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ASSESSING CONTAMINANT SENSITIVITY OF ENDANGERED AND THREATENED SPECIES: 3. EFFLUENT TOXICITY TESTS
Citation:
Dwyer, F. J., D. K. Hardesty, C. E. Henke, Ingersoll, D. W. Whites, T. Augspurger, T. Canfield, Mount, AND F L. Mayer Jr. ASSESSING CONTAMINANT SENSITIVITY OF ENDANGERED AND THREATENED SPECIES: 3. EFFLUENT TOXICITY TESTS. ARCHIVES OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION AND TOXICOLOGY 48(2):174-183, (2005).
Impact/Purpose:
To report impacts on the survival and growth of listed fish species using 7-day exposures to individual chemicals, a complex mixture, and field-collected effluents
Description:
Dwyer, F. James, Douglas K. Hardesty, Christopher E. Henke, Christopher G. Ingersoll, David W. Whites, Tom Augspurger, Timothy J. Canfield, David R. Mount and Foster L. Mayer. Submitted. Assessing Contaminant Sensitivity of Endangered and Threatened Species: 3. Effluent Tests. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 36 p. (ERL,GB 1210).
Toxicity tests using standard effluent test procedures described by USEPA were conducted with Ceriodaphnia dubia, fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) and seven threatened and endangered (listed) fish species from four families: Acipenseridae - shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum); Catostomidae - razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus); Cyprinidae - bonytail chub (Gila elegans), Cape Fear shiner (Notropis mekistocholas), Colorado pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius), spotfin chub (Hybopsis monacha); and Poecillidae - Gila topminnow (Poeciliopsis occidentalis). We conducted 7-d survival and growth studies with embryo-larval fathead minnows and analogous exposures using the listed species. Survival and reproduction were also determined with C. dubia. Tests were conducted with carbaryl, ammonia, or a simulated effluent complex mixture of carbaryl, copper, 4-nonylphenol, pentachlorophenol, and permethrin at equitoxic proportions. In addition, Cape Fear shiners and spotfin chub were tested using diazinon, copper, and chlorine. Toxicity tests were also conducted with field-collected effluents from domestic or industrial facilities. Bonytail chub and razorback suckers where tested with effluents collected in Arizona whereas effluent samples collected from North Carolina were tested with Cape Fear shiner, spotfin chub, and shortnose sturgeon. The fathead minnow 7-d effluent test was often a reliable estimator of toxic effects to the listed fishes. However, in 21% of the tests, a listed species was more sensitive than fathead minnows. More sensitive species results varied by test so that usually no species was always more or less sensitive than fathead minnows. Only the Gila topminnow was consistently less sensitive than the fathead minnow. Listed fish species were protected 96% of the time when results for both fathead minnows and C. dubia were considered, indicating the value of standard-whole effluent toxicity tests using those two species.