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<br />~ <br /> <br />COMMENTARY <br /> <br />233 <br /> <br />for a system like the Colorado River because its entire flow <br />is diverted offstream under normal condition; i.e., none <br />reaches the ocean (McDowell et al., 1997). However, when <br />the Colorado River did flow to the Gulf of California, river <br />water at Yuma, Arizona. contained 41lg/L selenium in No- <br />vember 1936 (Byers et al., 1938), and water in the Gulf 30 <br />and 70 miles southeast of the mouth of the Colorado River <br />contained 3 Ilg/L (Lakin and Byers, 1941), which indicates <br />selenium in river water was carried considerable distances <br />into the Gulf. <br /> <br />5. CONCLUSIONS <br /> <br />There is a growing body of literature that continues to <br />document the extensive contamination of aquatic environ- <br />ments with selenium, and the adverse effects in aquatic <br />organisms. The majority of this literature demonstrates the <br />need for a national water quality criterion below the current <br />value of 5 Ilg/L. Several extensive reviews of the literature <br />have concluded that a criterion of 21lg/L is justified. Two <br />recent articles that proposed a sediment-based approach to <br />establishing a selenium criterion for streams, especially <br />those in Colorado (Canton and Van Derveer, 1997; Van <br />Derveer and Canton, 1997), failed to find that no biological <br />effects occur in fish populations in Colorado streams with <br />elevated selenium in water or demonstrate that sensitive fish <br />species have not disappeared. They have incorrectly inter- <br />preted exposure survey reports as being exposure-response <br />studies, ignored the importance of waterborne entry of sel- <br />enium in aquatic food webs, overlooked key studies from <br />the extensive body of selenium literature, and failed to <br />consider the offstream consequences of proposing high in- <br />stream selenium standards. Consequently, Canton and Van <br />Derveer (1997) and Van Derveer and Canton (1997) fail to <br />provide an adequate argument for changing the selenium <br />chronic criterion from a water basis to a particulate or <br />sediment basis. On the other hand, evidence is continuing to <br />increase that a water-based criterion of 2 Ilg/L is justfied. <br /> <br />ACKNOWLEDGMENTS <br /> <br />The authors thank 1 Besser, W. Brumbaugh, T Presser, R. Seiler, <br />1 Skorupa. and four anonymous reviewers for helpful comments. <br /> <br />REFERENCES <br /> <br />Archuleta. A.. and Holley. K. (1996). 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