Endemic freshwater teleosts were collected from a portion of the
Navosota River drainage system which had been inadvertently contaminated
with arsenic wastes from a firm manufacturing arsenical pesticides and
herbicides. At the time of collection these fish were exposed to a
concentration of 13.6 ppm arsenic in the water; levels ranged from 1.0 to
20.0 ppm during the four-month period prior. Scale annuli counts and prior
water analyses indicated that these fish had been exposed for a lifetime.
Neutron activation data showed that Lepomis cyanellus (green sunfish) had
accumulated from 6.1 to 64.2 ppm arsenic in the liver, which is the major
detoxification organ in arsenic poisoning. Examination of livers for
ultrastructural changes revealed the presence of electron dense bodies and
large numbers of autophagic vacuoles (AV) and necrotic bodies (NB) (1), as
previously observed in this same species following laboratory exposures to
sodium arsenate (2). In addition, abnormal lysosomes (AL), necrotic areas
(NA), proliferated rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER), and fibrous bodies
(FB) were observed. In order to assess whether the extent of these cellular
changes was related to the concentration of arsenic in the liver,
stereological measurements of the volume and surface densities of changes
were compared with levels of arsenic in the livers of fish from both
Municipal Lake and an area known to contain no detectable level of
arsenic.
Contaminated Groundwater Sampling and Quality Control of Water Analyses
