VALIDITY OF EFFLUENT AND AMBIENT TOXICITY TESTS FOR PREDICTING BIOLOGICAL IMPACT, BACK RIVER, BALTIMORE HARBOR, MARYLAND

The purpose for the study was to measure the toxicity of effluents discharged to an estuary using freshwater test species and compare the predictions with the receiving water biological impact. In addition, ambient tests were done in conjunction with salinity tolerance tests to compare the agreement...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: D.I. Mount, A.E. Steen, T.J. Norberg-King
Format: Text
Language:unknown
Published: 2004
Subjects:
Online Access:http://oaspub.epa.gov/eims/eimsapi.dispdetail?deid=39750
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Summary:The purpose for the study was to measure the toxicity of effluents discharged to an estuary using freshwater test species and compare the predictions with the receiving water biological impact. In addition, ambient tests were done in conjunction with salinity tolerance tests to compare the agreement between the effluent toxicity tests and the ambient toxicity where salinity itself was not beyond acceptable ranges. Acceptable salinity was based on the concurrent salinity tests. A marine bacterium species was also tested in which the standard method requires salinity adjustment of the test solution so that salinity stress is not involved. Salinity in the ambient samples had less effect than was predicted from the salinity tolerance tests.