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Developing Hydrocarbon PRGs Using Passive Sampling, Porewater, and Bulk Sediment
Citation:
Nace, C., D. Cooke, R. Burgess, L. Burkhard, AND Dave Mount. Developing Hydrocarbon PRGs Using Passive Sampling, Porewater, and Bulk Sediment. Eleventh International Conference on the Remediation and Management of Contaminated Sediments, Nashville, TN, January 24 - 27, 2022. https://doi.org/10.23645/epacomptox.19027244
Impact/Purpose:
Presentation to the Eleventh International Conference on the Remediation and Management of Contaminated Sediments (January 2022). Purpose: The poster summarizes an effort to sort out the causes of toxicity to benthic organisms at Region’s 2 Newtown Creek Superfund site. Audience: The poster is targeted towards those developing remedial goals at Superfund sites for the protection of benthic organisms. The method is a direct application of ORD’s guidance “Developing Sediment Remediation Goals at Superfund Sites Based on Pore Water for the Protection of Benthic Organisms from Direct Toxicity to Nonionic Organic Contaminants”. Impact: The poster provides to the reader a detail approach of using passive sampling measurements to derive PRGs (preliminary remedial goals) for the protection of benthic organisms.
Description:
Background/Objectives: At a large Superfund sediment site in the northeastern United States with significant petrochemical contamination, EPA utilized the sediment porewater concentrations of 34 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH (34)), in accordance with EPA’s 2017 guidance document, “Developing Sediment Remediation Goals at Superfund Sites Based on Pore Water for the Protection of Benthic Organisms from Direct Toxicity to Non-ionic Organic Contaminants” to derive preliminary remediation goals (PRGs). The use of sediment porewater incorporates equilibrium partitioning of contaminants between bulk sediment and the bioavailable fraction in porewater, representing the state-of-the-science. However, because of confounding factors in the sediment, the method yielded unrealistic sediment remediation goals and alternative methods had to be developed. Approach/Activities: During the course of performing a baseline ecological risk assessment (BERA), a series of 35 site sediment samples had been collected by the Responsible Parties for evaluation of the sediment quality triad (SQT; benthic community, sediment chemistry, and toxicity testing). The sediment porewater PAH (34) data was not sufficient to derive PRGs, but EPA was able to use the porewater PAH (34) data along with bulk sediment PAH (34) analytical data and bulk sediment data for several other classes of hydrocarbon compounds (C9-C40 Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons, C10-C28 Diesel Range Organics, C19-C36 Mineral Oil, PAH (17), and Alkylated PAHs) to show strong correlations to observed toxicity and to derive PRGs not just for PAHs, but for the other hydrocarbon classes as well. Results/Lessons Learned: EPA’s 2017 porewater remediation guidance states that the guidance method will not be suitable for all sites, and in such cases, the methods utilized for this site may allow defensible derivation of PRGs. EPA was able to derive PRGs for multiple hydrocarbon classes and found that combining both PAH (34) and the C19-C36 fractions yielded PRGs that addressed toxicity at all 35 SQT locations.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Developing Hydrocarbon PRGs Using Passive Sampling, Porewater, and Bulk Sediment
BATTELLE_NEWTOWN CREEK HYDROCARBON PRGS - NACE_POSTER.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 1160.816 KB, about PDF)