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Science for Watershed Decisions on Abandoned Mine Lands: Review of Preliminary Results, Denver, Colorado, February 4-5, 1998

Use of Ecological Indicators as Endpoints for Remediation

By Terence P. Boyle¹ and Bob Bukantis²

The diagnosis of ecological health in streams is most often determined by the status of critical physical, chemical, and biological measures. Quality and condition of the benthic macroinvertebrate and fish communities have come to be the most common biological characteristics investigated as indicators of water quality. The benthic macroinvertebrate community and an array of physical and chemical variables were sampled in September 1997 in the Boulder River watershed in High Ore Creek, Cataract Creek, Basin Creek, and the Little Boulder River. Sampling was designed to assess the current status and condition of the benthic macroinvertebrate community at impacted sites and control (or reference) sites. The data collected also will provide a baseline with which to assess future change anticipated from remediation of abandoned mine lands at a number of critical sites with different levels of impact.

These data will be analyzed by multivariate methods to establish the degree of differences in the structure of the benthic macroinvertebrate community among the sites and the degree to which individual environmental variables are associated with the variability observed in the structure of the benthic macroinvertebrate communities. Subsequent analysis of the biological data will include the development and application of multimetric ecological indices.

The ultimate goal of the remediation efforts done under the auspices of the AML Initiative is the restoration of the natural resources to the best attainable condition. The best way to develop biological criteria is through knowledge of prior conditions or local reference sites. The final success of any remediation effort will be evaluated in terms of biological endpoints derived, in collaboration with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, as specific multimetric ecological indices of the benthic macroinvertebrate community developed. These ecological endpoints for remediation will not only be the final biological test of the remediation, but can be used by State water-quality regulatory agencies as biological criteria to legally determine whether remediation has been adequate to restore beneficial-use support. A strategy for using multivariate analysis and subsequent multimetric analysis will be outlined as a procedure for integrating physical, chemical, and biological data, and placing this analysis in the context of water-quality regulations to determine biological criteria and ecological attainability.

¹U.S. Geological Survey, Aylesworth Hall NW, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO 80523 (terence_boyle@usgs.gov)

²Montana Department of Environmental Quality, P.O. Box 200901, Helena, MT 59620-0901 (bbukantis@mt.gov)

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