Benthic Macroinvertebrate Community Assessment
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Benthic Macroinvertebrate Community Assessment Poseidon Project Union Bay, New Jersey to Jones Beach, New York Part I, New York Bight PREPARED FOR: Poseidon Transmission 1, LLC 401 Edgewater Place, Suite 650 Wakefield, Massachusetts 01880 PREPARED BY: ESS Group, Inc. 401 Wampanoag Trail, Suite 400 East Providence, Rhode Island 02915 Project No. P298-001 September 16, 2013 www.essgroup.com BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATE COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT Poseidon Project Union Bay, New Jersey to Jones Beach, New York Part I, New York Bight Prepared For: Poseidon Transmission 1, LLC 401 Edgewater Place, Suite 650 Wakefield, Massachusetts 01880 Prepared By: ESS Group, Inc. 401 Wampanoag Trail, Suite 400 East Providence, Rhode Island 02915 Project No. P298-001 September 16, 2013 © 2013 ESS Group, Inc. – This document or any part may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording without the express written consent of ESS Group, Inc. All rights reserved. TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION PAGE 1.0 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 1 2.0 METHODS .............................................................................................................................................. 1 2.1 Field Program ................................................................................................................................... 1 2.2 Laboratory Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 1 2.3 Data Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 2 3.0 RESULTS ................................................................................................................................................ 3 3.1 Taxa Richness .................................................................................................................................. 3 3.2 Macrofaunal Density ......................................................................................................................... 3 3.3 Macrofaunal Community Composition ............................................................................................. 4 3.3.1 Crustaceans ............................................................................................................................ 5 3.3.2 Polychaetes ............................................................................................................................. 5 3.3.3 Mollusks .................................................................................................................................. 5 3.3.4 Oligochaetes ........................................................................................................................... 6 3.3.5 Others ..................................................................................................................................... 6 3.4 Summary and Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 6 4.0 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................ 7 TABLES Table A Summary of Key Statistics from the Benthic Macrofauna Survey Table B Relative Abundance of Taxa Encountered along the Submarine Cable Route Table C Most Widespread Taxa Encountered along the Submarine Cable Route FIGURES Figure 1 Location of Benthic Grab Samples Collected from New York Waters Figure 2 Taxa Richness by Station Figure 3 Density by Station ATTACHMENTS Attachment A Results of the Benthic Macrofaunal Community Assessment © 2013 ESS Group, Inc. \\epdata\data\JOBS\P298-001 Poseidon Permitting\Regulatory\NY\Article VII\Sections\Appendices\App F_Benthic Assessment.doc 1.0 INTRODUCTION Poseidon Transmission 1, LLC (Poseidon) proposes to develop an electric interconnection between New Jersey and New York to deliver power from PJM’s bulk power grid to Long Island. This connection is aimed at reducing congestion within Nassau and Suffolk counties and the downstate region, and enhancing the diversity of generation sources supplying Long Island. The Poseidon Project is a 200 kV high voltage direct current (HVDC) 500 MW electric transmission cable connecting the existing PSEG Deans Substation in South Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey, with the existing Ruland Road Substation in the Town of Huntington, Suffolk County, New York. ESS Group, Inc. (ESS) conducted an assessment of the benthic macroinvertebrate community along the Submarine Cable Route portion of the Poseidon Project. Benthic macroinvertebrates are defined for the purpose of this study as organisms greater than 500 microns (μm) in length that either live on or in sediments, including primitive (unsegmented) worms, annelids (segmented worms), mollusks, and crustaceans, among others. This report focuses on the benthic macroinvertebrate community along the New York portion of Submarine Cable Route. The Poseidon Submarine Cable Route enters New York waters just south of Rockaway Point and makes landfall at Jones Beach. 2.0 METHODS 2.1 Field Program To obtain route-specific information on the benthic community in New York waters of the Project Area, 29 benthic samples were collected along the Submarine Cable Route from Jones Beach State Park, New York to the state line just south of Rockaway Point (Figure 1) in August 2013. Benthic samples were collected using a 0.1-m2 Young-modified Van Veen grab, deployed from the survey vessel prior to vibracore activities at each site to minimize disturbance to the benthic community being sampled. After collection, contents of each grab sample were sieved through a 0.5 mm mesh in the field, and the retained material and organisms were fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin. 2.2 Laboratory Analysis Upon receipt at the laboratory, benthic samples were logged and checked for adequate preservation. Prior to sorting, sample material from each sample was emptied in its entirety into a sieve with 0.5 millimeter or finer mesh. Tap water was gently run over the sieve to rinse away any additional fine sediment that was not removed during the field sieving process as well as to remove the formalin solution prior to the microscope work. The material in the sieve was gently washed to one side, minimizing the opportunity for organisms to become damaged from the direct flow of water. The sieve was visually inspected to ensure that all organisms had been removed. Rinsed samples were preserved in 70% ethanol. Preserved benthic samples were processed to sort benthic organisms from residual debris. Due to the high volume of debris in some samples, the material was first split into as many as 16 equal fractions using a gridded tray. Randomly selected fractions were sub-sampled and sorted until a target of 100 organisms was retained or a sufficient sub-sample had been examined, as determined by best professional judgment of a senior taxonomist. The unsorted and sorted fractions of each sample were retained separately, preserved in 70% ethanol. Samples with little debris and very few organisms were sorted in their entirety. For quality assurance and control (QA/QC) purposes, a second qualified staff member (quality assurance officer) resorted 10% of the samples analyzed by each sorter to ensure organisms were being adequately retained. The quality assurance officer checked the sorted sample material for any remaining organisms and calculated an efficiency rating ( E ) using the following formula: © 2013 ESS Group, Inc. \\epdata\data\jobs\p298-001 poseidon permitting\regulatory\ny\article vii\sections\appendices\app f_benthic assessment.doc Benthic Macroinvertebrate Community Assessment September 16, 2013 n E 100 a na nb Where na is the number of individuals originally sorted and verified as identifiable organisms by the QC checker and nb is the number of organisms recovered by the QC checker. If the original sorter achieved E < 90% (i.e., less than 90% of the organisms in the sample removed), an additional sample sorted by that analyst was re-examined by the quality assurance officer. In samples where organisms were very sparse (i.e., fewer than 25 organisms in the sorted fraction), the QA/QC criteria were adjusted to no more than 20 organisms remaining in the sorted residue. None of the samples analyzed failed to meet QA/QC sorting efficiency criteria. All sorted organisms were subsequently identified by a qualified taxonomist to the lowest taxonomic level possible using a dissecting microscope with magnification up to 45X and readily available taxonomic keys. Selected polychaetes (e.g., capitellid worms) and unsegmented worms were mounted in CMC-10 mounting media using methods consistent with those outlined in Epler (2001). Identification of slide- mounted organisms was conducted under a compound microscope with magnification to 1,000X. The primary taxonomic references used for macroinvertebrate identification include Pettibone (1963), Smith (1964), Gosner (1971), Bousfield (1973), Cook and Brinkhurst (1973), Abbott and Morris (1995), Weiss (1995), and Bartholomew (2001). Enumerations of macroinvertebrates identified from each sample were tracked on bench sheets and transcribed into an electronic spreadsheet. Prior to data summary,