Alcoa Industrial Effluent And Sediment Toxicity Study

A 1990 inspection by SCIOPS assessed the Aluminum Company of America's compliance with its NPDES permit. The study analyzed water and sediment samples from the Lower Columbia River near Vancouver for volatile organics, base-neutral compounds, metals, pesticides, and PCBs. It aimed to verify effluent compliance and assess the impact of industrial discharge on receiving waters.

Use Cases

• Analyze effluent compliance by comparing concentrations of target analytes like VOAs, BNAs, and metals against permit limits.
• Assess sediment toxicity by correlating chemical pollutant levels from priority pollutant scans with results from Hyallela bioassays.
• Model pollutant transport by comparing chemical analysis results from in-plant wastewaters, settling lagoon influent, and lagoon effluent samples.
• Evaluate laboratory technique efficacy by reviewing reported analytical methods such as EPA 8260 for VOAs and EPA 8080 for pesticides/PCBs.

Strengths

• Data collection followed standardized EPA analytical techniques (e.g., 8260, 8270, 200, 8080) for multiple analyte classes.
• Study design included multiple sample types: water and sediments from effluent, influent, upstream, and downstream locations.

Limitations

• Dataset is temporally limited to a single inspection event in 1990, offering no longitudinal trend analysis.
• Sample size specifics are unknown, as the description only states a 'composite of six grab samples' without total row count.
• Geographic scope is restricted to one facility on the Lower Columbia River, limiting generalizability.

Provenance

Source

SCIOPS, with metadata taken from the Columbia River Basin: Sediment Database Abstracts.

Collection Method

Field sampling of composite water and sediment grabs, analyzed using specified EPA methods.

Time Range

1990

Freshness

1990-01-01

Geography

Lower Columbia River - Vancouver, Washington, USA.