291Environmental Analysis Tools
processing prior to disposal, and the low bioavailability, particularly under
the disposal area environmental conditions.
Similar to the physical exposure assessment, the determination of effects
from the physical stress of tailings deposition was not straightforward or
amenable to standard ecological risk assessment approaches. It was clear
to the environmental analysis team that extreme rates and depth of tailing
deposition would smother and alter benthic habitat, to the point that little
fauna could reside in the sediments. It was also well established that the
indigenous benthic infauna and the epibenthic fauna (e.g., at sh and crabs)
could tolerate modest rates of tailing