Refined Harbor Sediment Assessment, Port Whitby Marina, Canada

Located on a shallow natural harbor off Lake Ontario, Port Whitby Marina planned to remediate the harbor bed and requested refined sediment quality assessment to confirm or refute benthic health indicators from previous sediment toxicity tests. Port managers provided hotspot maps of chemical contamination for this legacy contamination site; INSPIRE was able to provide additional data and ecological analysis to refine conceptual remedial options.

INSPIRE scientists used SPI imagery to help explain how sediment transport processes for the harbor interact with chemical hotspots as part of site risk assessment. We provided these data as well as a decision-making framework to identify areas within Whitby Harbour that might present unacceptable risk to ecological receptors or human communities.