Publication Summary

In early 2002, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) embarked on a project to identify, update, and ultimately select freshwater sediment quality values (SQVs) for use in Ecology′s sediment management programs. The first phase of this effort was completed in December 2002 (SAIC and Avocet, 2002), and included compilation of existing freshwater SQVs in North America, and an assessment of their reliability in predicting effects in Washington State. The results of this work indicated that additional Phase II work was needed to update existing freshwater Apparent Effects Thresholds (AETs) and calculate more reliable SQVs for Washington State, as none of the existing guidelines were adequately predictive of toxicity in the Washington State data set.