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The use of innovative screening-level techniques for the bioassessment of estuarine sediments at U.S. Army Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD

Conference ·
OSTI ID:124566
;  [1];  [2]
  1. ICF Kaiser Engineers, Abingdon, MD (United States)
  2. Army Directorate of Safety, Health, and Environment, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (United States)
The US Army Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) is a primarily undeveloped installation on the upper Chesapeake bay in Maryland. The bush and Gunpowder Rivers are two sub-estuaries that run through the installation before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. Past activities at EA APG include pilot-scale chemical agent manufacturing, munitions testing, smoke/incendiary manufacturing, domestic and rubble landfilling, and disposal of chemical warfare agents as well as other materials. It was determined that if contamination of the Gunpowder River exists from these previous activities on EA APG it was most likely to be found in the sediments. The initial phase was to conduct a sediment survey of the river to determine the spatial distribution of sediment types and the suitability of the benthos for the proposed methodologies. The second phase was to combine innovative screening-level investigative methodologies as well as sediment chemical and physical analyses into one survey of the benthos and sediments of the Gunpowder River. This phase used the Microtox luminescent bioassay and Daphnia magna IQ Toxicity Test, Surface and Profile Image (SPI) photography, analysis of sediment physical characteristics, and limited chemical analysis to identify locations that warrant a more focused investigation.
OSTI ID:
124566
Report Number(s):
CONF-940499--; ISBN 1-56590-014-6
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English