SQGs Sediment Quality Guidelines

Use of Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs) and Related Tools for the Assessment of Contaminated Sediments. Fairmont Hot Springs, Montana, 17 to 22 Ang 2002. Pnblished by SETAC, 2005. 

Various sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) and benchmark values have been proposed by several states and federal agencies in the USA and other countries. However, none of these benchmarks have been adopted for widespread regulatory applications. Concentrations of TEQ in... 

Fig. 2.17. Comparison of measured levels and sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) for total polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sediments from the various sites, in South Korea (a) freshwater (n = 64), (b) brackish (n = 15), and (c) marine sediments (n = 362). Range indicates minimum (min), maximum (max), and arithmetic mean (avg.). Dotted lines represent SQGs of effect range low (ERL) and effect range median (ERM) for total PCBs (Long et al., 1995).

Figure 1. Relationship between SED-TOX scores and mean Sediment Quality Guideline (SQG) quotients. Scores varying between 0.1 and 0.9 represent a marginal hazard scores between 1.0 and 1.9 indicate a moderate hazard and scores greater or equal to 2.0 represent a high hazard potential.

The TU approach, combined with equilibrium partitioning (EqP) and (Q)SAR modeling, was also used by Swartz and DiToro (1997) to develop the XPAII model to predict the toxicity of sediment-associated PAH compounds. A (Q)SAR and EqP method is also presented by Swartz and DiToro (1997) for modeling narcotic chemicals in sediments. In this approach, the sediment quality guideline for a mixture of narcotic chemicals that exhibit additive toxicity could be expressed as the sum of the fraction of the OC-normalized sediment concentrations divided by the SQG for each... 

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