Persistent organic pollution and heavy metals in glacial fed lakes and aquatic biota in national parks and forests of the Puget Sound Basin

Black, Robert; Moran, Patrick

[Investigator Accomplishment Reports, permit # MORA-2002-SCI-0030 , park study # MORA-00075] Objectives: Snow and ice are critical resources at North Cascades NPS Complex(NOCA), Mount Rainier National Park (MORA), Olympic National Park (OLYM), and Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie and Olympic National Forests. In NOCA alone, there are more than 300 small glaciers and numerous perennial snowfields that feed 245 mountain lakes,and a myriad of streams, wetlands and aquifers. The waters from these glaciers and snowfields function as the lifeblood of plant and animal communities found in all of these parks and forests. Pesticides, herbicides, and heavy metals enter the atmosphere' as volatile contaminants, are transported across the landscape by wind currents, and scrubbed from the air by heavy snowfall and deposited along the mountain ridgeline in glaciers and snowfields as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Subsequent snowmelt washes these pollutants into the mountain lakes and streams to be absorbed and accumulated in the food chain. Contaminant levels of PCB, DDT and toxaphene in fish tissues in the Canadian Rockies are well above the Canadian tissue residue guidelines for wildlife consumers, such as mink, otter, bald eagles and osprey. These contaminants are public and ecological health problems. The National Park Service wishes to know where and at what concentrations these pollutants exist in the environs. This intensive study will begin the assessment of these federal lands and provide a resource baseline in support of future long-term ecological monitoring. There are two objectives for this study. The first is to determine the relation of watershed area, elevation, snow and ice drainage to the accumulation of organochlorine pesticides and other persistent organic pollutants and mercury in fish and/or amphibians and compare the relative levels of these pollutants in the tissue of aquatic organisms between glacial-fed and non glacial-fed lakes. The second objective is to derive a relationship between contaminant burden in fish and/or amphibian tissues and those of organisms at lower trophic levels and lake bottom sediment, relate contaminant concentrations found in the top predators at each lake to other physiographic/biologic factors of the recipient watershed, and evaluate the immune system efficiency of top predator fish. This effort will focus on natural resources within the National Parks of the Puget Sound area and help identify the level of anthropogenic contamination in glacial and non-glacial fed lake sediment and aquatic biota traditionally believed to be contaminant free. If contamination is found, innovative methodologies will be employed to determine the potential health effects of the contaminants on the aquatic biota. The refinement of these methodologies and results of this work could be utilized in other aquatic systems throughout the US. The proposed study is also extremely relevant and important to the National Parks within the study area. Knowing if contaminants are present in the environment would play a significant role in the Park's management of the resources as well as the visitors. (abstract continued in notes)