Abstract
In December 2008, an earthen retaining wall at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant failed and released 4.1 million m3 of coal ash to rivers flowing into Watts Bar Reservoir in east Tennessee, United States (U.S.). As part of a comprehensive effort to evaluate the risks to aquatic resources from this spill - the largest in U.S. history - we compared bioaccumulation and maternal transfer of selenium (Se), arsenic (As), and mercury (Hg) in adult redear sunfish (Lepomis macrolophus), collected two years after the spill from both coal-ash exposed and non-exposed areas of the Emory and Clinch Rivers, with the success of embryo-larval development in their offspring. Whole body and ovary concentrations of Se in female sunfish at three study sites downstream of the spill were significantly elevated (site means = 4.9-5.3 and 6.7-9.0 mg/kg d.w. whole body and ovary concentrations, respectively) compared with concentrations in fish from reference sites upstream of the spill site (2.2-3.2 mg/kg d.w. for whole bodies and 3.6-4.8 mg/kg d.w. for ovaries). However, Se concentrations in coal ash-exposed areas remain below proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) criteria for the protection of aquatic life. Site-to-site variation in fish concentrations of As and Hg were not well-correlated with ash-exposure, reflecting the multiple sources of these metal(loid)s in the affected watersheds. In 7-day laboratory tests of embryos and larvae derived from in vitro crosses of eggs and sperm from these field-collected sunfish, fertilization success, hatching success, embryo-larval survival, and incidences of developmental abnormalities did not differ significantly between ash-exposed and non-exposed fish. Furthermore, these developmental endpoints were not correlated with whole body or ovary concentrations of Se, As, or Hg in the maternal fish, or with fish size, ovary weight, or gonadal-somatic indices. Results from this and related studies associated with the Kingston coal ash spill are consistent with proposed USEPA fish-based water quality criteria for Se, and to date continue to suggest that long-term exposures to sediment containing residual ash may not present a significant chronic risk to fish populations exposed to this major coal ash release.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 165-177 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Aquatic Toxicology |
Volume | 173 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 1 2016 |
Funding
This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ). Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. The authors are appreciative of the support of TVA in sponsoring this study and for providing invaluable assistance with the collection of fish samples. Thanks are owed to two anonymous reviewers who provided useful comments and suggestions on the manuscript, Neil Carriker, Tyler Baker, and Rick Sherrard of TVA, Daniel Jones of ARCADIS, and current and former colleagues at ORNL including Craig Brandt, Allison Fortner, Teresa Mathews, Mark Peterson, Brenda Pracheil, Karen Sabo, John Smith, Jay Tenney, and Kristin Ward. Special thanks also to John Smith for assistance with the site map.
Keywords
- Arsenic
- Coal ash
- Mercury
- Redear sunfish
- Selenium
- TVA