Design a testing scheme that would allow an estimation of the toxicity that these concentrations would exhibit, especially with regard to commercial salmon fishing, harvesting of the shellfish and crab by Native Americans, and impacts to sea otter populations. A terrestrial area has been a long-time site of commercial light industrial operations including a plating plant, an incinerator and fuel tanks for diesel and gasoline, and a wood products treatment facility. The incinerator is not licensed to burn hazardous materials, but combusts a variety of excess petroleum products, general household waste, and paper products. Little vegetation grows around the incinerator site and a roadway is paved to the east. Adjacent to the incinerator is a plating facility that has been on the premises 25 years.
Contamination is suspected, although the landscaping is doing well.
The tank farm meets current codes, due to the replacement of the old within the last 12 months. Above ground tanks had been at the site for the 5 years, and previous to those had been and before that underground tanks. Design a toxicity testing scheme to locate the most toxic sites in the area and target them for clean-up. Current comparisons to published NOECs indicates that the entire site needs to be remediated, but the owners have negotiated for a site specific evaluation. The following data are from those samples.