Comparison of laboratory and field avoidance behavior of fish in heated chlorinated water

Journal Article · Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1981 · Trans. Am. Fish. Soc.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1577/1548-8659(1981)110<526:COLAFA>2.0.CO;2· OSTI ID:6314209

Giattina, J D ^[1]; Cherry, D S; Cairns, J Jr; Larrick, S R

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1. Environmental Protection Agency, Corvallis, OR

The effects of intermittent chlorination and temperature selection on the movement of fish were studied in an integrated field and laboratory project on the New River at the Glen Lyn Power Plant in southwestern Virginia. Over a temperature range of 7 to 36 C, the total number of fish sampled from the intermittently chlorinated thermal effluent was lower than control values (P less than or equal to 0.09) when total residual chlorine (TRC) concentration were greater than or equal to 0.15 mg/liter. After seasonal variations were segregated into discrete intervals of field temperature and fish avoidance of TRC, a decline in fish abundance in the chlorinated, heated discharge was observed within 95% confidence limits. In summer field temperatures of 27 to 30 C, fish avoided a TRC concentration that ranged from 0.19 to 0.28 mg/liter TRC; when temperatures were falling from 26 to 7 C, they avoided 0.23 to 0.24 mg/liter TRC. In most cases, laboratory-determined avoidance concentrations predicted accurately the TRC concentrations that would elicit the avoidance behavior of fish under natural field conditions. Based on published acute toxicity tests with intermittent chlorination, spotfin shiners and most other fish species generally avoided chlorien residuals 50% or less of the median lethal concentrations.

• OSTI ID: 6314209
• Journal Information: Trans. Am. Fish. Soc.; (United States), Vol. 110:4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AVOIDANCE
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
CHLORINE
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
THERMAL POLLUTION
CHEMICAL EFFLUENTS
CHLORINATION
FISHES
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
SURFACE WATERS
THERMAL EFFLUENTS
WATER POLLUTION
ANIMALS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
BEHAVIOR
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
ELEMENTS
HALOGENATION
HALOGENS
NONMETALS
POLLUTION
POWER PLANTS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
VARIATIONS
VERTEBRATES
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