INTRODUCTION 



In 1982 a large cooperative study was initiated between 

 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Waterways Experiment Station, 

 Vicksburg, MS (WES) and the U.S. Environmental Protection 

 Agency's Environmental Research Laboratory, Narragansett, RI 

 (ERL-N) . This study, called the Field Verification Program 

 (FVP) , was designed to investigate three options to the disposal 

 of contaminated dredged material and the adequacy of biological 

 laboratory testing procedures for predicting actual field 

 measured responses. 



The source of the dredged sediment used for the study 

 was Black Rock Harbor (BRH) in Bridgeport, CT. WES investigated 

 the effects of disposal at both upland and wetland sites and 

 ERL-N investigated effects associated with the aquatic disposal 

 of this material at the Central Long Island Sound (CLIS) disposal 

 site. Munns et al. (In preparation) describes the aquatic 

 portion of the study in considerable detail. 



Field studies were carried out at all three sites, and 

 laboratory experiments were conducted at both WES and ERL-N. For 

 the laboratory studies it was necessary to collect a large and 

 representative composite dredged material sample. This was 

 accomplished by collecting sediment to dredging depth with a 

 large box core at stations all along the channel to be dredged. 

 Figure 1 shows a representation of the study area and the 

 location of aquatic disposal at the Central Long Island Sound 

 Disposal Site. 



The sediment collected from the dredging area for the 

 laboratory studies was placed into a commercial cement mixer for 

 homogenization. This composite sediment was then placed in a 

 series of 55 gallon drums; the drums of BRH material were 

 transported to WES and ERLN and refrigerated. 



The contaminant concentrations in this BRH sediment 

 composite have been extensively characterized (Rogerson et al., 

 1985) at ERL-N. In addition, a sample of this material was 

 transported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 

 Environmental Research Laboratory at Duluth, MN (ERL-D) in 

 September of 1986 for the analysis of polychlorinated dibenzo-p- 

 dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) . 

 Preliminary results from these analyses indicated very high 

 levels of 2, 3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2 , 3 , 7 , 8-tetra- 

 CDD) . This caused concern because this compound is one of the 

 most toxic compounds known for some species. Further analysis 

 was therefore warranted to confirm these results or detect 

 possible contamination or analytical problems. The final results 

 from this initial sample and the results of subsequent analyses 



