Work was performed to determine the feasibility of selectively detoxifying organic contaminants in sediments. The results of this research will be used to aid in the development of a scheme for whole-sediment toxicity identification evaluations (TIEs). The context in which the method will be used inherently restricts the treatments to which the sediments can be subjected: Sediments cannot be significantly altered physically or chemically and the presence and bioavailabilities of other toxicants must not be changed. The methodological problem is daunting because of the requirement that the detoxification method be relatively fast and convenient together with the stipulation that only innocuous and minimally invasive treatments be used. Some of the experiments described here dealt with degrees of decontamination (i.e., detoxification as predicted from instrumental measurements) of spiked sediments rather than with degrees of detoxification as gauged by toxicity tests (e.g., 48-h toxicity tests with amphipods). Although the larger TIE scheme itself is mostly outside the scope of this paper, theoretical aspects of bioavailability and of the desorption of organic contaminants from sediments are discussed.
