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Pollution Assessment of the Biobío River (Chile): Prioritization of Substances of Concern Under an Ecotoxicological Approach

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Abstract

The water demand for human activities is rapidly increasing in developing countries. Under these circumstances, preserving aquatic ecosystems should be a priority which requires the development of quality criteria. In this study we perform a preliminary prioritization of the risky substances based on reported ecotoxicological studies and guidelines for the Biobío watershed (Central Chile). Our specific aims are (1) reviewing the scientific information on the aquatic pollution of this watershed, (2) determining the presence and concentration of potential toxic substances in water, sediment and effluents, (3) searching for quality criteria developed by other countries for the selected substances and (4) prioritizing the most risky substances by means of deterministic ecotoxicological risk assessment. We found that paper and mill industries were the main sources of point pollution, while forestry and agriculture were mostly responsible for non-point pollution. The most risky organic substances in the water column were pentachlorophenol and heptachlor, while the most relevant inorganic ones were aluminum, copper, unionized ammonia and mercury. The most risky organic and inorganic substances in the sediment were phenanthrene and mercury, respectively. Our review highlights that an important effort has been done to monitor pollution in the Biobío watershed. However there are emerging pollutants and banned compounds—especially in sediments—that require to be monitored. We suggest that site-specific water quality criteria and sediment quality criteria should be developed for the Biobío watershed, considering the toxicity of mixtures of chemicals to endemic species, and the high natural background level of aluminum in the Biobío.

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Acknowledgements

Funds for this research came from the FONDAP N° 151300 project (CRHIAM), CONICYT Chile, the University of Alcalá (research project CCG2013/EXP-054) and the project CGL2015-65346-R of the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain. Dr. Álvaro Alonso was supported by a grant of Becas Santander España to stay at EULA (Chile). Dr. Pilar Castro-Díez acknowledges CONICYT (Ministry of Education, Chile Government) for granting her stay at Concepción University (Concurso de atracción de Capital Humano Extranjero-MEC program). Dr. Ricardo Figueroa was supported by a grant Giner de los Ríos of the University of Alcalá (Spain) to stay at the Department of Life Sciences.

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  1. Department of Life Sciences, Docent Unit of Ecology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Alcalá, 28805 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain

    Álvaro Alonso & Pilar Castro-Díez

  2. Department of Aquatic Systems, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Center EULA-Chile and Center CRHIAM, University of Concepción, Box 160-C, Concepción, Chile

    Álvaro Alonso & Ricardo Figueroa

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  1. Álvaro Alonso
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  2. Ricardo Figueroa
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Correspondence to Álvaro Alonso.

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Alonso, Á., Figueroa, R. & Castro-Díez, P. Pollution Assessment of the Biobío River (Chile): Prioritization of Substances of Concern Under an Ecotoxicological Approach. Environmental Management 59, 856–869 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-017-0824-5

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