Using Single-Species and Whole Community Stream Mesocosm Exposures for Identifying Major Ion Effects in Doses Mimicking Resource Extraction Wastewaters

Christopher T Nietch; Nathan J Smucker; Leslie Gains-Germain; Christopher P Peck; Stefania Guglielmi; Susanna DeCelles; James Lazorchak; Brent Johnson; Paul Weaver

doi:10.3390/w15020249

Using Single-Species and Whole Community Stream Mesocosm Exposures for Identifying Major Ion Effects in Doses Mimicking Resource Extraction Wastewaters

Water (Basel). 2023 Jan 6;15(2):1-26. doi: 10.3390/w15020249.

Authors

Christopher T Nietch¹, Nathan J Smucker¹, Leslie Gains-Germain², Christopher P Peck², Stefania Guglielmi³, Susanna DeCelles³, James Lazorchak¹, Brent Johnson¹, Paul Weaver¹

Affiliations

¹ USEPA Office of Research and Development, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, 26W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA.
² Neptune and Company, Inc., Lakewood, CO 80215, USA.
³ Pegasus Technical Services, Inc., 46 East Hollister Street, Cincinnati, OH 45219, USA.

Abstract

Wastewaters and leachates from various inland resource extraction activities contain high ionic concentrations and differ in ionic composition, which complicates the understanding and effective management of their relative risks to stream ecosystems. To this end, we conducted a stream mesocosm dose-response experiment using two dosing recipes prepared from industrial salts. One recipe was designed to generally reflect the major ion composition of deep well brines (DWB) produced from gas wells (primarily Na⁺, Ca²⁺, and Cl^-) and the other, the major ion composition of mountaintop mining (MTM) leachates from coal extraction operations (using salts dissociating to Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, SO₄^2- and HCO₃^-)-both sources being extensive in the Central Appalachians of the USA. The recipes were dosed at environmentally relevant nominal concentrations of total dissolved solids (TDS) spanning 100 to 2000 mg/L for 43 d under continuous flow-through conditions. The colonizing native algal periphyton and benthic invertebrates comprising the mesocosm ecology were assessed with response sensitivity distributions (RSDs) and hazard concentrations (HCs) at the taxa, community (as assemblages), and system (as primary and secondary production) levels. Single-species toxicity tests were run with the same recipes. Dosing the MTM recipe resulted in a significant loss of secondary production and invertebrate taxa assemblages that diverged from the control at all concentrations tested. Comparatively, intermediate doses of the DWB recipe had little consequence or increased secondary production (for emergence only) and had assemblages less different from the control. Only the highest dose of the DWB recipe had a negative impact on certain ecologies. The MTM recipe appeared more toxic, but overall, for both types of resource extraction wastewaters, the mesocosm responses suggested significant changes in stream ecology would not be expected for specific conductivity below 300 µS/cm, a published aquatic life benchmark suggested for the region.

Keywords: Marcellus shale; algal periphyton; ionic strength; mesocosms; mountain top mining; periphyton; salinity; specific conductivity; stream invertebrates; total dissolved solids; water quality.

Grants and funding

EPA999999/ImEPA/Intramural EPA/United States