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COMPARISON OF MID-WESTERN AND MID-ATLANTIC REGIONS EXPOSURE CRITERIA FOR PETROLEUM AND COMBUSTION BY-PRODUCTS
Citation:
Cormier, S M., E.L C. Lin, B Subramanian, AND F A. Fulk. COMPARISON OF MID-WESTERN AND MID-ATLANTIC REGIONS EXPOSURE CRITERIA FOR PETROLEUM AND COMBUSTION BY-PRODUCTS. Presented at Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Nashville, TN, November 12-16, 2000.
Impact/Purpose:
The goal of this research is to develop methods and indicators that are useful for evaluating the condition of aquatic communities, for assessing the restoration of aquatic communities in response to mitigation and best management practices, and for determining the exposure of aquatic communities to different classes of stressors (i.e., pesticides, sedimentation, habitat alteration).
Description:
Regional background levels of exposure to fish from petroleum and combustion by-products were determined for the state of Ohio (mid-Western) and the mid-Atlantic region. Exposures were measured using bile metabolites that fluoresce at 290/335 nm for naphthalene (NAPH)-type compounds and at 380/440 nm for benzo(a)pyrene (BAP)-type compounds. Fish were sampled using a probabalistic sampling design developed for the Environmental Monitoring Assessment Program (EMAP) in the mid-Atlantic and Eastern Cornbelt Plains Ecoregion (ECBP) and least impacted (LI) sites selected by Ohio EPA. Criteria for exposure values above background were determined using International Federation of Clinical Chemistry recommendations for reference values. Exposure criteria for NAPH for white suckers were: EMAP mid-Atlantic region 60 ug/mL/mg; ECBP 60 ug/mL/mg; and Ohio LI sites 80 ug/mL/mg. For BAP, exposure criteria for white suckers were: EMAP Mid-Atlantic region 0.4 ug/mL/mg; ECBP 0.4 ug/mL/mg; and Ohio LI sites 0.5 ug/mL/mg. These values were remarkably similar regardless of reigon or site selection. This suggests that a single exposure criteria value could be used to determine if fish have been exposed to petroleum or combustion by-products.