Effects of acid-iron wastes on estuarine organisms: recent field and laboratory experiments

Several experiments were made in 1982 and 1983 to evaluate the effects of acid-iron waste from a French titanium-dioxide plant on marine fauna. Experiments were carried out in the plume area of the Seine Estuary, France, and in the laboratory to determine the effects of pH on mortality rates. Field results revealed no effect of short-term exposure (10s) to pH 3 and the laboratory bioassays failed to reveal any deleterious effects on phytoor zooplankton of exposure to pH 3 for 30 or 90 s.