Projects  < back

Watershed Risk Assessment, Sudbury River, Nyanza Superfund Site, MA

EPA REGION 1

OVERVIEW

• Developed a site wide geospatial mercury database
• Designed and executed several extensive field investigations
• Integrated fish data, chronic toxicity testing, and fate and transport modeling into comprehensive risk assessments
• Coordinated multiple stakeholders including Mass DEP, USGS and US Fish and Wildlife
  

DESCRIPTION

Avatar was contracted by EPA Region 1 to assess ecological and human health risks in the Sudbury River in eastern Massachusetts and the surrounding watershed. This $1.7M Sudbury River investigation is one of four operable units associated with the Nyanza Superfund Site. This operable unit consists of approximately 35 miles of mercury-contaminated river that meanders through diverse urban and ecological communities, including the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. Avatar’s tasks include completion of an ecological risk assessment pertaining to the potential for bioaccumulation of mercury in various species in the Sudbury River watershed, and updating the draft human health risk assessment prepared in 1999 to include more recent fish tissue analytical data and the most up-to-date EPA risk assessment guidance and policy.

^ top

“CSTAG commends the site team for a thorough and systematic assessment of human health and ecological risks….one of the best assessments reviewed by CSTAG.”

— Steve Ells, Ph.D.
Co-Chair
USEPA’s National Contaminated Sediment Technical Assistance Group (CSTAG)