Identifying biological monitoring tools to evaluate the chronic effects of chemical exposures in terrestrial plants

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:49572

Linder, G ^[1]

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1. ManTech Environmental Technology, Inc., Corvallis, OR (United States)

When contamination of any habitat, such as a wetland impacted by heavy metals or a high desert disposal area impacted by chlorophenols and chlorophenoxy herbicides, is considered within an ecological risk assessment context, long-term land use goals should be included as part of the decision-making process, especially when remediation options are being considered for the site. If imminent threats to human health and the environment are highly unlikely, and environmental management and projected land use allow, remediation options and monitoring programs for a site should be developed that assure long-term habitat use, while continuing surveillance for evaluating potential chronic ecological effects. For example, at Milltown Reservoir wetlands on the Clark Fork River in western Montana the baseline ecological risk assessment suggested that no current adverse biological or ecological effects warranted extensive remediation at the site. But, given the land use goals currently anticipated for the wetland habitat and the hydroelectric facility located on the Clark Fork River, a program,should be developed that, in part, continues assessing plant communities and sublethal biological effects as cost-effective monitoring tools for evaluating long-term effects associated with metal-contaminated soils. Similarly, high desert sites that have been impacted by past disposal activities like that at Alkali Lake, Oregon, should be monitored using cost-effective methods that continue to monitor terrestrial plants as a field screening tool for evaluating soil and groundwater contaminated with chlorophenols and chlorophenoxy herbicides.

• OSTI ID: 49572
• Report Number(s): CONF-9410273--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
CHLORINATED AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
CHRONIC EXPOSURE
GROUND WATER
LAND POLLUTION
PLANTS
SENSITIVITY
SOILS
TOXICITY