Ecosystem Targets and Supporting Indicators
Meeting this target requires an average reduction in the area of impaired sediment of 0.7 per year from 2006-2035.
The Sediment Quality Index (SQI) from EPA 2010 National Coastal Condition Assessment for Long Island Sound (22 spatially-weighted sampling sites), showed that sediment condition was good at 59.92% of the sites, fair at 20.24% of the sites, and poor at 19.84% of the sites. This compares with the 2006 Assessment for Long Island Sound (34 spatially-weighted sampling sites), which showed that sediment condition at 51.5% of the sites was good, 30% of the sites fair, and 18.5% poor. The details of how the SQI was determined changed between the 2006 and the 2010 Assessments, but we are working with EPA to standardize the results to the 2010 method as well as decreasing the variability by potentially increasing the number of sampling sites in the future.
The EPA 2010 National Coastal Condition Assessment is currently conducted only every five years.
The current number of sampling locations in Long Island Sound is considered too low for good statistical significance, 50 locations would be required for such significance.
The Long Island Sound Study has very limited management tools to improve sediment quality.
Sediment quality is measured by the Sediment Quality Index (SQI) of the EPA National Coastal Condition Assessment. This index is a combination of measurements of both sediment toxicity and sediment contaminants. The most recent Assessment provides information from 2010.
Sediment quality is important because contaminated sediment can harm organisms that live in the sediment and potentially concentrate the contamination in organisms that consume these sediment-dwelling organisms.
Dr. James Ammerman, Long Island Sound Study[email protected]
EPA National Coastal Condition Assessment, https://www.epa.gov/national-aquatic-resource-surveys