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(46-17) Toxicity assessment of waste waters, river waters and sediments in Austria using cost- effective microbiotests. Latif, M.*,1, Licek, E.1, 1 University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria ABSTRACT- The toxicity and chemical quality of 40 water, waste water and sediment samples collected from an Austrian alpine river were studied. In addition, 20 pore water samples were extracted from sediments. Acute and chronic tests were carried out with 5 cost- effective microbiotests and one conventional bioassay. The test battery comprised the following tests: Daphtoxkit F magna with Daphnia magna, Thamnotoxkit F with Thamnocephalus platyurus, Algaltoxkit F with Selenastrum capricornutum, Protoxkit with Tetrahymena thermophila and Cress test with Lepidium sativum. The toxicity of whole-sediment samples have been evaluated using Ostracodtoxkit test with Heterocypris incongruens. Water, waste water and pore water samples were analysed for the following parameters: conductivity, total hardness, pH, O2, BOD5, TOC, DOC, AOX, NH4, NH3, NO2, PO4, Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn. The toxicity data were expressed as percent inhibition values. Results indicate that all 16 river water samples showed no toxicity. With waste water discharged from municipal wastewater treatment plants, two of four samples showed acute as well as chronic toxicity. All pore water samples indicated chronic toxicity while 8 samples showed acute toxicity. From all 20 whole-sediment samples, 5 samples and 8 samples caused mortality and growth inhibition of the ostracods, respectively. With the regard to toxicity-chemistry relationships, in general, a good correlation was found between the toxicity and the following parameters: NH3, BOD5, TOC, DOC, AOX, Cu, Zn, Pb. This preliminary study indicates that the microbiotests seem to be a convenient tool for low cost toxicity screening for hazard assessment of contaminated samples. Key words: microbiotests, waste water, river water, sediment |
