Treated municipal wastewaters: Effects of organic fractions on development and growth of fishes

摘要

AbstractEffluents from publicly owned treatment works (POTW) supply>98 of point‐source pollutants and 13 of total freshwater input to the Hudson‐Raritan estuary. We have studied the effects of chlorinated secondarily treated effluents on the sensitive early life stages of three species of fish common to this estuary. One source of effluents is a POTW that receives about half of its input from industrial sources. Previously, we demonstrated effects on development and growth of estuarine fishes of the effluent at ⩽ 10 in seawater. This report presents similar studies using organic fractions of the effluent at concentrations equivalent to 10 in seawater in order to identify the most toxic class of compounds. We have found that the toxicity of batches of this effluent is quite variable in toxicity when tested with embryos of the winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus) or mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus). In different batches of effluent, the organic base fraction or the organic acid fraction was primarily responsible for the tox