Avaliação ecotoxicológica na Bacia do Rio das Velhas - MG

Abstract

The Velhas River basin lies in the central region of the state of Minas Gerais, with a drainage area of approximately 27867.20 km2, encompassing 51 municipalities partially or completely contained in the basin. Has great geopolitical importance to be inserted in the municipality of Belo Horizonte and its metropolitan area, where industrial development and mining activities are present. The predominant biomes along the basin are Atlantic Forest, Cerrado and Altitude fields. The eco-toxicological tests have been used to assess the potentially toxic effects of pollutants on biological communities. These tests have been conducted on Waters Project of Mines Mining Institute of Environmental Management - IGAM, this project monitoring surface water basins in the state of Minas Gerais. This study aimed to evaluate the frequency of occurrence of toxic events of ecotoxicological testing of 23 sampling stations including stations in the main channel and major tributaries, a time series of 5 years comprises 2009 to 2013 on high, medium and low course of the Velhas river basin. It was observed that the sampling stations BV037, BV063 and BV067 (upper course), BV137, BV154 and BV155 (high school) and BV151 (lower course) had the highest percentages of occurrence of toxic along historic series events. From the results obtained, it is remarkable the importance of ecotoxicological assays in identifying the most critical points which allows an assessment of the water quality of the ecotoxicological point of view along the Velhas River basin