Chlorate Discharges from Pulp Mills: An Examination of Effects on River Algal Communities

To avoid the formation of organochlorine compounds in pulp products and effluents discharged into the environment, there is a trend in the North American pulping industry to change from molecular chlorine to chlorine dioxide bleaching. However, chlorate (ClO3−) formed during chlorine dioxide bleaching is known to have toxic effects in some marine algae and has been implicated in environmental problems in the Baltic Sea. This study examined the potential effects of chlorate on natural freshwater, riverine diatom communities characteristic of many rivers in western Canada. Under low ambient river nitrate concentrations (ca. 10 µg•L−1 NO3−N), chlorate additions of up to 500 µg•L1 ClO3 did not reduce the specific growth rates (µ) or change the taxonomic composition of the attached riverine diatom community. The lack of chlorate toxicity to freshwater diatoms suggests that the nitrate uptake and/or reduction mechanism(s) of freshwater diatoms have much higher affinities for NO3 than ClO3 compared to many marine macroalgae. These results indicate that chlorate discharged from new or upgraded pulpmills into freshwater river environments will not cause environmental changes to the dominant algal producers such as diatoms.