Benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages and sediment toxicity testing in the Ely Creek watershed restoration project

Conference · Thu Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1998

OSTI ID:361706

Soucek, D J; Currie, R J; Cherry, D S; Latimer, H A ^[1]; Trent, G C ^[2]

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1. Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ., Blacksburg, VA (United States). Dept. of Biology
2. Virginia Dept. of Mined Land Reclamation, Big Stone Gap, VA (United States)

The Ely Creek watershed in Lee County, Virginia, contains an abundance of abandoned mined land (AML) seeps that contaminate the majority of the creek and its confluence into Big Stone Creek. Contaminated sediments had high concentrations of iron ({approximately}10,000 mg/kg), aluminum ({approximately}1,500 mg/kg), magnesium ({approximately}400 mg/kg) and manganese ({approximately}150 mg/kg). Copper and zinc generally ranged from 3 to 20 mg/kg. Benthic macroinvertebrates surveys at six of 20 sites sampled in the watershed yielded no macroinvertebrates, while eight others had total abundances of 1 to 9 organisms. Four reference sites contained {ge}100 organisms and at least 14 different taxa. Laboratory, 10-day survival/impairment sediments tests with Daphnia magna did not support the field data. Mortality of 92 to 100% for D. magna occurred in samples collected from six cities. Daphnid reproduction was more sensitive than laboratory test organism survivorship; however, neither daphnid survivorship nor reproduction were good predictors of taxa richness. Laboratory test concerns included the use of a reference diluent water rather than site specific diluent water.

• OSTI ID: 361706
• Report Number(s): CONF-9805185--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
ACID MINE DRAINAGE
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
COAL MINING
LAND RECLAMATION
MORTALITY
STREAMS
VIRGINIA
WATERSHEDS