Delineating Effluent Exposure and Cumulative Ecotoxicological Risk of Metals Downstream of a Saskatchewan Uranium Mill Using Autonomous Sensors.

Abstract

There is increasing interest in using autonomous sensor technology to monitor aquatic ecosystems in real time and in employing such monitoring data to perform better ecological risk assessments. At seven locations in McClean Lake in northern Saskatchewan (Canada) that received diluted uranium milling effluent, we deployed sensor units to track effluent distribution and help predict potential biological effects on aquatic invertebrates. Water was also collected from each location on multiple occasions to measure major ions, dissolved metals, and routine water quality, and sediment was sampled to analyze total metals. The ecotoxicological risk to aquatic invertebrates was estimated using hazard quotients (HQs). The cumulative risk was estimated by summing the individual HQs, and the major ions risk was based on total osmolarity. The results indicated temporal and spatial variations in effluent exposure based on sensor electrical conductivity (EC) measurements in the McClean Lake East Basin. Individual HQs for water ranged from "moderate" (0.40-0.69) to "very high" (greater than 1) for silver, cadmium, arsenic, selenium, mercury, iron, and thallium. At all sites, major ions risk was less than 1. Individual HQs for sediment were "moderate" (0.40-0.69), "high" (0.7-0.99), and "very high" (greater than 1) for vanadium and cadmium. The cumulative risk in water and sediment for all metals combined was greater than 1 at some sites in Vulture Lake (which discharged into McClean Lake) and in McClean Lake itself. A more detailed estimation of the risks for aqueous selenium and arsenic (the only two metals that had good correlation with sensor EC data) indicated that their 90th percentile HQ values were less than 1 in McClean Lake, suggesting that these contaminants of concern do not represent a significant direct risk to aquatic invertebrate communities. Environ Toxicol Chem 2022;41:1765-1777. © 2022 SETAC.