Food chain analysis at a mining waste-contaminated wetland
- Environmental Toxicology International, Inc., Seattle WA (United States)
- ManTech Environmental Technology, Inc., Corvallis, OR (United States)
A food chain analysis was performed in support of a baseline ecological risk assessment oat the Milltown Reservoir Sediments Superfund site in Montana. The site consists of over 450 acres of primarily palustrine wetland contaminated with metals from mining-wastes transported from upstream sources. The food chain analysis focused on several species of terrestrial and aquatic animals indigenous to montane wetlands of the northern Rocky Mountains. Samples of small mammal tissues, grasses, forbs, invertebrates, soils, sediment, aquatic plants, and fish were collected and analyzed for As, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn. A linear multimedia food-chain model was constructed to estimate daily intakes of the metals for each receptor, with assumed values for aquatic and terrestrial food items from the site, ingestion of local surface water, incidental ingestion of soils or sediments, and estimated bioavailability of soil metals. Evaluation of health risks was performed by the quotient method, where exposures expressed as daily intakes were compared to literature toxicity values. Results from the food chain analysis suggested that the health of primary consumers and higher trophic organisms (including mice, voles, muskrats, beaver, various waterfowl species, osprey, bald eagles, and deer) is not at risk due to the presence of elevated metals in sediments or upland soils at the site.
- OSTI ID:
- 33567
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9410273-; TRN: IM9518%%387
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 15. annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), Denver, CO (United States), 30 Oct - 3 Nov 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1994; Related Information: Is Part Of Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 15th annual meeting: Abstract book. Ecological risk: Science, policy, law, and perception; PB: 286 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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