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On-line Toxicity Monitors and Their Use in an Upper Mississippi Watershed Water Quality Monitoring Network
Citation:
ALLEN, JOEL J. AND W. FRANZ. On-line Toxicity Monitors and Their Use in an Upper Mississippi Watershed Water Quality Monitoring Network. Presented at Midwest Regional SETAC, LaCrosse, WI, April 02, 2009.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public
Description:
A collaborative effort to monitor the upper Mississippi River watershed using On-line Toxicity Monitors (OTMs) is underway with three sites currently deployed and several more at various stages of development. Federal, State, and Local, agencies as well as utilities and University’s are working to establish a network of monitoring stations that will provide early detection of water quality changes and provide data to stakeholders in a time-relevant manner for decision-making. The monitoring stations consist of three monitoring instruments (clam monitor, YSI multi-parameter sonde, S::CAN UV Vis specto::lyzer) and an automatic trigger based water sampler. Contaminants are of concern when they are found in concentrations that are toxic to plants and/or animals. OTMs rely on physiological or behavioral changes of living organisms, in this case bivalve gape behavior, which integrate all factors resulting in stress to detect potentially harmful changes in water quality. This is important because of the limitations of chemical specific monitoring; you only find what you are looking for and only if the chemical is present in measurable concentrations. Detection of chemicals in toxic concentrations provides the most reliable protection of water resources. OTMs are quite sensitive relative to both concentration and time to response. Given the rapid response of OTMs (within 1-2 hours of exposure), they are ideally suited for the task of continuous monitoring of water supplies to screen for changes in water quality due to chemical contamination. The use of OTMs in the watershed protection context, specifically the collaborative Upper Mississippi River Water Quality Monitoring Network, and potential forensic responses to detection of changes in water quality will be discussed.
