7234

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7234
• Author: Kurey, W. J.
• Title: Organochlorine Contaminants in Fish of the Grand Valley ‎(Grand Junction Area of Colorado)‎.
• USFW Year: 1985.
• USFW - Doc Type: Grand Junction.
• Copyright Material: NO

In August 1983, more fish were collectd and analyzed for toxaphene by the
Colorado Department of Health using EPA approved methodology. Muscle tissue
was analyzed, and toxaphene was found in all samples with levels ranging from
0.02 to 0.84 ppm.
Toxaohene
Toxaphene has been cancelled for most uses.
Agency (EPA), however, intends to allow sal
stocks for certain uses until the supply is
December 31, 1986 These registered uses of
on sheeo and cattle; and armyworm, cutworm,
till corn.
The Environmental Protection
and distribution of existing
exhausted, but not later than
toxaphene include dip for scabies
and grasshopper control in no-
While Rich Valdez was supervisor of the Colorado River Fishery Project (CRFP)
in 1980. he contacted six authorities on the use of pesticides in the Grand
Valley in order to compile a survey of. pesticide use. His records document
that toxaphene has been used on row crops in the Grand Valley. Details are
sketchy in his survey, but it is likely that there were also other agricul-.
tural uses.
The Colorado Division of Plant Industry Annual Report for 1980-81 documents
the use of toxaphene on 34,846 acres of land'and on 3,142*head of livestock
in the State of Colorado that year. These figures include only commercial
pesticide applicators, and they do not include any breakdown by county. Uses
of toxaphene listed in the document (23 crops) indicate that many of the
crops grown in the Grand Valley could have had toxaphene applications (Table
1).
Table 1. Toxaohene Use in Colorado, 1980-81,
In Crop Acres and Head of Livestock.
Alfalfa 839 Lettuce 2,229 Sorghum 151
Barley 5.148 Livestock 3,142 Suqar Beets : 136
Beans 374 Melons 118 Tomatoes 200
Cabbaqe 653 Onions 22,391 Vegetables (assorted) 86
Carrots 252 Open Ground 30 Wheat 952
Cauliflower 120 Pasture 80 Wheat stubble 130
Corn 285 Peooers 163
Hay 228 Potatoes 11
Toxaohene is a synthetic organochlorine insecticide consisting of a mixture of
about 175 isomers of chlorinated camphene. It has been one of the world's
most widely used pesticides.
Monitoring of toxaphene residues in fish and birds has shown it to be rather
ubiquitous in the environment. Toxaohene is persistent and concentrates in
the aquatic food chain. "Unlike fishes, avian species readily metabolize and
excrete toxaphene so that little accumulation takes place in the tissues"
(White et al., 1983).
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