An approach for looking at sediment quality on a national perspective

TLDR: The National Sediment Quality Survey (USEPA) as mentioned in this paper is a screening-level assessment for the identification of potentially contaminated sediments, which was developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Abstract: Sediment quality analyses are conducted for specific reasons and most for some type of regulatory purpose. These purposes could include support for: sediment remediation, dredged material disposal, and sediment monitoring. One such sediment monitoring effort in the United States is to fulfill the requirements set forth in the Water Resources Development Act of 1992 (WRDA). This Act requires EPA to develop the National Sediment Quality Survey, a national evaluation of sediment quality in the United States. The first report was prepared in 1997 and described the incidence and severity of sediment contamination nationwide. The first update to this report was recently released (USEPA, 2004) and is designed to be a screening-level assessment for the identification of potentially contaminated sediments. While there are many challenges to assessing sediment contamination on a localized area, these are drastically magnified at a national scale. One of the biggest challenges was the reliance on existing sediment q...