Sources of organochlorine contaminants in the Lake Tahoe Basin

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

OSTI ID:460521

Datta, S ^[1]; McConnell, L L ^[2]; Baker, J E ^[3]; Seiber, J N ^[4]

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1. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States). Dept. of Environmental Toxicology
2. Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD (United States)
3. Univ. of Maryland System, Solomons, MD (United States)
4. Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States). Center of Environmental Sciences and Engineering

Residues of chlorinated hydrocarbons measured in lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) from Lake Tahoe ranged from 32 to 319 ng/g PCBs (wet wt.). High volume water sampling of Lake Tahoe surface water demonstrated the presence of total PCBs with an average concentration of 0.38 ng/L. To investigate the hypothesis that these residues originated from atmospheric deposition, fish samples were examined for residues from Marlette Lake, which served as a reference lake for this study because of its location at a higher altitude than Lake Tahoe, with virtually no or little public access. Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss ssp.) from Marlette Lake had concentrations of total PCBs ranging from 1 to 6 ng/g (wet wt.). These results support atmospheric deposition as a significant contributor of residues to the Lake Tahoe Basin. Other localized sources of contamination are possible as well, and are under investigation. Also, the potential contribution of the Tahoe Basin watershed to the Lake Tahoe residues is being assessed through analysis of snow samples.

• OSTI ID: 460521
• Report Number(s): CONF-961149--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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