Chemical and toxicological properties of coal fly ash - University of ...

Boron concentrations were high, but extremely high concentrations of B arerequired to produce toxic effects in aquatic life (Becker and Thatcher,1973). For example, the minimum lethal dose for minnows exposed to boricacid at 20' C for 6 hours was reported to be 18,000 to 19,000 mg/L indistilled water and 19,000 to 19,500 mg/L in hard water (Le Clerc andDevlaminck, 1955; Le Clerc, 1960).According to toxicity data available inthe 1 iterature (Cardwell, 1976; Cleland and Kingsbury, 1977; Mount, 1966;Pickering, 1974; Pickering and Gast, 1972; Pickering and Henderson, 1966).The individual concentrations of Mn, 0, Ni, SO4, and Zn were probablynot. high enough to cause the mortality observed in the test solutions of 12.The total ionic strength of the I2 extract as measured by EC was less thanthat of the I7 extract (Tables 14 and 16). The EC of the undiluted I2extract ranged from 2.74 to 3.80. Insignificant mortality was observed inreconstituted water in which the EC was less than 3.0 (Suloway et al.,1981). Because of the complex chemical composition of the I2 fly ashextract and the unknown synergistic and antagonistic effects of thechemical constituents composing the extract, it is not possible from theseexperiments to determine specifically which chemical constituents weredirectly responsible for the observed mortality.Analyses of variance of fish lengths and weights (Tables 26 and 27)showed that only the fathead minnows were different in weight for sample13, and so all duplicates were combined for each organism for each sample.The mean initial length and weight of fathead minnows used in thebioaccumulation experiments were approximately 50 mm and 1 g, respectively(Table 28). The mean initial length and weight of the green sunfish usedTable 26. The mean initial lengths and weights of adult fathead minnows used in the bioaccumulation experiments.Mean lengthMean weightSample N (md F valued (9) F valuedaResults of the analysis of variance indicate that if F(1,8)than 3.46, the replicates are significantly different.-- -- -- -- - -is greater