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Metal Concentrations of Sediment from 1993-2017 in San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary (San Pablo Bay and Suisun Bay), CA

Published by U.S. Geological Survey | Department of the Interior | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2020-08-20T00:00:00Z
Surface sediment samples from the North San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary were collected monthly at five stations located west of Rio Vista and east of Point Pinole. Sediment was collected near Montezuma Slough, Chips Island, the Concord Naval Weapons Station, Carquinez Strait near Martinez, and San Pablo Bay at water depths ranging from 6.5 to 14.3 meters. Samples were collected coincident with water-quality measurements (Cloern and Schraga, 2016) and metal concentrations in filter-feeding bivalves (Brown and Luoma, 1995; Stewart et al., 2013). Depending on the station, the period of record ranges from 13 to 24 years, from December 1993 to September 2017. Samples were sieved to <64 µm to eliminate grain-size bias and digested in hot, concentrated nitric acid for a near-total digest (Luoma and Bryan, 1981). Grain-size was also determined and is both seasonally and spatially variable. Sediments were analyzed for Aluminum, Arsenic, Chromium, Copper, Iron, Lead, Manganese, Nickel, Vanadium, and Zinc on an Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES). Metal recoveries for this project were evaluated yearly using the standard reference material NIST 2709a-San Joaquin soils. This spatial and temporal documentation of metal concentrations in North San Francisco Bay sediments, and ancillary data, such as grain size, provides important baseline data that can be used to monitor future changes of metal contamination to San Francisco Bay.

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