Ecological Evaluation Technical Guidance - State of New Jersey

into the ERA; or (3) considering an expedited management action (e.g., removal,capping), especially where contaminants may be highly mobile.6.4.5 Extractable Petroleum HydrocarbonsIt is recommended that the Protocol for Addressing Extractable PetroleumHydrocarbons, available at http://www.nj.gov/dep/srp/guidance/rs/#phc, befollowed for the investigation of petroleum hydrocarbon contamination in ESNRs.For soil in ENSRs, the NJDEP has established an ESC of 1,700 mg/kg EPH(established at "Health Based and Ecological Screening Criteria for PetroleumHydrocarbons - Frequently Asked Questions,” Question #3";http://www.nj.gov/dep/srp/guidance/rs/eph_faq.htm). Section 5 of this guidanceshould be followed to determine whether further ecological evaluation is needed.For sediment, NJDEP has not established an ESC for EPH; however, pursuant toN.J.A.C. 7:26E-5.1(e) and 5.2(d)2, if free and/or residual product is determined tobe present, such as via test methods in N.J.A.C. 7:26E-2.1(a)14, it must be treatedor removed when practicable, otherwise it must be contained. If EPH isidentified, the EE and ERA should focus on PAH contamination outside of theremedial footprint.6.4.6 Polycyclic Aromatic HydrocarbonsPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are compounds that result from naturaland anthropogenic processes. USEPA (2009d) states that because of the use offossil fuels in industrialized societies and biomass fuels in developing countries(including forest fires), and subsequent transport via atmospheric and aquaticpathways, PAHs are among the most widely distributed organic pollutants. PAHsources include petrogenic PAHs, those derived from petroleum sources (oils,petroleum, coal); and pyrogenic PAHs, which are those associated with theincomplete combustion of fossil fuels. They exhibit a wide range of toxicity tonatural resources including aquatic and terrestrial plants and animals. The range intoxicity depends on the number of rings, molecular weight and the resultingpolarity. The primary mechanism of PAH toxicity to sediment invertebrates isnarcosis, which results in the alteration of the cell membrane function (USEPA,2009d). Eisler (2000) reports that native fish collected from PAH-contaminatedsediments show a prevalence of external abnormalities (lip and skin lesions,tumors); and bivalve mollusks accumulate high PAH levels because of theirinability to metabolize and excrete them. In general, PAHs are not associatedwith food chain effects, as most upper trophic level receptors have the ability tometabolize them.During the EE, PAH-contaminated sediments are often evaluated by simplycomparing bulk sediment chemistry results obtained from traditional analyticalmethods, to appropriate screening values. This approach is designed to measuretotal chemical content but does not take into account site-specific conditions thatmay affect PAH bioavailability (e.g., type of organic carbon present). It is widelyrecognized that the freely dissolved fraction of nonionic organic chemicals inEcological Evaluation Technical Guidance Document 73Version 1.2 8/29/12