Toxicity of oil shale retort water to representative aquatic fishes. Progress report
The sensitivity of fathead minnow and rainbow trout embryos to oil shale retort water was investigated using static and flow-through bioassays. The continuous renewal of toxicant provided by the flow-through system resulted in mortalities at lower concentrations than in the static system; for the fathead minnow the LC50/sub 12/ was 0.08% in the flow-through and 0.14% in the static bioassay. Embryos of rainbow trout were more resistant to the toxicant than those of the fathead minnow. The incipient lethal concentration in the static bioassay system was between 0.4 and 0.2% for trout embryos and between 0.2 and 0.1% for the fathead minnow embryos. The response of fathead minnow embryos to toxicant changed with age. The most sensitive period appears to be about 24 to 30 hours after spawning when the embryos are undergoing rapid differentiation of the nervous and circulatory systems. Also performed were histochemical tests for the lysosomal enzymes ..beta..-glucuronidase and ..beta..-glucosamididase. These are ready to be applied to fishes exposed to low levels of oil shale retort water to determine whether sublethal effects on lysosomal structure have occurred. Experiments need to be performed to separate the toxicological effects of the inorganic from the organic constituents of the oil shale retort water and to compare the toxicity of oil shale retort water from different burns. We propose to use the fathead minnow embryo bioassay to obtain this information.
- Research Organization:
- California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore Lab.
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 5536995
- Report Number(s):
- UCID-18316
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
EMBRYOS
MORTALITY
OIL SHALES
TOXICITY
WASTE WATER
AGE DEPENDENCE
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
BIOASSAY
DOSE-RESPONSE RELATIONSHIPS
FISHES
GLUCURONIDASE
LYSOSOMES
MOLECULAR STRUCTURE
RETORTS
TROUT
ANIMALS
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CELL CONSTITUENTS
CHEMICAL REACTORS
ENERGY SOURCES
ENZYMES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GLYCOSYL HYDROLASES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROLASES
LIQUID WASTES
ORGANOIDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
VERTEBRATES
WASTES
WATER
041000* - Oil Shales & Tar Sands- Environmental Aspects
520100 - Environment
Aquatic- Basic Studies- (-1989)
560305 - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology- Vertebrates- (-1987)