In July, 1984, under the authority of the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiated an effort to develop sediment quality criteria. This effort was initiated with a workshop, in which a variety of experts worked to identify an approach by which the Agency could develop numerical sediment quality criteria. Efforts are under way to evaluate, modify, and verify the approach selected by the workshop through literature reviews, bioassays, data analysis, and field verification studies. The near-term goal of this effort is to present the findings of this effort to the EPA's Science Advisory Board for review and eventual approval.