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EFFECT OF LAND TREATMENT ON THE MUTAGENICITY OF MILWAUKEE HARBOR SEDIMENT [POSTER PRESENTATION]
Citation:
Schenck*, K M., M. Sivaganesan*, C M. Acheson*, G D. Sayles*, B W. Merriman, AND N. G. Sellers. EFFECT OF LAND TREATMENT ON THE MUTAGENICITY OF MILWAUKEE HARBOR SEDIMENT [POSTER PRESENTATION]. Presented at Meeting of the Environmental Mutagen Society, New Orleans, LA, 4/8-13/2000.
Description:
Sediment from the Milwaukee harbor is known to be contaminated with PAHs and PCBs. A pilot-scale study was conducted to evaluate the potential of land treatment to detoxify these contaminants, as determined by several chemical and biological endpoints, including mutagenicity. The sediment either received no treatment or was treated by adding anaerobic digester biosolids from a sewage treatment plant at levels of 0, 5, 10 and 20%, by weight, and a bulking agent (perlite) at 50%, by volume. The treated sediments were frequently tilled to enhance degradation of the contaminants by microorganisms present in the samples. Methylene chloride/acetone extracts of the sediment samples were prepared at the beginning of the study, and following 9 and 29 weeks of treatment. The extracts were concentrated and dissolved in DMSO. They were tested in the Ames assay using TA100 and TA98, with and without S9. Initially, mutagenic activity was observed in the sediment samples only in the presence of S9 in both strains. After 9 weeks of treatment, the sample containing 20% biosolids showed activity in TA98 without S9. Preliminary data indicates that this sample is also mutagenic in TA100 without 29 weeks of treatment. The levels of mutagenicity observed in the sediment samples in the presence of S9 in TA100 and TA98 did not show any significant changes following 9 or 29 weeks of land treatment, based on comparisons using covariance analysis on log transformed data. These results indicate that land treatment did not substantially reuse the mutagenic activity present in the harbor sediment during the time period evaluated. Additionally, the data suggest that some compounds may have been transformed during treatment, giving rise to direct acting mutagenicity that was not present initially.