Chapter 6. Numerical Sediment Quality Assessment Guidelines for Florida Coastal Waters. Approach to the Assessment of Sediment Quality

State water quality criteria are one of the major management tools for protecting designated uses of coastal ecosystems, including maintenance of acceptable conditions for livingresources. While state water quality criteria provide effective tools for managing waterquality, they provide little guidance for managing sediment quality. Therefore, numericalsediment quality assessment guidelines (SQAGs) are required to help address concernsrelative to contamination of coastal ecosystems with substances that tend to be associatedwith bed sediments. In particular, there is a need for SQAGs that apply to substances that areknown or suspected to be present in Florida coastal sediments.

Publisher - Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)

Subjects - Sediment, Quality

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Citation: MacDonald DD. 1994. Approach to the assessment of sediment quality in Florida coastal waters. Volume 1. Tallahassee (FL): Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Chapter 6. Numerical Sediment Quality Assessment Guidelines for Florida Coastal Waters. Approach to the Assessment of Sediment Quality. p 48-75. http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/monitoring/docs/seds/vol1/chapter6.pdf