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RESULTS OF SOLID PHASE SEDIMENT TOXICITY TESTS WITH REDUCED SEDIMENT VOLUMES FOR SEDIMENT TOXICITY
Citation:
NorbergKing, T J., D. R. Mount, C. A. Shreve, AND T L. Highland. RESULTS OF SOLID PHASE SEDIMENT TOXICITY TESTS WITH REDUCED SEDIMENT VOLUMES FOR SEDIMENT TOXICITY. Presented at 21st SETAC Annual Meeting, Nashville, TN, November 12-16, 2000.
Description:
Development and standardization of sediment toxicity test methods for freshwater organisms have been underway for several years. Both EPA and ASTM have published methods for assessing the short-term (e.g., 10-d) toxicity of sediments to two benthic freshwater organisms (Hyalella azteca, Chironomus tentans). With the increasing use of sediment toxicity tests to evaluate dredged material and other sediments, there is a parallel need to identify the causes of sediment toxicity. This need is particularly critical because of its implications for management of toxic sediments; management alternatives for sediments with ammonia toxicity are clearly different from bioaccumulative organic contaminants. Toxicity Identification Evaluations (TIE) methods have proven valuable for characterizing and identifying toxicity in effluents and receiving waters. Most sediment TIEs use porewaters, but testing extracted or isolated porewaters may overestimate or underestimate the toxicity of certain compounds. Use of 100 ml of sediment for each beaker in sediment TIEs requires copious amounts of sediment for testing two species and the TIE manipulated samples. We tested several types of sediments using the standard 100 ml sediment volume and a 30 ml sediment volume using the freshwater organisms in 10-d solid phase tests. The survival and growth of H. azteca and C. tentans were then assessed. The results of the tests very highly comparable and use of the smaller test volume under flow-through conditions is being used routinely in sediment TIEs.