BILE ANALYSES OF GOLDFISH (CRASSIUS-AURATUS) RESIDENT IN A NEW-ZEALAND HYDROLAKE RECEIVING A BLEACHED KRAFT MILL DISCHARGE

Bile was collected from goldfish (Crassius auratus) sampled from five sites on a river receiving the biologically treated discharge from a N ew Zealand bleached kraft mill. The bile was subjected to an alkaline hydrolysis, extracted with dichloromethane and analysed for resin acid s and chlorophenolic compounds by CC/MS. The bioaccumulation and persi stence in the bile of both saturated and unsaturated resin acids and c hlorophenolic compounds was found for sites downstream of the mill's d ischarge. Abietanic, 13-abietenic and seco-dehydroabietic acids were t he major bile bioaccumulated resin acids and 2,4,6 trichlorophenol was the predominant chlorophenolic compound detected. Elevated levels up to 507 mu g/g(dw bile) per resin acid and 61 mu g/g(dw bile) per chlor ophenol were found adjacent to the mill's discharge point. Attenuated levels of these compounds were identified at a site 2.4 km downstream where the effluent was partially mixed, while levels at a well mixed s ite subject to a natural fifty fold dilution, 9.1 km downstream, were only marginally greater than those identified at an upstream (control) site. Copyright (C) 1996 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd