Recovery in the health of fish populations and communities following remedial activities at a bleached kraft mill facility
Conference
·
OSTI ID:442904
- Oak Ridge National Labs., TN (United States)
- Tennessee Valley Authority, Norris, TN (United States)
Fish populations and communities were studied over a seven year period in a river receiving bleached kraft mill effluent (BKME). The period of these investigations preceded and accompanied the extensive modernization of mill facilities and the implementation of design changes to reduce contaminant discharges and minimize impacts on the river ecology. Before modernization, reaches of the river downstream of the discharges were characterized by depauperate fish communities and severely skewed population distributions. The relative condition of both individual fish and fish populations in the river prior to remediation was consistent with effects frequently attributed to exposure to endocrine disrupting agents, including a sex ratio strongly skewed towards male fish, alterations in reproductive hormone levels, pronounced atresia of the developing oocytes in female fish, and a general absence of young fish suggesting near total reproductive failure in a sentinel fish population. Following modernization, sex ratios have trended towards normality, young fish have returned to the mainstream river, and fish communities have become more diverse coincident with corresponding decreases in body burdens of dioxin and other indirect indicators of contaminant exposure, including liver detoxification enzyme activity. The significance of these studies lie in the establishment of distinct links between both: (1) the exposure of individual wild fish to BKME and alterations in fish population and community structure, and (2) the implementation of process changes in a mill producing BKME and noticeable improvements in fish health from the individual to community levels of biological organization.
- OSTI ID:
- 442904
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-961149--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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