7378

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7378
• Author: Wydoski, R. S.
• Title: Potential Impacts of Alterations in Streamflow and Water Quality on Fish and Macroinvertebrates in the Upper Colorado River Basin.
• USFW Year: 1980.
• USFW - Doc Type: 77-147
• Copyright Material: YES

coauthors (1966) also reported that radium was a radioactive material

Table 11, The pH of Animas River Water After the Addition of
Different Quantities of Effluent from Uranium-
Vanadium Mining

leaching of radioactive tailings and lowered pH (table 11). Sigler and

found in water and bottom sediments of the Animas, San Miguel, and

pated the aquatic biota below uranium mills.

Type of
effluent

Percentage of river water

Dolores rivers in the Upper Colorado River Basin that limited or extir-

o

90

96.8

99

100

The temperature tolerances, and even optimal temperatures, are

fairly well known for salmonids (Giger, 1973; Hooper, 1973), but are not

Main
effluent

4,7

6.4

6.7

7.2

7.9

temperature tolerances for other species, such as carp, channel catfish,

Tailings
effluent

<2.0

2.6

4,8

6.5

7.9

known for the endemic species in the Colorado River. Information on the

of the endemic forms to changes in temperature could be drawn from the

Source: Tsivoglov, E. C., S. D. Schearer. R. M. Shaw. Jr.,
J, D, Jones, J, B, Anderson, C. E. Sponagles, and D, A. Clark. Survey
of Interstate Pollution of the Animas River. Colorado-New Mexico
(Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. Department of Health, Education. and Welfare,
Public Health Service, Robert A. Taft Engineering Center, 1959).

and walleyes, is available for other waters in the United States and

could be used to predict some responses, Inferences about the responses

general behavior of other cyprinids and catostomids,

The water quality requirements of various species of aquatic in-

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sects in the Intermountain Region have been studied at the University of

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Utah since 1946 resulting in considerable data on the effects of pollution

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on the biota in a number of streams. Since 1946 (e.g" Gaufin, 1973),

laboratory studies have been directed at determining the tolerance of

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twenty species of aquatic insects (Diptera, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera

and Trichoptera) to several adverse environmental factors (high water

temperatures, low dissolved oxygen concentrations, and low pH). Addi-

tional studies like Gaufin's are needed to predict the responses of

aquatic macroinvertebrates to other proposed environmental changes.

Some states are reviewing the water quality of their waters and

are establishing plans for maintaining acceptable water quality.

Nichols, Skogerboe, and Ward (1972), for example, have outlined deci-

sions concerning water quality manageatent in Colorado.