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Biological Studies in Military-Industrial Waste Surveys DANIEL L. STONEBURNER, Captain U.S. Army Environmental Hygiene Agency Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland 21010 INTRODUCTION Three basic questions should be asked by persons interested and involved with the problems of pollution abatement; improvement of industrial and domestic waste treatment facilities; drafting environmental impact and assessment statements; and requesting, or reviewing requests, for discharge permits: 1) Is there a waste loading (pollution) problem?; 2) If there is a waste loading problem, how large an area does the waste material impact upon?; and 3) How toxic is the waste material with respect to the living systems that it contacts? In more concise terms, those persons involved with the problems of pollution abatement should determine the existence of the problems, delimit the extent of environmental degradation due to the waste materials, and define the toxicity of the wastes, acute and chronic, individually and in combination, to the living systems upon which the wastes impinge. Currently, one of the best tools available for the determination, delimitation, and definition of the impact of waste materials on ourselves and our environment is information obtained from biological studies (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). The "environmental quality" monitoring system utilized in biological studies is, in the true sense of the word, continuous, viz., the communities of organisms living in the environments which are receiving the waste materials. Biological data obtained from such a monitoring system can be used to demonstrate whether waste discharges significantly degrade receiving waters by the statistical comparison of quantitative data taken from sample stations located above and below waste discharges. When degradation of the receiving stream is detected, the downstream extent of the waste impact can be ascertained. Both the existence and extent of environmental degradation are essential components of environmental impact and assessment statements. In terms of waste toxicity, biological data obtained from stream studies and acute, 96-hour bio-assays can be used to corroborate or allay suspicions concerning a waste for which only chemical and physical characterizations are available. BIOLOGICAL MONITORING COMPONENTS Currently, at the U.S. Army Environmental Hygiene Agency, two components of the aquatic biological system are examined: a producer component (8,9) (unicellular algae with a silicon quartz wall) called diatoms and a consumer component (arthropods, gastropods and worms, retained by a standard 30 mesh sieve) called macroinvertebrates (7, 10, 11). SAMPLING CRITERIA To compare samples from these two components of stream communities, one must assume that they are homogeneously distributed in the environment to be sampled. This assumption incurs a stringent requirement on the procurement of biological samples, viz., that only samples obtained from similar habitats, micro-environments, of a stream maybe 841
Object Description
Purdue Identification Number | ETRIWC197374 |
Title | Biological studies in military-industrial waste surveys |
Author | Stoneburner, Daniel L. |
Date of Original | 1973 |
Conference Title | Proceedings of the 28th Industrial Waste Conference |
Conference Front Matter (copy and paste) | http://earchives.lib.purdue.edu/u?/engext,23197 |
Extent of Original | p. 841-848 |
Series | Engineering extension series no. 142 |
Collection Title | Engineering Technical Reports Collection, Purdue University |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Rights Statement | Digital object copyright Purdue University. All rights reserved. |
Language | eng |
Type (DCMI) | text |
Format | JP2 |
Date Digitized | 2009-06-24 |
Capture Device | Fujitsu fi-5650C |
Capture Details | ScandAll 21 |
Resolution | 300 ppi |
Color Depth | 8 bit |
Description
Title | page 841 |
Collection Title | Engineering Technical Reports Collection, Purdue University |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Rights Statement | Digital object copyright Purdue University. All rights reserved. |
Language | eng |
Type (DCMI) | text |
Format | JP2 |
Capture Device | Fujitsu fi-5650C |
Capture Details | ScandAll 21 |
Transcript | Biological Studies in Military-Industrial Waste Surveys DANIEL L. STONEBURNER, Captain U.S. Army Environmental Hygiene Agency Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland 21010 INTRODUCTION Three basic questions should be asked by persons interested and involved with the problems of pollution abatement; improvement of industrial and domestic waste treatment facilities; drafting environmental impact and assessment statements; and requesting, or reviewing requests, for discharge permits: 1) Is there a waste loading (pollution) problem?; 2) If there is a waste loading problem, how large an area does the waste material impact upon?; and 3) How toxic is the waste material with respect to the living systems that it contacts? In more concise terms, those persons involved with the problems of pollution abatement should determine the existence of the problems, delimit the extent of environmental degradation due to the waste materials, and define the toxicity of the wastes, acute and chronic, individually and in combination, to the living systems upon which the wastes impinge. Currently, one of the best tools available for the determination, delimitation, and definition of the impact of waste materials on ourselves and our environment is information obtained from biological studies (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). The "environmental quality" monitoring system utilized in biological studies is, in the true sense of the word, continuous, viz., the communities of organisms living in the environments which are receiving the waste materials. Biological data obtained from such a monitoring system can be used to demonstrate whether waste discharges significantly degrade receiving waters by the statistical comparison of quantitative data taken from sample stations located above and below waste discharges. When degradation of the receiving stream is detected, the downstream extent of the waste impact can be ascertained. Both the existence and extent of environmental degradation are essential components of environmental impact and assessment statements. In terms of waste toxicity, biological data obtained from stream studies and acute, 96-hour bio-assays can be used to corroborate or allay suspicions concerning a waste for which only chemical and physical characterizations are available. BIOLOGICAL MONITORING COMPONENTS Currently, at the U.S. Army Environmental Hygiene Agency, two components of the aquatic biological system are examined: a producer component (8,9) (unicellular algae with a silicon quartz wall) called diatoms and a consumer component (arthropods, gastropods and worms, retained by a standard 30 mesh sieve) called macroinvertebrates (7, 10, 11). SAMPLING CRITERIA To compare samples from these two components of stream communities, one must assume that they are homogeneously distributed in the environment to be sampled. This assumption incurs a stringent requirement on the procurement of biological samples, viz., that only samples obtained from similar habitats, micro-environments, of a stream maybe 841 |
Resolution | 300 ppi |
Color Depth | 8 bit |
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