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Pollution Assessment of the Biobío River (Chile): Prioritization of Substances of Concern Under an Ecotoxicological Approach
- Source :
- Environmental management. 59(5)
- Publication Year :
- 2016
-
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 Biobio 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 Biobio 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 Biobio watershed, considering the toxicity of mixtures of chemicals to endemic species, and the high natural background level of aluminum in the Biobio.
- Subjects :
- Pollution
Paper
Geologic Sediments
Watershed
Pentachlorophenol
Heptachlor
media_common.quotation_subject
0211 other engineering and technologies
02 engineering and technology
010501 environmental sciences
01 natural sciences
Point source pollution
chemistry.chemical_compound
Rivers
Environmental protection
Ammonia
Water Quality
Chile
Effluent
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
media_common
Pollutant
021110 strategic, defence & security studies
Global and Planetary Change
Ecology
Aquatic ecosystem
Agriculture
Forestry
Mercury
Phenanthrenes
chemistry
Environmental science
Water quality
Copper
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Aluminum
Environmental Monitoring
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14321009
- Volume :
- 59
- Issue :
- 5
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Environmental management
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....26df8875e9732b7a8d585f49e02a6b65