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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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