Ecological evaluation of proposed discharge of dredged material from Oakland Harbor into ocean waters (Phase 1 of -42-foot project)

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), San Francisco District, was authorized by the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 (Public Law 99-662) to deepen and widen the navigation channels of Inner and Outer Oakland Harbor, California, to accommodate modern deep-draft vessels. To help provide the scientific basis for determining whether Oakland Harbor sediments are suitable for offshore disposal, the Battelle/Marine Sciences Laboratory collected sediment cores from 20 stations in Oakland Harbor, evaluated the cores geologically, analyzed sediment for selected contaminants, conducted a series of solid phase toxicity tests with four sensitive marine invertebrates (Macoma nasuta, Nephtys caecoides, Ampelisca abdita, and Rhepoxynius abronius), and assessed the bioaccumulation potential of sediment-associated contaminants in tissues of M. nasuta. Toxicological test results indicate that none of the sediment from the channel-area stations (CH-1 - CH-7), the Merritt Sand samples (MS-1 and MS-2), or the reference sediment sites (PR-C and PR-F) resulted in significant sediment toxicity to the four species tested. Sediment treatments showing no significant sediment toxicity as well as no significant bioaccumulation included CH-5, MS-1, MS-2, PR-coarse, and PR-fine. Stations that showed little or no significant sediment toxicity, but significant bioaccumulation included SS-2-L (PAHs); TS-1-L (Cu, PAHs, PCBs, tributyltin, and DDE); TS-1-U (tributyltin); TS-5-U (PAHs, PCBs, DDE, and tributyltin); SS-1-U (PB, PAHs, and PCBs); SS-5-L (PAHs, PCBs, and DDE); CH-6 and CH-7 (PAHs, PCBs, and DDE); Ch-4 and CH-1 (Cr); and CH-3 (DDE). 28 refs., 31 figs., 75 tabs