Based on a Workshop to Evaluate Data Interpretation Tools used to Make Sediment Management Decisions held at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Windsor on December 1-2, 1998
Prepared by: Gail Krantzberg, John Hartig, Lisa Maynard, Kelly Burch, and Carol Ancheta
Sediment Priority Action Committee
Great Lakes Water Quality Board
1999
Preface
The International Joint Commission (IJC) has identified contaminated sediment as a program priority. During the 1997-1999 biennial cycle, the IJC directed the Great Lakes Water Quality Board (WQB) and its Sediment Priority Action Committee (SedPAC) to develop guidance for making decisions regarding management of contaminated sediment and to compile and disseminate information on benefits of sediment remediation.
Sediment management experts from throughout the Great Lakes Basin and beyond met for a workshop in Windsor, Ontario on December 1-2, 1998 (see Appendices 1 and 2). They examined and exchanged tools that are used to interpret environmental data to deduce scientifically whether or not to take sediment management actions beyond source control.
Please note that this report is not a manual for sediment assessment or selection of remedial technologies, compilations of which are available from federal, provincial, and state agencies. Other elements of sediment management decision-making such as socio-economic factors are not considered here, but their importance is noted within this report.
This report of SedPAC synthesizes and interprets the scientific methodologies and management experiences presented at the workshop in a fashion which provides clear, timely advice on the use of scientific data interpretation tools used to make a sediment management decision. It is intended to disseminate methodologies for evaluating the degree to which an intervention for sediment cleanup is ecologically compelling.