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TitleRapid assessment of toxicity of oil sands process-affected waters using fish cell lines
Publication TypeConference Proceedings
Year of Publication2009
AuthorsSansom, B., MacDonald J., MacKinnon M., Dixon D. G., & Lee L. E.
EditorsLiber, K., Janz D. M., & Burridge L. E.
Pagination59 pages
Date Published10/2008
PublisherCanadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
Publication Languageeng
Keywordsanalytical methodology, fish, laboratory, Syncrude, tailings water, toxicity
Abstract

Rapid and reliable toxicity assessment of oil sands process-affected waters (OSPW) is needed to support oil sands reclamation projects. Conventional toxicity tests using whole animals are relatively slow, costly, and often subjective, while at the same time requiring the sacrifice of test organisms as is the case with lethal dosage/concentration assays. A nonlethal alternative, using fish cell lines, has been developed for its potential use in supporting oil sands reclamation planning and to help predict the viability of aquatic reclamation models such as end-pit lakes. This study employed six fish cell lines (WF-2, GFSk-S1, RTL-W1, RTgill-W1, FHML, FHMT) in 24 h viability assays for rapid fluorometric assessment of cellular integrity and functionality. Forty-nine test water samples collected from the surface of oil sands developments in the Athabasca Oil Sands deposit, north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, were evaluated in blind. Small subsample volumes (8 ml) were mixed with 2 ml of 5× concentrated exposure media and used for direct cell exposures. All cell line responses in terms of viability as measured by Alamar blue assay, correlated well with the naphthenic acids (NA) content in the samples (R 2 between 0.4519 and 0.6171; p < 0.0001) when data comparisons were performed after the bioassays. NA or total acid-extractable organics group has been shown to be responsible for most of the acute toxicity of OSPW and our results further corroborate this. The multifish cell line bioassay provides a strong degree of reproducibility among tested cell lines and good relative sensitivity of the cell line bioassay as compared to available in vivo data that could lead to cost effective, high-throughput screening assays. Read less

Notes

IN: Proceedings of the 35th Annual Aquatic Toxicity Workshop October 5-8, 2008. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Liber K. D.M. Janz and L.E. Burridge (Eds.). Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences No. 2841. pp. 59.

URLhttp://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11626-012-9570-4
Locational Keywords

Alberta oil sands

Active Link

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5660273425

Group

OSEMB

Citation Key53382

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