6-5 



January) from March 1974 through January 1978. Data for January 1978, 

 beyond the October 1977 cutoff for this report, are included in this 

 case because they complete the data set for the fourth and final year of 

 this special program. Ten stations (1-10) were initially established in 

 the inner harbor adjacent to the power plant site. One additional inner 

 harbor station (4a) , located between the intake structure and discharge 

 pipe, was added in 1976. This station is characterized by a coarse- 

 grained bottom relatively free from organic detritus. This is an 

 unusual condition for an inner-harbor siibstrate and is probably related 

 to dredging activity. 



A control or reference site was located outside of the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the plant to reduce the possibility that both sites 

 might be impacted by the thermal discharge. Variation in hydrographic 

 parameters between harbor areas limited the selection of a control site. 

 Nine stations (A-I) were therefore selected in Morris Cove as comparison 

 sites. Although the Morris Cove stations represent a slightly different 

 hydrographic regime, the range of sediment types is similar to that 

 found near the plant. f 



At each sampling date in 1974 and 1975, duplicate samples were 



2 

 taken with a 0.04 m Van Veen grab. Sampling intensity was increased to 



triplicates beginning in 1976 in order to better estimate spatial 



patchiness of the benthos. Samples were returned to the laboratory and 



2 

 sieved through a 1.0 mm mesh stainless steel sieve. An 80 cm sub- 

 sample, at selected stations, was washed through a 0.297 mm mesh sieve. 

 Collection of the 0.297 mm subsamples was suspended after analysis of 

 the subsamples for 1974 showed that no unique faunal components were 

 missed by using a 1.0 mm sieve. Additional analysis of six 0.297 mm 

 samples collected in 1975-1977 confirmed the earlier result. All sieved 

 samples were fixed in formalin, stained with rose bengal to facilitate 

 sorting, and preserved in 70% ethanol. 



