Figure 1. Battelle designed a transect grid for sediment collection covering 800 meters of Stratford Point's shoreline.

From the 1920s until 1986, the sports of trap and skeet at the former Remington/Lordship Gun Club on Stratford Point, Stratford, Connecticut, discharged lead shot into the waters and sediments surrounding the Point. Research determined that some 400,000 cubic yards of subtidal, intertidal, and upland sediments would need to be remediated to bring the lead shot level to a non-threatening concentration for the Point’s black duck population. Because only the intertidal and upland sediments provide access to lead shot to these species, only those areas will be remediated. The subtidal lead shot will be left in place to avoid risk of degradation to other nearby resources from the remediation.

To verify that subtidal shot is not transported to the intertidal zone, a long-term monitoring program was required and will become part of the remediation effort. Battelle scientists have designed and are currently implementing this long-term monitoring program. Specifically, the monitoring program is designed to test the hypothesis that lead shot is not transported to the intertidal zone. Battelle’s statistically based, in-depth shot transport monitoring program will determine any possible shoreward migration of shot from the subtidal zone to the intertidal zone.

The shoreline surrounding the Point is divided into two sectors relative to the energy of the wave action, a high-energy area and a low-energy area. Because shoreward migration of lead shot may differ in the two energy areas, Battelle’s monitoring plan will collect data from both energy sectors.

To collect the necessary data to test the hypothesis, a two-stage sampling plan for sediment sample collection was selected. Battelle devised a transect grid encompassing 800 meters of the shoreline surrounding the Point that divides the intertidal zone into the two energy sectors and three tidal zones—upper tidal, middle tidal, and lower tidal. This sampling grid is illustrated in Figure 1. Sediment samples for which the concentration of lead shot will be measured, will be collected in such a way that both energy sectors and all three tidal zones are represented. Battelle’s design ensures that sufficient data will be collected to allow any shoreward movement of lead shot over time to be recognized and quantified. The sampling plan also allows for differences in shot migration between the energy sectors to be determined.

For more information please contact Steve Naber at (614) 424-3536, via e-mail at nabers@battelle.org, or Carlton Hunt at (781) 952-5374, via e-mail at huntc@battelle.org.