Abstract

 A number of large-scale contaminated studies were conducted during the last 15 years, including: Upper Hudson River, Lower Fox River, Grasse River (New York) and Lavaca Bay (Texas). These large-scale studies provide important data and insights about contaminated sediment processes yet also yield valuable lessons concerning methods for conducting studies at other sites. A discussion of important aspects of a contaminated sediment study is presented, including: development of study objectives; use of a weight-of-evidence approach to test site-specific hypotheses; importance of a conceptual model for a site; identification of critical sediment and contaminant transport processes; and utility of data-based and modeling analyses. These concepts will be illustrated using information and results from several large-scale contaminated sediment studies. The results from large-scale studies are particularly applicable to sediment TMDLs because these studies are, typically, relatively small-scale studies. Thus, the lessons learned from the large-scale studies should be used to conduct sediment TMDL studies in a more effective and cost-efficient manner.