Toxicity characterization of an industrial and a municipal effluent discharging to the marine environment

Toxicity Identification Evaluation (TIE) methods have proven very useful in characterizing, identifying and confirming toxicants in environmental samples. This report describes the characterization of toxicants present in two effluents, industrial and municipal, discharged into the marine environment. A toxicity characterization consists of dividing an effluent sample into several relatively unique chemical fractions. Manipulations used to generate these fractions include aeration, filtration, chelation, oxidant reduction, reverse phase chromatography, and graduated pH adjustments. Marine toxicity tests used include mysids (Mysidopsis bahia), fish (Menidia beryllina and Cyprinodon variegatus), macroalga (Champia parvula) and sea urchins (Arbacia punctulata). Results of this TIE demonstrated that both effluents contained toxicity predominantly due to metals and organic contaminants. Ammonia toxicity in the municipal effluent was sample dependent. This study illustrates that the use of marine toxicity tests, TIE procedures and historical data can be combined to better understand the nature of toxicity discharged to the marine environment.