Sediment toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) studies at marine sites suspected of ordnance contamination

A sediment quality assessment survey and subsequent toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) study was conducted at several sites in Puget Sound, Wash ington. The sites were previously suspected of contamination with ordnance compounds. The initial survey employed sea urchin porewater toxicity tests to locate the most toxic stations. Sediments from the most toxic stations w ere selected for comprehensive chemical analyses. Based on the combined inf ormation from the toxicity and chemical data, three adjacent stations in Os trich Bay were selected for the TIE study. The results of the phase I TIE s uggested that organics and metals were primarily responsible for the observ ed toxicity in the sea urchin fertilization test. In addition to these cont aminants, ammonia was also contributing to the toxicity for the sea urchin embryological development test. The phase II TIE study isolated the majorit y of the toxicity in the fraction containing nonpolar organics with high lo g K-ow, but chemical analyses failed to identify a compound present at a co ncentration high enough to be responsible for the observed toxicity. The da ta suggest that some organic or organometallic contaminant(s) that were not included in the comprehensive suite of chemical analyses caused the observ ed toxicological responses.