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8402060 
Meetings & Symposia 
Reliability of sediment quality assessment in Puget Sound 
Barrick, RC; Beller, HR 
1989 
Publ by IEEE 
Piscataway, NJ, United States 
421-426 
English 
Two measures of reliability of sediment quality assessment are evaluated using actual field data from 13 urban and nonurban embayments in Puget Sound: (1) sensitivity in detecting environmental problems (i.e., are all biologically impacted sediments identified) and (2) efficiency in screening environmental problems (i.e., are only biologically impacted sediments identified). High overall reliability results from correct prediction of a large percentage of biologically impacted stations (i.e., high sensitivity; few false negatives) and correct prediction of a large percentage of the nonimpacted stations (i.e., high efficiency; few false positives). These measures of reliability were applied to a range of sediment criteria generated by the equilibrium partitioning (EP) and apparent effects threshold (AET) approaches. Overall reliability ranged from 44% to 64% for the EP approach and from 42% to 85% for the AET approach, depending on the particular criterion and biological indicator tested. A higher percentage of correct predictions was made using a combination of the two approaches than by either approach alone. It is noted that unless cause-effect relationships between contaminants and adverse biological effects can be acceptably established, additional steps are necessary to ensure that remedial actions effectively mitigate predicted problems. Steps based on the principles of sensitivity and efficiency are recommended. 
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