Tony Pait

2018

Working with local partners (USVI Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR), and the National Park Service (NPS)), the project will result in the collection and analysis of sediments from Salt River Bay for a suite of over 150 chemical contaminants, using a stratified random sampling design. In addition, a sediment core will be taken and analyzed to assess chemical contamination in deeper, older sediments that may reflect past land use and associated inputs of chemical contaminants. The project will complement the earlier work done by Cheryl Woodley, possibly providing an assessment of changes in chemical contaminants following the hurricanes of 2017. The work will also complement a project conducted by NCCOS in the St. Thomas East End Reserves (STEER) between 2011 - 2013, allowing for a comparison of results between Salt River Bay and the STEER. A number of environmental monitoring projects have recently been undertaken in Salt River Bay. These include the previous collection of targeted sediments for chemical contaminants (Cheryl Woodley), and ongoing fish tracking and trapping work. Upcoming work in Salt River Bay includes the collection of fish for contaminant body burdens as well as the tracking and collection of conch, also for chemical contaminant body burdens. Data gaps related to ongoing studies of chemical contaminants in sediments have been identified. Through the careful leveraging of these projects, funds repurposed from the DPNR through their cooperative agreement with CRCP, will be used to address the identified data gaps, specifically the additional assessment of chemical contaminants in surface sediments using a stratified random sampling approach, along with an analysis of chemical contaminants in a sediment core.

The project will provide an assessment of chemical contaminants in sediments throughout Salt River Bay, information needed by DPNR and the NPS for informed resource management decisions. Given the likely sources of chemical stressors in Salt River Bay (nonpoint source inputs from residential areas, barren lands and a marina/boat building facility), contaminants in sediments in Salt River Bay may be an issue. Because this project is being conducted by NCCOS, the results of the analysis can be compared to other studies completed throughout the coastal areas of the US by NS&T's national monitoring program, and also to NOAA sediment quality guidelines. Finally, data and metadata will be generated from this project along with an NCCOS Technical Memo, all delivered to CoRIS and to project partners.

• U.S. Virgin Islands

Land-based Sources of Pollution (LBSP)

Closed

Funding Ended

https://www.coris.noaa.gov/search/rest/find/document?searchText=projectNumber%3A31213%20OR%20projectTitle%3A"Assessment%20of%20Chemical%20Contaminants%20in%20the%20Sediments%20of%20Salt%20River%20Bay"&start=1&max=10&f=searchPage