Biological testing of sediment for the Olympia Harbor Navigation Improvement Project, 1988: Geoduck, amphipod, and echinoderm bioassays

• Main Authors: Ward, J. A., Word, J. Q., Antrim, L. D.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Pacific Northwest Laboratory 1989
• Subjects: Clams; Aquatic Organisms; North America; Usa 520200* > Environment; Aquatic > Chemicals Monitoring & Transport > (-1989); Federal Region X; Sediments; Juveniles; Echinoderms; Animals; Washington; Crustaceans; Environmental Effects; Harbors; Arthropods; Invertebrates; 54 Environmental Sciences; Bioassay; Molluscs; Biological Effects; Dredging; Pacific; Crassostrea gigas; Pacific oyster
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.2172/6040697; https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1095614/

The Olympia Harbor Navigation Improvement Project requires the dredging of approximately 330,000 cubic yards (cy) of sediment from the harbor entrance channel and 205,185 cy from the turning basin. Puget Sound Dredged Disposal Analysis (PSDDA) partial characterization studies were used to plan a full sediment characterization in which chemical analyses and biological testing of sediments evaluated the suitability of the dredged material for unconfined, open-water disposal. The US Army Corps of Engineers (COE), Seattle District, contracted with NOAA/NMFS, Environmental Conservation Division, to perform the chemical analysis and Microtox bioassay tests, and with the Battelle/Marine Sciences Laboratory (MSL) in Sequim to perform flow-through solid-phase bioassays utilizing juvenile (8 to 10 mm) geoduck clams, Panopea generosa, and static solid phase bioassays using the phoxocephalid amphipod, Rhepoxynius abronius, developing embryos and gametes of the purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, and the larvae of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. When the results of the biological tests were evaluated under PSDDA guidelines, it was found that all the tested sediment treatments from Olympia Harbor are suitable for unconfined open-water disposal. 14 refs., 12 figs., 3 tabs.