C. Byrne et Nf. Gray, FIELD ACUTE TOXICITY METHOD FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF ACID-MINE DRAINAGE USING MACROINVERTEBRATES, Fresenius environmental bulletin, 4(10), 1995, pp. 583-588
An experimental flow through chamber was designed and tested to evalua
te a field toxicity method for rivers receiving acid mine drainage. It
was found to produce reliable and reproducible results. Three test ma
cro-invertebrates were evaluated Gammarus duebeni, Ephemerella ignita
and Baetis rhodani. Only the former species proved both robust and sen
sitive enough for toxicity assessment work using the chambers. While t
he field toxicity tests indicated that only the mixing zone was impact
ed, routine biological surveillance has shown the impact to be on a mo
re extensive scale with the entire river below the mines and into the
estuary (12km) severely damaged. These results suggest that factors ot
her than water toxicity are responsible for the elimination of species
in the lower Avoca, although the water quality may result in long ter
m chronic toxicity.