Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Publications (WR) Water Resources 1996 Synthetic organic compounds: Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead National Water Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA): Nevada Basin and Range Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/water_pubs Part of the Biogeochemistry Commons, Desert Ecology Commons, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons, Environmental Monitoring Commons, Fresh Water Studies Commons, Natural Resource Economics Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons, Sustainability Commons, and the Water Resource Management Commons Repository Citation National Water Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA): Nevada Basin and Range (1996). Synthetic organic compounds: Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead. Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/water_pubs/79 This Technical Report is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Technical Report in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Technical Report has been accepted for inclusion in Publications (WR) by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INTRODUCTION and industrial compounds), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's), phthalales, and phenols were detected at one or both The Nevada Basin and Range (NVBR) study unit of the of these sites. Many of these compounds are persistent in the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment environment, are relatively insoluble in water, and strongly (NAWQA) Program is investigating the status of, trends in, partition into sediment organic material and lipid tissues of ~ and factors affecting water quality in the Las Vegas area (fig. organisms (Smith and others, 1988). I). A principal objective of the investigation is to assess the Compounds referred to as organochlorines include effects of urbanization on the quality of area water resources. chlorinated pesticides and their metabolites, polychlorinated Las Vegas Wash (fig. I) is the surface-water outlet for the biphenyls (PCB's), dioxins, and furans. PCB's have been used Las Vegas area. The wash transports stormwater runoff, shal- as plusticizers and hydraulic lubricants, in heat-transfer sys- low ground-water discharge, and tertiary-treated sewage ef- tems, and as dielectric fluids in electrical capacitors and trans- fluent from the Las Vegas area to Las Vegas Bay of Lake Mead formers (Smith and others, 1988). Dioxins and furans were on the Colorado River (fig. 1). Most of the flow—about 96 produced inadvertently during the manufacture of herbicides percent in 1993—transported in the wash to Las Vegas Bay is and PCB's, and are formed during municipal waste combustion treated effluent from city and county sewage-treatment facil- (Sijm and Opperhuizen, 1996); they are commonly discharged ities. Storm-water runoff, shallow ground-water discharge, to surface waters in effluents from chemical manufacturing and treated sewage effluent from Las Vegas and other urban- plants, leather tanneries, kraft-pulp mills, wood-processing ized areas in the valley have the potential to affect the water plants, and sewage-treatment plants (Smith and others, 1988). quality of Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead. PAH's originate from natural and human sources. They In 1992, NVBR personnel collected bottom-sediment are produced mainly by high-temperature pyrolylic reactions samples from Las Vegas Wash (site 1, fig. 1 and table 1) up- such as municipal incineration or forest fires, but a few are stream from the discharge of treated sewage effluent and Las produced commercially for use in mothballs, pesticides, fun- Vegas Bay (site 3) during a survey to determine if synthetic gicides, dyes, wetting agents, synthetic resins, cutting fluids, organic compounds (organochlorines and semivolutile indus- solvents, and lubricants (Smith and others, 1988). Phlhalates trial compounds) were present. Organochlorines (pesticides are used extensively as plaslicizers to manufacture products from polymers of vinyl chloride, propylene, ethylene, and 115° 114°45' styrene (Smith and others, 1988). Phenols are used in the production of phenolic resins, germicides, herbicides, fungicides, Pharmaceuticals, dyes, 36" 15' - plastics, and explosives (Smith and others, 1988). Most phenols are not persistent and are highly soluble; however, highly chlorinated phenols are persistent and tend to partition into sediment organic matter and lipids of aquatic organisms (Smith and others, 1988). Interest in environmental contaminants that may affect endocrine systems of animals by causing hormone imbalance, commonly referred to as endocrine disruption, has grown dur- ing the past 40 years. A symposium on estrogen in the envi- ronment (McLachlan, 1980) increased the debate about effects of environmental contaminants on endocrine systems. More recently, Colborn and Clement (1992) concluded that many synthetic organic compounds have the potential to disrupt the Base Irom U.S. Geological Survey digital data, 1:100,000, 1978 87. Albers Equal-Area Conic endocrine systems of animals, including humans; these com- projection. Standard parallels 29°30' and 45"30', central meridian-115°00'. Land use Irom Land Use pounds include organochlorines, PAH's, phthalates, and and Land Cover, OFR Land-Use Series, 1973-77 phenols (Thomas, 1988; Colborn and others, 1993). Recent studies have found evidence of endocrine disrup- EXPLANATION tion in fish from contaminated ecosystems. Fitzsimons (1990) reported lower sex-steroid hormone levels in male lake trout Urban area (Salvelinus namaycush) of Lake Ontario compared with fish from less-polluted sites. Additionally, an inverse relation was Data-collection site and number found between 11-ketotestosterone and contaminant body bur- dens in trout from three of the Great Lakes. Male and female Location of study area white suckers (Catostomus rommersoni) and lake whitcfish (Coregonus clupeaformis) in the vicinity of pulp-mill effluent were found to have depressed gonadal sex-steroid hormones, Figure 1. Data-collection sites in Las Vegas area, delayed maturity, lowered reproductive capability, and reduced Nevada. secondary sex characteristics (Munkiltrick and others, 1992). 2 SYNTHETIC ORGANIC COMPOUNDS, LAS VEGAS WASH AND LAKE MEAD Other studies have measured vitellogenin to assess endo- currently (1996) ongoing, data were collected in 1995 for Las crine disruption. Vitellogenin is an estrogen-induced or depen- Vegas Wash (site 2 on fig. 1 and table 1), Las Vegas Bay (sites dent egg protein used in the production of egg yolk and 3,4, and 5), and Callville Bay (site 6). Callville Bay, which is normally synthesized by the livers of female egg-laying ver- in a part of Lake Mead upstream from Las Vegas Bay, was tebrates (Speckerand Sullivan, 1994). Male fish have the sampled as a reference site for comparisons with Las Vegas vitellogenin gene but it is normally suppressed; however, the Wash and Bay. gene can be activated by exposure to exogenous contaminants This report presents preliminary results of the 1995 inves- or xenoestrogens (LeGuellec and others, 1988). Several recent tigation and includes the 1992 sample information. field studies have documented vitellogenin synthesis in carp males from streams affected by sewage effluent (Purdom and others, 1994; Folmar and others, in press). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Histologic abnormalities in gonads offish with endocrine disruption can include multinuclear eggs or the presence of The authors acknowledge individuals and agencies who dark, bar-shaped structures in tubules of the testes (McLachlan helped with this investigation. William J. Burke and Bryan C. and Arnold, 1996). Necrosis in tissues of organs can be caused Moore, NPS Lake Mead National Recreational Area, provided by exposure to a toxicant or a combination of toxicants (J.S. logistical support and assisted in data-collection activities. Foott, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, written commun., 1995). Thomas A. Burke, Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), electrofished The potentially harmful effects that organochlorines and for carp. Kenneth J. Covay and Stephen J. Lawrence, USGS, semivolatile industrial compounds can have on humans and made logistical arrangements and participated in data collec- aquatic wildlife prompted the National Park Service (NPS), tion activities. Jeffrey S. Inglis and Richard J. Bauer, U.S. which administers the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), provided labora- and the NVBR to begin a cooperative investigation to deter- tory analysis of carp tissue. Donna L. Rose, USGS National mine the occurrence and distribution of these compounds in Water-Quality Laboratory, analyzed samples from semiper- Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead. Concurrent assessments of rneable membrane devices. Donald E. Tillitt and Pamela E. Alt, the endocrine systems and histology of selected organs in carp NBS Midwest Science Center, analyzed carp-tissue samples for (Cyprinus carpio) were made in cooperation with the National 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-/;-dioxin equivalents. J. Scott Foott, Biological Service (NBS), which on October 1, 1996, became