (IGT) to destroy organic com-
pounds and bind metals into a
cementitious matrix, and a Westinghouse
plasma-arc vitrification process. Work
also is being done on manufactured soil
production; the U.S. Army Corp of Engi-
neers Waterways Experiment Station is
using untreated sediment for that pur-
pose, and BioGenesis is looking at using
treated sediment from the harbor.
Beneficial Uses
The material dredged from the New
York/New Jersey Harbor consists mainly
of fine-grained silt and clay, and is unsuit-
able for use as structural fill directly after
treatment. Because treatment destroys
naturally occurring organic material as
well as organic contaminants, the treated
material typically is not a useful growth
substrate. However, the treated material
can be mixed with other material to make
a variety of useful products, including
potting soil, top soil, and daily landfill
cover. It also can be used in wetlands and
habitat restoration, and in the restoration
or filling of underwater areas.
The blended cement produced by the IGT
high-temperature Cement Lock™ Tech-
nology exceeds the American Society for
Testing and Materials requirements for
Portland cement. It can be used in con-
crete for general construction applica-
tions.
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Anticipated Commercial Operation
The large-scale treatment facilities that
will meet the WRDA treatment goal are
expected to become operational in 12 to
30 months. But before they begin operat-
ing, they must obtain state and local per-
mits. The permit process for sediment
washing should be relatively straightfor-
ward, since there are no gaseous
sidestreams, and contaminants found in a
liquid side stream can be removed by
standard water processing techniques.
The high-temperature process, however,
will require comprehensive air permits.
Environmentally safe decontamination
technologies also must be economically
viable. Currently, dredged material is sta-
bilized with fly ash and used for con-
struction material and cover at several lo-
cations in New Jersey. The total cost of
dredging, stabilization, and disposal
ranges from $40 to $50 per cubic yard.
Current disposal costs in the Newark Bay
confined disposal facility are about $35
per cubic yard.
WRDA Program managers are confident
that costs of sediment washing and ce-
ment production will be competitive—at
or below $35 per cubic yard—when full-
scale operation is underway.
For More Information
More information is available from Eric
A. Stern of EPA Region 2, 290 Broad-
way, New York, NY 10007-1866. His
phone number is (212) 637-3806, and his
e-mail address is stern.eric@epamail.epa.
gov.
Editor's Note: This article is based on the
paper "Maintaining Access to America's
Intermodal Ports/Technologies for Decon-
tamination of Dredged Sediment: New
York/New Jersey Harbor," by Eric A Stern,
EPA Region 2; Keith W. Jones, Brookhaven
National Laboratory; Kerwin Donato, U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers - New York
District; John D. Pauling, P.E., and John
G. Sontag, Jr., P.E., Roy F. Weston, Inc.;
Nicholas L. Clesceri, Rensselaer Poly-
technic Institute;
Michael C.
Mensinger,
ENDESCO
Services, Inc.;
and Charles L.
Wilde, BioGenesis
Enterprises, Inc.
Participants Wanted for
American Wetlands Month '99
Problem-solving workshops on such is-
sues as how to work with developers,
school projects, and other local and na-
tional wetlands concerns will dominate
next spring's American Wetlands Month
Conferences.
"Talking heads are out, sharing experi-
ences and ideas are in. The American
Wetlands Month Conferences give par-
ticipants a chance to learn how local part-
nerships between businesses and environ-
mentalists can spawn innovative solutions
that are a win-win for communities and
the environment," says Chris Novak, ex-
ecutive director of the Terrene Institute,
which is sponsoring the conferences.
Conference Locations
Conferences will be held in four "Com-
munities Working for Wetlands" from
coast to coast next year.
The first conference will be held in New
Orleans, Louisiana on February 18-20.
The second will be in San Francisco, Cali-
fornia on March 18-20, and the third in
Indianapolis, Indiana on April 8-10. The
fourth and final conference will kick off
American Wetlands Month when it is held
in Andover, Massachusetts on May 6-8.
Hands-on, Interactive Activities
Conference participants will actually
"Work for Wetlands" on the Saturday of
each conference, helping local groups
with wetland projects. Optional field trips
and workshops—A Wetlands Primer,
Working with Corporate Partners, Land-
scaping Wetlands—will precede the con-
ferences. The final reception will recog-
nize local community leaders and groups
active in wetlands conservation.
For More Information
AWM '99 Communities Working for Wet-
lands is cosponsored by federal agen-
cies, private corporations, and groups.
More information is available from
the Terrene Institute, 4 Herbert
Street, Alexandria, VA 22305; (703)
548-5473; fax on demand (800) 813-
1925; www.terrene, org;
terrinst(S)aol. com.
No. 22
Summer 1998\
CSN
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No. 22
Summer 1998
Figure 1. Proportion of sediment-
associated benzo[a]pyrene extractable
by digestive fluid q/'Arenicola
brasiliensis. Each of the six sediments
tested is denoted by a two-letter
designation.
UC Berkeley Researchers Use In Vitro
Technique to Measure Bioavailability of
Sediment-Associated Contaminants
SS AR RR CO BB
Sediment
Researchers at the University of Califor-
nia at Berkeley are using in vitro digestive
fluid extraction to measure sediment-
bound contaminant bioavailability. The
original description of the technique
(Mayer et al., 1997) and further develop-
ment (Weston and Mayer, 1998a; 1998b)
have shown the approach provides a
measure of the bioavailability of sediment
contaminants in a wide variety of risk as-
sessment scenarios and can be used to
study the basic mechanisms of how or-
ganisms accumulate contaminants from
sediments.
When a deposit-feeding organism ingests
sediment, the chemistry of the gut envi-
ronment determines if the associated con-
taminants can be desorbed from the par-
ticles and are available for dietary
absorption. The researchers mimic this
process in vitro, by incubating the sedi-
ments of concern in digestive fluid and
expressing bioavailability as the percent-
age of contaminant solubilized in those
fluids.
The approach presumes that the contami-
nant extractable by digestive fluid is im-
plicitly a far better indicator of the
bioavailable fraction than that extractable
by the strong acids or exotic organic sol-
vents typically used in a chemical
analysis. Chemical extraction
methods are generally designed to
recover the total, rather than the
bioavailable, contaminant. Some
proposed selective extractions
(for example, a weak acid extrac-
tion for trace metals) purport to
quantify the bioavail-able fraction,
but none have been generally ac-
cepted or broadly adopted. The
digestive fluid technique is essen-
tially a chemical extraction, but
with a biologically relevant ex-
tractant.
Biological methods such as toxic-
ity or bioaccumulation testing are
currently used widely to measure
bioavailability, yet interpretation
of the results can be confounded by fac-
tors unrelated to bioavailability. For ex-
ample, toxicity can also be a function of
the organism's prior acclimation or adap-
tation. Bioaccumulation as a measure of
bioavailability is confounded by behaviors
affecting exposure (such as feeding and
respiration rates) as well as metabolism of
the contaminant of interest.
Results
Because of its large size and the amount
of digestive fluid that can be recovered,
the polychaete Arenicola brasiliensis has
been a source of digestive fluid for most
of the UC Berkeley researchers' work.
They have used this fluid to extract sedi-
ments from throughout California con-
taminated with polycyclic aromatic hy-
drocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs), or trace metals. Their
results have included the following obser-
vations:
• Gut fluid pH of a wide variety of in-
vertebrates is near neutral. That
raises questions about the biological
relevance of the strong acid extrac-
tions used in traditional chemical
analyses for metals.
• Much of the contaminant extractable
by traditional chemical means is not
extractable in digestive fluid. When
six California sediments were spiked
with PAHs, only 12 to 50 percent of
the PAHs were solubilized in an in
vitro digestive fluid extraction (Figure
1). Thus, any assessment based on
total PAHs would have overestimated
the risk posed by these sediments by
a factor of two to eight.
• In vitro contaminant extraction is
similar to that obtained in vivo. Al-
lowing intact A. brasiliensis to feed
on contaminated sediments and then
analyzing the PAH content of their
gut fluids produced very similar re-
sults to dissecting digestive fluid
from unexposed A. brasiliensis and
doing the extractions in vitro.
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• Digestive fluid extraction gives re-
sults similar to other traditional
bioavaila-bility measures using whole
animal exposures.
• The extractability of PAH in digestive
fluid is highly dependent upon the or-
ganic carbon content of the sediment.
Organic carbon is widely recognized
as an important determinant of bio-
availability, so it is encouraging that
its influence is apparent in in vitro ex-
tractions as well.
• Extraction efficiency is concentration
dependent. The more contaminated a
sediment is, the greater the propor-
tion of contaminant that is
bioavailable. This result is not unex-
pected, but it has never been tested
by other bioavailability studies.
• Extending the researchers' work to
include species representing several
phyla clearly shows that bioavaila-
bility is a concept that depends upon
the exposed species (Figure 2). The
digestive fluid of some species is ca-
pable of extracting an order-of-mag-
nitude more contaminant from in-
gested sediment than is the fluid from
other species.
• The approach can be used to test the
effect of sediment holding time or
conditions (such as freezing) on the
bioavailability of sediment-bound
contaminants. For example, when a
sediment was spiked with PAHs and
immediately extracted by digestive
fluid, 70 percent of the PAHs was
solubilized. Holding the sediment for
three weeks cut the extractable pro-
portion to 35 percent. Sediment aging
has been shown to decrease
bioavailability in a number of other
bioaccumulation and microbial degra-
dation studies as well.
Potential Applications
The in vitro digestive fluid extraction
technique provides an intuitively attractive
method to quantify contaminant bioavail-
ability to aquatic organisms. It has obvi-
ous utility in any application where quan-
tification of the bioavailable, rather than
total, contaminant is desirable and when
ingestion of contaminated sediments is a
potential route of contaminant
bioaccumu-lation. The approach has the
ecological relevance of biologically based
methods to measure bioavailability, such
as bioaccumulation testing, but without
some of the complications such as me-
tabolism of the compound of in-
terest.
Since the technique does not re-
quire exposure of whole animals,
sediments can be evaluated even
when conditions are unsuitable
for long-term animal exposure
(for example, anaerobic condi-
tions or hypersaline environ-
ments). The approach holds great
promise in studying the funda-
mental mechanisms of bioaccu-
mulation, in establishing the ef-
fect of laboratory manipulations
of sediment on bioavailability, and
in ecological risk assessment of
contaminated aquatic sediments.
For More Information
For more information, contact
Donald Weston, University of
California, 1301 S. 46th St., Bldg.
112, Richmond, CA 94804; (510)
231-5626; dweston@
uclink4 .berkeley. edu
Literature Cited
Mayer, L.M., Z. Chen, R.H.
Findlay, J. Fang, S. Sampson,
R.F.L. Self, P.A. Jumars, C.
Quetel and O.F.X. Donard.
1996. Bioavailability of sedi-
mentary contaminants subject to de-
posit-feeder digestion. Environ. Sci.
Technol. 30:2641-2645.
Weston, D.P. and L.M. Mayer. 1998a. In
vitro digestive fluid extraction as a
measure of the bioavailability of sedi-
ment-associated polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons: sources of variation and
implications for partitioning models.
Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 17:820-829.
Weston, D.P. and L.M. Mayer. 1998b.
Comparison of in vitro digestive fluid
extraction and traditional in vivo ap-
proaches as measures of polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbon bioavailability
from sediments. Environ. Toxicol.
Chem. 17:830-840.
No. 22
Summer 1998\
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Figure 2. Proportion of zinc and
benzo[a]pyrene extractable from a
single sediment using the digestive
fluids of five invertebrate species. A
sea-water extraction is shown for
comparison.
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No. 22
Summer 1998
CSN Activitio
3 I'imolino
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jQ I
(reatur« like me form IMhaped burrowi in
tttuaritt, wit manhei, and other shallow
environment* where the water \\ quiet and
the floor ii joft Oo you know what I am?
November 15-19, 1998
Annual Conference on Water Resources,
sponsored by the American Water Re-
sources Association, in Point Clear, AL,
POC: 703-904-1225
November 15-19, 1998
19th Annual Meeting of Society of
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
(SETAC), theme: The Natural Connection:
Environmental Integrity and Human
Health, in Charlotte, NC. POC:
setac@setac.org http://www.setac.org
November 16, 1998
Stakeholders Forum of the Great Lakes
Binational Toxics Strategy, sponsored by
USEPA and Environment Canada, in
Chicago, IL. POC: bnsstake@ross-
assoc.com
November 16-18, 1998
National Pollution Prevention Roundtable
Meeting, in Hot Springs, AR. POC:
michelerusso@compuserve.com
November 16-18, 1998
Brownfields '98, sponsored by USEPA et
al., in Los Angeles, CA. POC: 877-838-
7220
November 17-18, 1998
Fall Meeting of Aquatic
Nuisance Species Task Force,
U.S. Army Engineers Water-
ways Experiment Station,
Vicksburg, MS. POC: Bob
Peoples 703-358-2025
robert_peop les@fws.gov
I
a i
j.0 LUJOM
Bn| e Sj
November 17-19, 1998
Midwest Natural Resources
Group Roundtable and
Meeting, in Lake Geneva, Wl.
POC:
perrecone.john@epamail.epa.gov
November 19-20, 1998
14th Annual Conference of
the Center for Environmental
Information, Inc, Climate
Change and New York State:
Gaining the Competitive Edge,
in Albany, New York. POC:
(716) 262-2870
December 7-8, 1998
Natural Attenuation '98,
sponsored by IBC, in Pasa-
dena, CA. POC:
inq@ibcusa.com
December 7-9, 1998
Environmental Biotechnologies & Site
Remediation Technologies, sponsored by
Institute of Gas Technology, in Orlando,
FL. POC: robertsr@igt.org
December 9-10, 1998
Great Lakes GIS Online Workshop,
sponsored by the Great Lakes Commis-
sion, in Chicago, IL. POC: Julie
Wagemakers, 734-665-9135,
juliew@glc.org
December 15-17, 1998
2nd Annual Partners for Smart Growth
Conference, sponsored by USEPA and the
Urban Land Institute, in Austin, TX. POC:
800-321-5011
1999
January 11-15, 1999
28th Dredging Engineering Short Course,
sponsored by Center for Dredging Studies,
in College Station, TX. POC: j-
hyden@tamu.edu
January 20-22, 1999
Workshop on Dredged Material Manage-
ment and State Coastal Zone Management
Programs, sponsored by the Coastal
States Organization, NOAA, and the
National Dredging Team, in New Orleans,
LA. POC: Tony MacDonald at CSO,
202-508-3860
January 21, 1999
Regulation and Remedial Technologies
Pertaining to Contaminated Sediments,
sponsored by Federation of Environmental
Technologists, in Milwaukee, Wl. POC:
414-644-0070
March 21-25, 1999
217th National Meeting, American
Chemical Society, in Anaheim, CA. CALL
FOR PAPERS until November 1, 1998.
POC: lipnick.robert@epamail.epa.gov
April 11-14, 1999
National Conference on Environmental
Decision Making, sponsored by NOEDR,
in Knoxville, TN. POC: www.ncedr.org
-------
April 26-30, 1999
Ninth International Zebra Mussel and
Aquatic Nuisance Species Conference,
hosted by the University of Minnesota Sea
Grant Program, in Duluth, MN. CALL
FOR ABSTRACTS until September 25,
1998. POC: Elizabeth Muckle-Jeffs, 800-
868-8776 or www.zebraconf.org/
May 10-14, 1999
WEFTEC Latin America '99 in conjunction
with The 20th Brazilian Congress on
Sanitary and Environmental Engineering,
co- sponsored by Water Environment
Federation (WEF) and Associa, o
Brasileira de Engenharia Sanit ria e
Ambiental (ABES), in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. POC: http://www.wef.org, e-mail:
confinfo@wef.org, phone: 703-684-
2442.
May 2-5, 1999
A National Town Meeting, sponsored by
President's Council on Sustainable
Development and Global Environment &
Technology Foundation, in Detroit, Ml and
other locations. POC: N.M.@getf.org or
www.sustainableamerica.org
May 17-18, 1999
Semi-Annual Meeting of the Great Lakes
Commission, in Montreal, Quebec. POC:
Contact: Mike Donahue, 734-665-9135,
mdonahue@glc.org
May 19, 1999
40th Anniversary Celebration and Sympo-
sium on the Great Lakes- St. Lawrence
Seaway System, in Montreal, Quebec.
POC: Mike Donahue, 734-665-9135,
mdonahue@glc.org
May 20-21, 1999
1 3th International Great Lakes-St.
Lawrence Mayors' Conference, in
Montreal, Quebec. POC: Steve Thorp,
734-665-9135, sthorp@glc.org
May 19-22, 1999
1999 Canadian Coastal Conference, in
Victoria, BC. POC: www.vgivision.com/
CCC99
No. 22
Summer 1998\
CSN
11
Dredged Material Management
Plan Guidance Published
The National Dredging Team announces
the availability of Guidance for Local
Planning Groups & Development of
Dredged Material Management Plans.
(www.epa.gov/owow/ocpd).
An interagency group of federal agencies
involved in dredged material management
activities, the National Dredging Team is-
sued this guidance to provide a frame-
work to (1) assist in the formation of Lo-
cal Planning Groups; (2) establish a
planning process; and (3) develop and
implement dredged m aterial m anagement
plans.
If you have any questions, please contact
Sharon Lin, Environmental Engineer,
Oceans and Coastal Protection Division,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
401 M St. S.W. (4504F), Washington,
D.C. 20460. Tel: (202) 260-5129; e-mail:
lin.sharon@epa.gov.
1996 Annual Report on Regional
Monitoring Program for Trace
Substances
The San Francisco Estuary Institute's
1996 Annual Report is available for distri-
bution. The cost is $25 ($15 for nonprofit
organizations), payable by check or money
order made out to the Regional Monitoring
Program.
To order a copy of the report, send your
payment and your name, organization, ad-
dress, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail
address to:
Gabriele Marek
San Francisco Estuary Institute
1325 South 46th Street
Richmond, CA 94804
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