Standard Guide for Collection, Storage, Characterization, and Manipulation of Sediments for Toxicological Testing and for Selection of Samplers Used to Collect Benthic Invertebrates

Importancia y uso:

5.1 Sediment toxicity evaluations are a critical component of environmental quality and ecosystem impact assessments, and are used to meet a variety of research and regulatory objectives. The manner in which the sediments are collected, stored, characterized, and manipulated can influence the results of any sediment quality or process evaluation greatly. Addressing these variables in a systematic and uniform manner will aid the interpretations of sediment toxicity or bioaccumulation results and may allow comparisons between studies.

5.2 Sediment quality assessment is an important component of water quality protection. Sediment assessments commonly include physicochemical characterization, toxicity tests or bioaccumulation tests, as well as benthic community analyses. The use of consistent sediment collection, manipulation, and storage methods will help provide high quality samples with which accurate data can be obtained for the national inventory and for other programs to prevent, remediate, and manage contaminated sediment.

5.3 It is now widely known that the methods used in sample collection, transport, handling, storage, and manipulation of sediments and interstitial waters can influence the physicochemical properties and the results of chemical, toxicity, and bioaccumulation analyses. Addressing these variables in an appropriate and systematic manner will provide more accurate sediment quality data and facilitate comparisons among sediment studies.

5.4 This standard provides current information and recommendations for collecting and handling sediments for physicochemical characterization and biological testing, using procedures that are most likely to maintain in situ conditions, most accurately represent the sediment in question, or satisfy particular needs, to help generate consistent, high quality data collection.

5.5 This standard is intended to provide technical support to those who design or perform sediment quality studies under a variety of regulatory and non-regulatory programs. Information is provided concerning general sampling design considerations, field and laboratory facilities needed, safety, sampling equipment, sample storage and transport procedures, and sample manipulation issues common to chemical or toxicological analyses. Information contained in this standard reflects the knowledge and experience of several internationally-known sources including the Puget Sound Estuary Program (PSEP), Washington State Department of Ecology (WDE), United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Environment Canada. This standard attempts to present a coherent set of recommendations on field sampling techniques and sediment or interstitial water sample processing based on the above sources, as well as extensive information in the peer-reviewed literature.

5.6 As the scope of this standard is broad, it is impossible to adequately present detailed information on every aspect of sediment sampling and processing for all situations. Nor is such detailed guidance warranted because much of this information (for example, how to operate a particular sampling device or how to use a Geographical Positioning System (GPS) device) already exists in other published materials referenced in this standard.

5.7 Given the above constraints, this standard: (1) presents a discussion of activities involved in sediment sampling and sample processing; (2) alerts the user to important issues that should be considered within each activity; and (3) gives recommendations on how to best address the issues raised such that appropriate samples are collected and analyzed. An attempt is made to alert the user to different considerations pertaining to sampling and sample processing depending on the objectives of the study (for example, remediation, dredged material evaluations or status and trends monitoring).

5.8 The organization of this standard reflects the desire to give field personnel and managers a useful tool for choosing appropriate sampling locations, characterize those locations, collect and store samples, and manipulate those samples for analyses. Each section of this standard is written so that the reader can obtain information on only one activity or set of activities (for example, subsampling or sample processing), if desired, without necessarily reading the entire standard. Many sections are cross-referenced so that the reader is alerted to relevant issues that might be covered elsewhere in the standard. This is particularly important for certain chemical or toxicological applications in which appropriate sample processing or laboratory procedures are associated with specific field sampling procedures.

5.9 The methods contained in this standard are widely applicable to any entity wishing to collect consistent, high quality sediment data. This standard does not provide guidance on how to implement any specific regulatory requirement, or design a particular sediment quality assessment, but rather it is a compilation of technical methods on how to best collect environmental samples that most appropriately address common sampling objectives.

5.10 The information presented in this standard should not be viewed as the final statement on all the recommended procedures. Many of the topics addressed in this standard (for example, sediment holding time, formulated sediment composition, interstitial water collection and processing) are the subject of ongoing research. As data from sediment monitoring and research becomes available in the future, this standard will be updated as necessary.

Subcomité:

E50.47

Referida por:

E0724-21, D6232-21, E2122-22, E2591-22, E2455-25, E1688-19, E3268-21, E1611-21, E1706-25, E1525-02R23, E1563-21A, E3163-24, E2590-23, E1562-22, E1439-12R19, E2020-22, E3164-23, E1367-03R23

Volúmen:

11.09

Número ICS:

13.060.45 (Examination of water in general)

Palabras clave:

basket samplers; benthic macroinvertebrates; characterization; collection; interstitial water; manipulation; multiplate samplers; pore water; sediment; sediment grab samplers; spiking; storage; stream net sampling devices; toxicity; transport;