Ecological risk assessment of the fish community of the Clinch River/Poplar Creek system

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:212057

Suter, G; Barnthouse, L; Efroymson, R; Jaeger, H; Beauchamp, J ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)

The CERCLA remedial investigation for the Clinch River/Poplar Creek included the fish community as an endpoint. The assessment endpoint was defined as a 20% reduction in the species richness or abundance of the fish community in the Poplar Creek embayment or in any of three reaches of the Clinch River. Screening of chemicals in water against benchmarks determined that Ag, Cd, Cu, Hg, Ni, Zn, PCBs, and bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate were contaminants of potential ecological concern (COPECs). Comparison of the distributions of COPEC concentrations with the distributions of literature toxicity values indicated that none of the COPECs was routinely toxic but episodic concentrations (< 10% of the distribution) of some COPECs were in the toxic range. Aqueous toxicity tests gave unclear results except for regularly high lethality to fish embryos in Poplar Creek. Bioindicators analysis found elevated histopathologies and disrupted reproductive indicators in Centrarchids from Poplar Creek, but their implications for the community are unclear. Body burdens of PCBs in some channel catfish exceeded levels associated with sublethal effects on that species in the laboratory. Electrofishing and gill netting found that the fish community of Poplar Creek had low species number and abundance, but habitat quality was also low. These mixed results present a challenge to ecological risk characterization based on weight-of-evidence. The process of weighing the evidence will be presented.

• OSTI ID: 212057
• Report Number(s): CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
BIOLOGICAL ACCUMULATION
BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS
CADMIUM
CLINCH RIVER
COPPER
FISHES
MERCURY
NICKEL
OAK RIDGE RESERVATION
PHTHALATES
POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS
REMEDIAL ACTION
SENSITIVITY
SILVER
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
STREAMS
TOXICITY
WATER POLLUTION
ZINC