AIM: This study aimed to assess the quality of water and sediment of urban streams (Lajeado, Preto, Pedras and Lewis-Pedroso) located in Santa Cruz do Sul County, RS, Brazil, using the microcrustacean Ceriodaphnia dubia as test-organism. METHODS: Quarterly scientific excursions to the streams were held on August and November 2011, February and May of 2012 in order to collect water and sediment samples, in the upper reaches (P1, P3, P5, P7) and lower reaches (P2, P4, P6, P8), totalizing 8 points. To evaluate the toxicity (acute and chronic), the microcrustacean C. dubia was used. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The results indicated high toxicity levels detected in samples P2, P6 and P8 (lower reaches), as they caused the mortality of 100% of organisms in the water samples (P6 and P8) and sediment samples (P2 and P8), denoting acute effect. Yet, all upstream sites showed chronic effects in sediment samples, at least for one collection period, with the highest significant toxicity level among all samples (55.2%), which indicates the presence of contamination even in upper areas. These results indicated a strong degradation of the water and sediment quality of urban streams coming from the wastewater and industrial discharges of the urban area, which can cause damage to the biota as well as the public health, due to the multiples uses of water that the local population does, highlighting many of them as inappropriate to the water quality detected, such as the primary contact recreation (balneability).
environmental assessment; urban pollution; ecotoxicological assay; bioindicators
