Summary

Description

The Hopewell Wastewater Treatment Plant HWP, Hopewell, Virginia processes 9095 industrial wastewater. The plant discharges into Gravelly Run, a small tributary of the James River approximately four miles downstream of Presquile National Wildlife Refuge Presquile. The Virginia Water Control Board identified HWTPs effluent as a source of contaminants, including elevated levels of five metals arsenic, chromium, copper, lead, and zinc, and significant levels of PCBs and PAHs. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of these contaminants on aquatic resources in the area. Fish channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus and striped bass Morone saxatilis and sediment samples were collected from each of four stations on the James River, between Presquile and Jordans Point, just south of Hopewell. One of these stations was near the HWTP effluent site. Samples were submitted for analyses of inorganics and organochlorines. Additional sediment samples, one from each station, were submitted for sediment toxicity tests: sevenday minichronic toxicity test using Ceriodaphnia dubia and a Microtox toxicity test. Sediment analyses revealed that the following pollutants occurred in higher concentrations near the effluent area than at the other three sites: arsenic, copper, lead, zinc, total PCBs, and total DDT. Sediment toxicity tests also clearly demonstrated that sediments near the effluent area were toxic to aquatic organisms. Fish tissue analyses, however, failed to indicate a definite pattern among sites, particularly higher residue levels in fish from the effluent area. Based on these results, we concluded that contaminated sediments in the effluent area are toxic enough to adversely impact aquatic organisms, but the full extent of these impacts cannot be determined from current data.