Abstract
East Fork Poplar Creek (EF) and White Oak Creek (WC) are two mercury-contaminated streams located on the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy Oak Ridge Reservation in East Tennessee. East Fork Poplar Creek is the larger and more contaminated of the two, with average aqueous mercury (Hg) concentrations exceeding those in reference streams by several hundred-fold. Remedial actions over the past 20. years have decreased aqueous Hg concentrations in EF by 85% (from > 1600 ng/L to < 400 ng/L). Fish fillet concentrations, however, have not responded to this decrease in aqueous Hg and remain above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Recommended Water Quality Criteria (NRWQC) of 0.3. mg/kg. The lack of correlation between aqueous and fish tissue Hg concentrations in this creek has led to questions regarding the usefulness of target aqueous Hg concentrations and strategies for future remediation efforts. White Oak Creek has a similar contamination history but aqueous Hg concentrations in WC are an order of magnitude lower than in EF. Despite the lower aqueous Hg concentrations (< 100 ng/L), fish fillet concentrations in WC have also been above the NRWQC, making the aqueous Hg remediation goal of 200. ng/L in EF seem unlikely to result in an effective decrease in fillet Hg concentrations. Recent monitoring efforts in WC, however, suggest an aqueous total Hg threshold above which Hg bioaccumulation in fish may not respond. This new information could be useful in guiding remedial actions in EF and in other point-source contaminated streams.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 836-843 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Science of the Total Environment |
| Volume | 443 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 5 2013 |
Funding
Sincere appreciation is extended to the many people who have provided field and laboratory support to bioaccumulation projects over the years, including most recently Allison Fortner, Kitty McCracken, Gail Morris, and Trent Jett. We wish to thank Kimberly Hanzelka and the Y-12 Complex's Environmental Compliance Department staff for providing mercury water data near the Y-12 Complex, and Tony Poole [CH2M Oak Ridge LLC (UCOR)] of the ETTP's Environmental Compliance and Protection group for mercury in water data. We acknowledge the expertise and insights from the ORNL Water Quality Protection Program team, especially Elizabeth Wright, Wes Goddard, and Paul Taylor. Remedial actions undertaken to decrease mercury concentrations in water at ORNL and Y-12 could not have been accomplished without programmatic direction from DOE Headquarters and DOE Oak Ridge Operations, with special thanks to Skip Chamberlain, Karen Skubal, Elizabeth Phillips, and Ralph Skinner. This study was funded by multiple organizations, including environmental compliance departments at the Y-12 Complex , ORNL , and ETTP , as well as the Water Resources Restoration Program that support the CERCLA-based biological monitoring activities in Oak Ridge. Special thanks to the many long-time supporters of the Oak Ridge biological monitoring programs, including Mick Wiest, Lenny Vaughan, Clarence Hill, Stacey McNamara, Mike Coffey, Tony Poole, Lynn Sims, Jim Donnelly, and David Buhaly. Additional support for this paper was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management, EM-12 Technology Innovation and Development Office under the Remediation of Mercury and Industrial Contaminants Applied Field Research Initiative (RoMIC AFRI) . The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle for DOE under contract number DE-AC05-00OR22725.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| ETTP | |
| Remediation of Mercury and Industrial Contaminants Applied Field Research Initiative | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | DE-AC05-00OR22725 |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| UT-Battelle |
Keywords
- Bioaccumulation
- Fish
- Mercury
- Remediation
- Water
