Ecological Evaluation Technical Guidance - State of New Jersey

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4.0 Definitions"Area of concern" or “AOC” means any existing or former location where hazardoussubstances, hazardous wastes, or pollutants are or were known or suspected to have beendischarged, generated, manufactured, refined, transported, stored, handled, treated,disposed, or where hazardous substances, hazardous wastes, or pollutants have or mayhave migrated (N.J.A.C. 7:26E-1.8).“Assessment endpoints” means the explicit expressions of the environmental value to beprotected.“Background Area” means a habitat similar to the habitat being assessed, but one that isoutside of the influence of the site discharge.“Background Contamination” means the contaminant levels in the immediate area of thesite that are not attributable to the site discharge itself and that originated from eithernatural sources (not man-made) or offsite discharges (man-made, discharges not relatedto the site). These background contaminant concentrations are generally derived bycollecting samples in the background area.“Benthic community” means organisms that live in and on the bottom substrate of asurface water body.“Benthic macroinvertebrate survey” means the use of macroinvertebrate collection,organism identification, and data analysis to assess various metrics including community,population, and functional parameters such as species richness and tolerance indices.“Bioaccumulation” means the accumulation of contaminants in the tissue of organismsthrough any route, including respiration, ingestion, or direct contact with contaminatedmedia (USEPA 2000c).“Bioavailability” means the individual physical, chemical, and biological interactions thatdetermine the exposure of plants and animals to chemicals associated with soils andsediments (ITRC 2011).“Biomagnification” means the process of bioconcentration and bioaccumulation bywhich tissue concentrations of bioaccumulated chemicals increase as the chemical passesup through two or more trophic levels. The term implies an efficient transfer of chemicalfrom food to consumer, so that residue concentrations increase systematically from onetrophic level to the next (USEPA 2000c).“Breeding season” means the most suitable season, usually with favorable conditions andabundant food and water, for breeding among some wild animals and birds (wildlife).“Chlorotic vegetation” means the abnormally yellowing or whitening of normally greenplant tissue, resulting from partial failure to develop chlorophyll or decreased productionof chlorophyll.“Comingled contamination” means unrelated contaminants that are mixed in an area ormedia.“Community assessment” means the evaluation of community structure by measuringbiotic characteristics (e.g., species abundance, diversity, and composition); communityEcological Evaluation Technical Guidance Document 11Version 1.2 8/29/12
assessment may also include evaluating community function by measuring rate processes(e.g., species colonization rates).“Congener” means any of the 75 isomers of dioxin, 135 isomers of furans and 209isomers of PCBs that differ in the number and position of chlorine atoms attached to thebase structure of the molecule. There are 7 dioxin congeners, 10 furan congeners and 12PCB congeners that the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified as havingdioxin-like properties.“Contaminant delineation” means the determination of the vertical and horizontal extentof contamination in all surface water, sediment, and soils within environmentallysensitive natural resources to the higher of the ecological screening criteria or backgroundcontaminant levels.“Contaminant migration pathway” means the potential conduit for movement ofcontaminants from one area or media to another via a route or way of access.“Contaminant of Potential Ecological Concern” or “COPEC” means a substance detectedat a contaminated site that has the potential to adversely affect ecological receptorsbecause of its concentration, distribution, and mode of toxicity; contaminants withconcentrations above their respective New Jersey Surface Water Quality Standards orecological screening criteria are identified as contaminants of potential ecologicalconcern."Contaminated site" means all portions of environmental media at a site and any locationwhere contamination is emanating, or which has emanated, therefrom, that contain one ormore contaminants at a concentration which fails to satisfy any applicable remediationstandard (N.J.A.C. 7:26E-1.8)."Contamination" or "contaminant" means any discharged hazardous substance as definedpursuant to N.J.S.A. 58:10-23.11b, hazardous waste as defined pursuant to N.J.S.A.13:1E-38, or pollutant as defined pursuant to N.J.S.A. 58:10A-3 (N.J.A.C. 7:26E-1.8).“Data quality objectives” means performance and acceptance criteria that clarify studyobjectives, define the appropriate type of data, and specify tolerable levels of potentialdecision errors that will be used as the basis for establishing the quality and quantity ofdata needed to support decisions.“Dredged materials” means subaqueous media moved within or removed from a givenwater body by deliberate action via mechanical or hydraulic means.“Ecological Conceptual Site Model” or “ECSM” means the conceptual projection ofpossible source-to-pathway-to-receptor scenarios for the COPECs identified at a site.“Ecological Evaluation” means the process by which each contaminated site or AOC isinvestigated for the co-occurrence of ESNRs, COPECs, and contaminant migrationpathways from the source area to the ESNR.“Ecological Risk Assessment” means a qualitative or quantitative appraisal of the actualor potential impacts of contaminants from a contaminated site on plants and animalsother than humans and domesticated species.Ecological Evaluation Technical Guidance Document 12Version 1.2 8/29/12
Page 1 and 2: Ecological EvaluationTechnical Guid
Page 3 and 4: 6.2.1.3 Biological Sampling of Fish
Page 5 and 6: Acronyms and AbbreviationsADDAETAFA
Page 7 and 8: Executive SummaryThis document prov
Page 9 and 10: environmentally sensitive areas pur
Page 11: Figure 3-1: Flow diagram to describ
Page 15 and 16: “Hazard quotient” or “HQ” m
Page 17 and 18: “Site investigation” means the
Page 19 and 20: parameters as specified in ERAGS (i
Page 21 and 22: document otherwise). The investigat
Page 23 and 24: 5.3.2.1 Potential Contaminant Migra
Page 25 and 26: 71 0Sampling pointsSampling transec
Page 27 and 28: 5.3.4 Background ConsiderationsIt i
Page 29 and 30: III. GroundwaterAnalytical data fro
Page 31 and 32: 5.5 Ecological Evaluation ReportThe
Page 33 and 34: Step 1 - Preliminary Screening Leve
Page 35 and 36: specific measurements of receptor h
Page 37 and 38: Figure 6-2: Ecological Conceptual S
Page 39 and 40: ingested, air inhaled, or material
Page 41 and 42: Fugacity, which is described as the
Page 43 and 44: environment. As noted in ERAGS, the
Page 45 and 46: Sample SelectionAfter completing th
Page 47 and 48: While there are many laboratories t
Page 49 and 50: ioavailability, and by doing so, of
Page 51 and 52: For the purposes of surface water,
Page 53 and 54: higher trophic level receptors. Lip
Page 55 and 56: Details regarding surface water tox
Page 57 and 58: e present at intervals greater than
Page 59 and 60: elatively sedentary organisms that
Page 61 and 62: COPECs. The following references ar
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tests (USEPA, 2002e). After collect
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multiple reference area soils repre
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In ERAs, tissue residue analyses ar
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Objectives of the ERA: including a
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evaluation might necessitate the co
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N.J.A.C. 7:26E-4.8(c)1. The ERA may
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sediment (i.e., that fraction that
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Twelve dioxin-like PCB congeners ha
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indicates burial of potential dioxi
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of evidence for evaluating risk unt
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7.2.1 Apparent Effects Threshold Ap
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when site conditions are most simil
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destroying 10 acres of the mature f
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ASTM (American Society for Testing
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Establishing Sediment Quality Crite
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N.J.A.C. (New Jersey Administrative
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USEPA. 1989c. Risk Assessment Guida
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http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/regu
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USEPA 2006a. Data Quality Assessmen
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Appendix A - Habitat Survey FormsEc
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Ecological Evaluation Technical Gui
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Appendix B - Sampling Procedures fo
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Appendix C - Surface Water Toxicity
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Short-term chronic studies, endpoin
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Appendix D - Sediment Toxicity Test
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Toxicity Test DesignSediment toxici
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Appendix E - Sediment Pore Water an
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The seven-day daphnid survival and
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esults are then evaluated using USE
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Surber or Square-foot BottomThis sa
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Appendix H - Soil Toxicity TestingS
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another sample may still have a sub
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conservative approach from an ecolo
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Data PresentationTabular presentati
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Ecological Evaluation Technical Guidance - State of New Jersey

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