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Monitoring Fish Contaminant Responses to Abatement Actions: Factors that Affect Recovery

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Abstract

Monitoring of contaminant accumulation in fish has been conducted in East Fork Poplar Creek (EFPC) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee since 1985. Bioaccumulation trends are examined over a twenty year period coinciding with major pollution abatement actions by a Department of Energy facility at the stream’s headwaters. Although EFPC is enriched in many contaminants relative to other local streams, only polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and mercury (Hg) were found to accumulate in the edible portions of fish to levels of human health concern. Mercury concentrations in redbreast sunfish were found to vary with season of collection, sex and size of individual fish. Over the course of the monitoring, waterborne Hg concentrations were reduced >80%; however, this did not translate into a comparable decrease in Hg bioaccumulation at most sites. Mercury bioaccumulation in fish did respond to decreased inputs in the industrialized headwater reach, but paradoxically increased in the lowermost reach of EFPC. As a result, the downstream pattern of Hg concentration in fish changed from one resembling dilution of a headwater point source in the 1980s to a uniform distribution in the 2000s. The reason for this remains unknown, but is hypothesized to involve changes in the chemical form and reactivity of waterborne Hg associated with the removal of residual chlorine and the addition of suspended particulates to the streamflow. PCB concentrations in fish varied greatly from year-to-year, but always exhibited a pronounced downstream decrease, and appeared to respond to management practices that limited episodic inputs from legacy sources within the facility.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the many people who have worked on the BMAP bioaccumulation project over the years, especially David Cox, Rhonda Webster, David Farmer, Allison Fortner, Billy Goodrich, Don Harris, George Houser, Arnold Hunley, Bill Kyker, Trent Jett, Kenneth Lowe, Kitty McCracken, Roger Petrie, and Mack Stubbs. This work was supported by the B&W Y-12 Dept. of Environmental Compliance and their long-term funding support is sincerely appreciated. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle LLC for the U.S. Dept. of Energy under contract DE-AC-0500OR22725.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA

    George R. Southworth, Mark J. Peterson, W. Kelly Roy & Teresa J. Mathews

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  1. George R. Southworth
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  2. Mark J. Peterson
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Correspondence to Mark J. Peterson.

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The submitted manuscript has been authored by a contractor of the U.S. Government under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. Accordingly, the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, royaltyfree license to publish or reproduce the published form of this contribution, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purpose.

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Southworth, G.R., Peterson, M.J., Roy, W.K. et al. Monitoring Fish Contaminant Responses to Abatement Actions: Factors that Affect Recovery. Environmental Management 47, 1064–1076 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9637-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9637-0

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