Progress report summarizing the reef fish sampling, PCB - Earthjustice

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PART I. EPA MONITORING REQUIREMENTS, ORISKANY REEF PROJECT HISTORICAL BACKGROUND, AND METHODOLOGY FOR FIELD SAMPLING AND SAMPLE PCB ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY Part I (A) Introduction This progress report describes and discusses the status of eight reef fish sampling rounds and associated polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) sample analyses undertaken between December 14, 2006 and November 18, 2010. It also describes all reef fish monitoring activities associated with the former US Navy fast attack aircraft carrier the ex-Oriskany (CVA-34) deployed as Oriskany Reef on May 17, 2006 in 212 feet of water and located 23.5 miles southeast of Pensacola Pass off Northwest Florida, Gulf of Mexico. Two additional reef fish sampling rounds were also carried out on a nearby artificial reef located about eight nautical miles northwest of the Oriskany Reef. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) Division of Marine Fisheries Management and the Escambia County, Florida Marine Resources Division (ECMRD) partnered in the Oriskany Reef postdeployment monitoring effort. This is the interim draft progress report submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 4 (Atlanta, Georgia) and the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) for their review, comment, and future monitoring guidance. For the benefit of readers unfamiliar with the Oriskany Reef project, Part I of this progress report includes a brief overview of EPA monitoring requirements, ecological and health issues associated with PCBs and an ex-Oriskany reefing background historical review. The Methods section that follows describes field sampling operations and laboratory analysis procedures. In Part II of this report, a Results and Discussion section describes results of Oriskany Reef fish community visual monitoring efforts and provides the recreationally targeted reef fish PCB sampling results available to date. The PCB sampling and analysis results are presented and discussed by each reef fish species sampled beginning with the most common reef fish sampled (red snapper) and continuing in descending numerical order of fish species caught, retained and sampled for PCBs. Target reef fish species ecological profiles are also included to provide insight into PCB analysis results. The report concludes with Part III, a brief summary and FWC-Escambia County possible options for future actions through December 2011. 6 | Page
I (A) (1) EPA Oriskany Reef PCB Tier 1 Screening Level Monitoring Requirements for FWC and Escambia County FWC and ECMRD conducted reef fish PCB monitoring at the Oriskany Reef in compliance with a risk-based PCB bulk product waste disposal approval document that EPA issued to the U.S. Navy, FWC, and Escambia County (as amended July 16, 2007) (USEPA 2006a). PCB bulk product waste is defined as “waste derived from manufactured products containing PCBs in a non-liquid state at any concentration where the concentration at the time of designation for disposal was ≥ 50 ppm PCBs.” (Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Chapter 1 (EPA authority) Part 761 (PCBs manufacturing, processing, distribution in commerce, and use prohibitions), section 761.3. The approval required FWC and Escambia County to undertake a multi-year Tier 1 screening level monitoring assessment of PCB levels in the lateral muscle fillet tissue of legal size recreationally targeted and consumed reef fish caught at the Oriskany Reef. The intent of the Tier 1 monitoring effort was to ensure that selected species of legal size fish commonly caught and consumed at the Oriskany Reef remained safe for human consumption. The requirement for fish collection at two additional reference sites in accordance with the original February 15, 2006 EPA risk-based PCB bulk product waste disposal approval document was dropped in the July 16, 2007 EPA Revision #1 of that document. The Oriskany Reef was to be the primary Tier 1 monitoring PCB sampling location. The Revision #1 also named Escambia County along with the Navy and FWC as parties responsible for supporting Oriskany Reef monitoring efforts. ECMRD and FWC were also tasked with drafting a “Combined Tier 1 Level Polychlorinated Biphenyl Fish Tissue Screening Monitoring Work Plan and Quality Assurance Project Plan for the Oriskany Reef” (hereinafter Monitoring Work Plan). The Monitoring Work Plan provided the implementation guidance for the Tier 1 screening level monitoring program. The 88 page Monitoring Work Plan, final Revision #4 of July 25, 2007 (Dodrill and Turpin 2007) was approved by EPA and guided all ECMRD and FWC actions and efforts in the preparations, collection, handling, shipping and PCB analysis of fish. The EPA risk-based PCB bulk waste disposal approval document defined a Tier 1 screening level monitoring program as “a fish sampling and analysis effort targeted to selected species of commonly consumed fish expected to be present at the Oriskany Reef site and other reference reef sites in the Escambia East Large Area Artificial Reef Site (EELAARS), whose purpose is to determine if PCB 7 | Page
Page 1 and 2: Progress report summarizing the ree
Page 3 and 4: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In compliance wit
Page 5: LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page No. 1.
Page 9 and 10: validate the Navy developed PCB fat
Page 11 and 12: that “the numbering standard for
Page 13 and 14: ship material leachate experiments
Page 15 and 16: solid PCB containing materials woul
Page 17 and 18: EPA review included: 1) a human hea
Page 19 and 20: I(C)(6) PCB Containing Materials On
Page 21 and 22: I(C) (8) Oriskany Reef Created In a
Page 23 and 24: fishes for the Monitoring Work Plan
Page 25 and 26: I (D) (2) Fishing Vessel Sampling P
Page 27 and 28: long from the top to the mouth of t
Page 29 and 30: During sample round #2 all four che
Page 31 and 32: The rod and reel manpower sampling
Page 33 and 34: was intentionally scheduled after t
Page 35 and 36: weren’t running after each fish w
Page 37 and 38: actually shipped to GERG on Februar
Page 39 and 40: samples during Sampling Rounds 1-8
Page 41 and 42: harvesting at least 15 legal size r
Page 43 and 44: attraction as expressed by an incre
Page 45 and 46: Of these 10 reef assessment dives,
Page 47 and 48: assessments which were limited to t
Page 49 and 50: not considered target species for a
Page 51 and 52: have had any PAH levels approaching
Page 53 and 54: Oriskany, and one recapture at a
Page 55 and 56: ed snapper season commencement. The
Page 57 and 58:
Table 8a. List of reef fish species
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Oriskany Reef during Sampling Round
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Species Composition of Oriskany Sam
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The GERG lab reported their receipt
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pectoral fins of the blackfin snapp
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Trophic level or position Trophic p
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that means after five years only 3%
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II (D) (1) (c) Red Snapper Discussi
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1,000,000 ΣPCB (pg/g) a. Sample Da
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The PCB levels measured from red sn
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fins relatively short, not reaching
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Results of PCB analysis by sample d
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ody, these spots giving a yellow-st
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II (D) (3) (c) Red Porgy Discussion
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cheeks that are speckled with brigh
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II (D) (4) (c) Whitebone Porgy Disc
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(common) name. The first spine is l
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II (D) (5) (c) Gray Triggerfish Dis
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The Scamp inhabits continental shel
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Results of PCB analysis by sample d
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species was not among the first 30
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elieved to be unlikely since most o
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trip less than 15% of the time due
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II F (6) (b) Current Florida Marine
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assessment, technological feasibili
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III Oriskany Reef Monitoring Projec
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Fishbase.org (Internet site). 2011.
Page 111 and 112:
Ingram, G.W., Jr. and W.F. Patterso
Page 113 and 114:
Patterson, W. F., J. H. Cowan Jr, e
Page 115 and 116:
Thompson, M.J., W.W. Schroeder, and
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Table 2. FWC Fish Census data taken
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Table 4. Fish census data taken by
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frogfish Antennarius sp.
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eef butterflyfish Chaetodon sedenta
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Vermilion snapper Rhomboplites auro
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OR-RS-042 Red Snapper 4/12/2007 HnL
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OR-RS-155 Red Snapper 11/18/2009 Hn
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Table 14. Tissue sample characteris
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Table 15. Percent composition of to
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Table 16b. Percent composition of t
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Progress report summarizing the reef fish sampling, PCB - Earthjustice

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