Sediment Quality in Puget Sound Year 2 - Center for Coastal ...

Inlet), 170- 17 1 (Dyes Inlet), 1 15 (Sl~oreline Elliott Bay), 188, 194, and 196 (Mid-Elliott Bay),
114 (West Harbor Island), 200-202 (East Harbor Isla~~d), and 204 and 205 (Duwamisl~ River).
These stations typically had moderate to very high total abundance, including lligll numbers of
Apizelocizuetu species Nl and other pol1utio11-tolerant species, moderate to high taxa ricllness,
low evenness, and low Swartz's Dominance Index values. Often, pollution-sensitive species
such as arthropods and ecl~inoderms were low in abundance or absent from these statio~~s. These
18 stations represented an area of 8.1 km2, or about 1.1 % of the total survey area. Twenty-five
stations were identified with 110 indications of significant sediment toxicity or cl~emical
contaminatio~~ (Table 34). A11 of the benthic indices at these stations indicated abundant and
diverse populations of most or all taxonomic groups. Arthropods were abundant in all samples;
l~owever, echinoderms were not found in a few of these samples. These stations were located in
Port Townsend (I), Admiralty Inlet (31, Possession Sound (2), the central basin (31, Port Madison
(31, Liberty Bay (31, the Bainbridge Basin (41, Rich Passage (31, Dyes Inlet (I), and outer Elliott
Bay (2). These 25 stations represented an area of 359.3 km2, equivalent to approxi~nately 49% of
the total survey area. The remaining thirty-nine stations displayed either signs of significant
chemical contamination but no toxicity, or significant toxicity, but no chemical contaminatio~~. In
the majority of these samples, the benthic populatio~ls were abundant and diverse, and
represented the types of biota expected in the habitats that were sampled. These stations were
located in Port Townsend (41, Possessio~~ Sound (I), the central basin (I O), Eagle Harbor (3),
Liberty Bay (31, the Bainbridge Basin (61, and Elliott Bay and the Duwamish River (12).
Together, these stations represented an area of 272.6 km2, equivalent to approximately 37% of
the total central Puget Sound study area.
Page 53