Statistical approaches to screening hazardous waste sites for toxicity

Conference · Mon Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1987

OSTI ID:6002383

Thomas, J M; Athey, L A; Skalski, J R

Bioassay results from two field studies illustrate how maps of toxicity can be prepared based on systematic sampling and show how cleanup decisions can be made using bioassay results based on few samples. Logarithmically spaced soil samples were obtained along four parallel transects at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. A total of 72 soil samples were subjected to Daphnia, Microtox, algal, earthworm and lettuce root elongation bioassays. Bioassay results (excepting earthworms) were inconclusive for toxicity, but allowed us to ignore several classes of compounds, such as water-soluble heavy metals, herbicides, and insecticides, since our prior results using pure chemicals showed depressed algal growth in the presence of these contaminants. To depict the spatial pattern of observed seed mortality at each depth, we used kriging to produce contour maps. The results clearly showed that lettuce seed mortality was higher in the 15 to 30 cm fraction, that waste-trench soil was highly phytotoxic, and that toxicity decreased as a function of distance from the trench. In addition, we found that mortality contours produced by kriging could be useful in site cleanup decisions. A study was conducted using a series of water and sediment samples collected from a narrow stream adjacent to a wood treatment plant in Canton, Mississippi. Both creosote and pentachlorophenol were used for wood treatment. Sediment samples were collected every 20 m in the visibly contaminated zones. Based on simple linear interpolation of bioassay results, we found that different bioassays led to different conclusions regarding the toxicity of different areas, suggesting that contaminants other than creosote may have caused the observed toxicity. Moreover, chemical analysis was an inaccurate predictor of toxicity.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 6002383
• Report Number(s): PNL-SA-15066; CONF-870763-3; ON: DE88000087
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

510200* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
510500 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Site Resource & Use Studies-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
560300 -- Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
BIOASSAY
CHEMICAL WASTES
CREOSOTE
DECOMMISSIONING
DESIGN
DETECTION
FOOD
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
KRIGING
LETTUCE
MANAGEMENT
MAPPING
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICS
MUTAGEN SCREENING
PLANTS
REMEDIAL ACTION
SCREENING
SEDIMENTS
SEEDS
SITE SURVEYS
STATISTICS
SURFACE WATERS
USES
VEGETABLES
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WEAPONS