Storm Water Toxicity Evaluation Conducted at Naval Station San Diego, Naval Submarine Base San Diego, Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, and Naval Air Station North Island

This report describes results of a study to evaluate the toxicity of industrial storm water discharges from U.S. Navy facilities bordering San Diego Bay. The study was conducted to support a request from the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board to develop a scientifically based acute toxicity threshold for industrial storm water discharges that can be applied to National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. Current NPDES storm water permits at Navy facilities include a toxicity requirement that states: "undiluted storm water runoff associated with industrial activity shall not produce less than 90% survival 50% of the time, and not less than 70% survival, 10% of the time, using standard test species and protocol." The goal of the study was to develop a robust dataset of storm water and receiving water toxicity that can be used to support a scientifically-based acute toxicity threshold. The study included an extensive characterization of storm water toxicity, its causes, as well as characterization of surrounding receiving waters. Together, these data were used to assess toxicity thresholds based on the observed relationship between toxicity measured in storm water discharges and in receiving waters.

This is a work of the United States Government and therefore is not copyrighted. This work may be copied and disseminated without restriction. Many SSC San Diego public release documents are available in electronic format at http://www.spawar.navy.mil/sti/publications/pubs/index.html, The original document contains color images.