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Methylmercury in Dredging Operations and Dredge Material Placement in the San Francisco Estuary

Thursday January 28, 2010
9am to 5pm

First Floor Auditorium
State of California Building
1515 Clay Street
Oakland, CA 94612

Agenda

Meeting Purpose: Discuss information needs and options for managing adverse impacts of methylmercury from dredging and dredged material placement, particularly in restoration efforts.

Target Audience: Participants will include representatives from the dredging community, managers, scientists, the USACE, and other interested parties.

Meeting Goals: The meeting goals are to:

  • Summarize the state of knowlege of methylmercury processes for dredging and dredged material placement
  • Explore which components of the ecosystem need to be monitored in order to evaluate methylmercury impact
  • Discuss how we define a positive outcome with respect to dredged material reuse

Contact Don Yee at (510) 746-7369, Jennifer Hunt at (510) 746-7347, or Bill Brostoff at
(415) 503-6867 for more information.

Presentations

  • Bill Brostoff (USACE)
    Welcome/goals for this meeting (Presentation PDF)
  • Ellen Johnck (Bay Planning Coalition)
    Welcome/goals for this meeting (VIDEO)
  • Steve Goldbeck (San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission)
    Introduction to the LTMS and LTMS questions regarding mercury methylation and dredging
    activities/dredge material placement     (Presentation PDF) (VIDEO)
  • Dyan White Agency discussion of MeHg management needs Context of overall MeHg management strategy for San Francisco Bay. Goals of mercury TMDL. (Presentation PDF) (VIDEO)
  • Brian Ross (USEPA) Context for evaluating dredging/dredge material disposal/dredge material reuse. Dredging operations and dredged sediment disposal quantities, present and projections Relative amts in bay ocean upland and wetland disposal, how big is this issue (Presentation PDF)
  • Don Yee (SFEI) A Simple MeHg mass budget for SF Bay Context and extrapolation of dredged material/wetland contribution Don Yee, SFEI- gives a sense of how big an impact dredging and restoration operations could/would have on the whole system (Presentation PDF) (VIDEO)
  • Mark Marvin-DiPasquale (USGS) How sediment mobilization affects inorganic mercury speciation and methylation potential: Case studies from Alviso Slough and the S. Yuba River (VIDEO)
  • Elly Best (ERDC) Summary of Hamilton Wetland Restoration Studies Very detailed info- how can/do we design restoration and monitoring plans based on info collected, and extrapolate to other sites. Lessons learned. (Presentation PDF) (VIDEO)
  • Mark Stephenson (CDFG) MeHg transport to/from Suisun Bay wetlands Estimates, uncertainties and challenges of export measurement (Presentation PDF) (VIDEO)
  • Bryan Bemis (Applied Marine Sciences) Mercury methylation in dredged material settlement ponds from Sacramento and San Joaquin River dredge material. (Presentation PDF) (VIDEO)
  • Holger Hintelman (Trent University) Measuring methylmercury exposure Monitoring options- Diffusion Gradient Thinfilm (DGT) Is this a good surrogate for biota? Or water or sediment? (Presentation PDF) (VIDEO)
  • Letitia Grenier (SFEI) Monitoring options- biosentinels Make your beneficial use target your monitoring tool. Management planning options. South Bay Salt Ponds Plans- Case study/ Example strategy -how to move ahead without certainty - benefits, pitfalls, best/worst case scenarios. (Presentation PDF) (VIDEO)
  • Manager Round Table (VIDEO)
  • Scientist Round Table (VIDEO)