<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 />
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