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Lindane Pollutes Our Water
AMSA Special Committees Address
Top Issues
NOAA Tech Memo NMFS NWFSC-36:
Fish Injury in the Hylebos Waterway (cont):
Pesticides in Streams of the
United States--Initial Results from the National Water-Quality Assessment
Program
Quantification of insecticide
contamination in agricultural headwater streams
For help in locating these agencies or for information on
drinking water in general, call: EPA's Safe Drinking Water Hotline: (800)
426-4791.
For additional information on the uses and releases of chemicals
in your state, contact the: Community Right-to-Know Hotline: (800) 535-0202
NOTICE: EPA is aware of inaccuracies in the Safe Drinking
Water Information System. We are working with the states to improve the quality
of the data.
http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/water.html
If the levels of lindane exceed the MCL, 0.2 ppb, the system
must notify the public via newspapers, radio, TV and other means. Additional
actions, such as providing alternative drinking water supplies, may be required
to prevent serious risks to public health.
http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/dwh/c-soc/lindane.html
AMSA Special Committees Address Top Issues
August 2000
Pretreatment and Hazardous Waste Committee
Chair, Guy Aydlett
Hampton Roads Sanitation District, Va.
Vice Chair, Kevin Aiello
Middlesex County Utilities Authority, N.J.
The Committee discussed concerns about the use of lindane-containing
products for head lice and scabies treatment having the potential to cause or
contribute to violations of water quality standards for lindane in California
and in other parts of the country. The National Toxics Rule and the recently
promulgated California Toxics Rule contain very stringent limits for lindane.
The allowable concentration for discharges into water bodies that are drinking
water sources or potential drinking water sources is 19 parts per trillion (ppt).
POTWs in California cited discharges in the range of 30 to 40 ppt lindane, and
in many cases, discharge to effluent-dominated water bodies. In these cases, no
dilution credit is allowed and the 19 ppt limit must be met directly in the
discharged water. California members have been active in developing a public
outreach campaign on the impacts of lindane-containing products and initiating
efforts to ban the sale of lindane-containing products in California.
http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/pubs/cleanwater/august00/committees.htm
NOAA Tech Memo NMFS NWFSC-36: Fish Injury
in the Hylebos Waterway (cont):
A wide variety of chemical contaminants show
elevated concentrations in the liver and bile of both chum and chinook salmon
from the Hylebos Waterway, compared to fish from the reference estuaries and
hatcheries. These include high and low molecular weight aromatic compounds and
their associated metabolites, PCBs, including toxic congeners 105 and 118, HCBD
and HCB, DDTs, hexachlor, lindane, dieldrin, aldrin, and chlordane. There is
some evidence of low to moderate contamination with chlorinated compounds, in
the feed used at the hatcheries, as shown by analyses of stomach contents (only
one analysis per hatchery was conducted. However, it is apparent that any such contamination is not a major
factor in the increased body burdens measured in fish from the Hylebos Waterway,
as liver levels of PCBs and chlorinated pesticides were clearly elevated in fish
captured from the Hylebos Waterway, compared to fish from either the hatcheries
or other contaminated estuaries. The presence of high levels of HCBD in liver
tissue and stomach contents provides strong evidence that exposure of these fish
originates from the Hylebos Waterway, rather than other waterways in
Commencement Bay, as this compound is found in high levels in the sediments of
the lower Hylebos Waterway, with dramatically lower levels being found elsewhere
in the Commencement Bay ecosystem (Krahn et al. Append. D). In fact, liver
concentrations of HCBD in juvenile chum and chinook exceed those found in any
previous studies of juvenile salmonids (Varanasi et al. 1993).
Pesticides in Streams of the United
States--Initial Results from the National Water-Quality Assessment Program
By Steven J. Larson, Robert J. Gilliom, and
Paul D. Capel
U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Water-Resources Investigations Report 98-4222
Sacramento, California, 1999
http://ca.water.usgs.gov/pnsp/rep/wrir984222/tab10.html
United States Environmental Protection Agency (1987). Health
Advisory-Lindane, Office of Drinking Water, p 13.
National Sanitation Foundation (1989). NSF Listings- Drinking
Water Treatment Units. pp 24.
Quantification of insecticide contamination in
agricultural headwater streams
Liess, M., R. Schulz, M.H.-D. Liess, B. Rother
& R. Kreuzig, 1999.
Water Research 33: 239-247.
Abstract:
A headwater stream in an agricultural catchment
in Northern-Germany was intensively monitored for insecticide occurrence (lindane,
parathion-ethyl, fenvalerate). Brief insecticide inputs following precipitation
with subsequent surface runoff result in high concentrations in water and
suspended matter (e.g. fenvalerate: 6.2 µg l-1, 302 µg kg-1).
These transient insecticide contaminations are typical for headwater streams
with an agricultural catchment area, but have been rarely reported in such
extent. Event controlled sampling methods for the determination of this runoff
related contamination with a time resolution of up to 1 hour are introduced. The
temporal distribution of the insecticide concentration is shown on different
time scales (years, months, hours) over a period of 4 years. The measured
concentrations are compared with other references. Insecticide losses due to
surface water runoff were calculated between 0.01 - 0.07 % of the applied
insecticide.
Key words: runoff, agriculture, sampling,
lindane, parathion, fenvalerate
http://www.tu-bs.de/institute/zoology/limnology/publications.html
Anderson, C.W., Rinella, F.A., and Rounds, S.A., 1996,
Occurrence of selected trace elements and organic compounds and their relation
to land use in the Willamette River Basin, Oregon, 1992-94: U.S.Geological
Survey Water- Resources Investigations Report 96-4234.
Between 1992 and 1994, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted a
study of trace elements and organic compounds in the Willamette River Basin,
Oregon, as part of the Willamette River Basin Water Quality Study. Low-level
analyses were performed for trace elements, volatile organic compounds,
organochlorine compounds, and pesticides. Overall, 94 water samples were
collected from 40 sites, during predominantly high-flow conditions, representing
urban, agricultural, mixed, and forested land uses. Although most observed
concentrations were relatively low, some exceedances of water-quality criteria
for acute and chronic toxicity and for the protection of human health were
observed. Concentrations of chromium, copper, lead, and zinc in unfiltered water
were well correlated with concentrations of suspended sediment. The highest
trace-element concen-trations generally were found at urban sites that receive a
large portion of their runoff from industrial areas, particularly at high
suspended-sediment concentrations. In contrast, concentrations of trace elements
in some urban streams draining primarily residential areas appeared to approach
a maximum as sediment concentrations increased. Whether this difference was due
to a difference in the nature of the suspended sediments or to different
concentrations in the aqueous phases from the two site types was not addressed.
Eight organochlorine compounds were detected at 14 sites. Lindane,
dieldrin, and DDT or its metabolites were each detected in about 30 percent of
the samples, predominantly in samples collected from agricultural and urban
areas. Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) compounds were detected in samples from
two urban sites. For samples in which DDT and its metabolites were examined for
partitioning, the largest proportion of the mass of DDT and its metabolites was
associated with suspended sediment. In contrast, dieldrin and lindane
were almost completely (greater than 99 percent) associated with the dissolved
phase. Sixty-one of the 94 pesticides analyzed in filtered water were documented
to have been used in the basin in 1987; 43 of these were detected at least once
during 1992-94. An additional five were detected that were not documented in the
1987 estimates. Although a comparison between the frequency of detected
pesticides and 1987 estimates of pesticide usage.
USGS REPORTS
http://ma.water.usgs.gov/fhwa/qw/usgsabs1.htm
Data Base of the Occurrence and Distribution of Pesticides in
Chesapeake Bay
http://waffle.nal.usda.gov/cbp/pest/lindane.html
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