A sewage sludge bioaccumulation potential test responsive to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Ocean Dumping Regulations and Criteria was developed and evaluated with sludges from twelve water pollution control plants with secondary treatment. In keeping with the regulations, the test was designed to examine if hard clams, grass shrimp, and Atlantic silversides exposed to sludge exhibited statistically elevated body burdens of cadmium, mercury, PCB, DDT and metabolites, and petroleum hydrocarbons compared against controls. Exposure consisted of ten-day renewal followed by a two-day post-exposure period in clean seawater. Five replicate aquaria per treatment per species were employed using sludge concentrations of 0.033, 0.0084, and 0.0042%. Seven hundred and eighty tissue samples were analyzed for the specified chemicals. Of 195 possible statistical evaluations (13 sludges × 3 species × 5 chemicals), significant differences between treatment group means occurred in only 31 trials. However, in 27 of these trials, the highest body burden mean was (1) at or below pretest levels for the organisms tested, (2) within the concentration range exhibited by control groups over the study period, or (3) present in controls. The inherent limitations of basing pass/fail compliance of ocean-dumped material on a single timepoint exposure are discussed.