The Department of Environmental Conservation originally proposed sedimen criteria in 1989, as an appendix of a Cleanup Standards Task Force Report. These criteria were controversial because the proposed methodology, equilibrium partitioning, had not yet been endorsed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board, and because the criteria themselves were perceived as remediation target concentrations. This revised sediment criteria document was prepared to incorporate scientific literature published since 1989, ar to establish the purpose of sediment criteria for screening; that is, to identify areas of sediment contamination and to make a preliminary assessment of the risk posed by the contamination to human health and the environment. Criteria are developed for two classes of contaminants - non-polar organic contaminants and metals. Non-polar organic contaminant criteria are derived using the equilibrium partitionir approach, which has now been endorsed by the EPA Science Advisory Board. Thi approach estimates the biological impacts that a contaminant may cause based on it's affinity to sorb to organic carbon in the sediment. The concentration of biologically available contaminant is predicted and related to potential toxicity and bioaccumulation by using existing criteria established for the water column. New York State water quality standards and guidance values are used to derive sedimen criteria. EPA water quality criteria are used only when New York State has not published a standard or guidance value for a particular compound. Water quality criteria for bioaccumulation proposed by the Divisions of Fish and Wildlife and Marine Resources are used when no New York State water quality standard or guidance value for bioaccumulation has been developed...