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Update on US EPA’s Revision to the 1985 Guidelines for Deriving Aquatic Life Criteria
Citation:
Elias, M., G. Ankley, M. Barron, C. Bergeron, R. Burgess, S. Cormier, R. Erickson, M. Etterson, D. Hoff, C. LaLone, Dave Mount, G. Suter, Dan Villeneuve, K. Ho, M. Cantwell, M. Willming, Sandy Raimondo, L. Cruz, A. Jarvis, D. Eignor, J. Justice, M. Lewis, G. Thursby, AND K. Gallagher. Update on US EPA’s Revision to the 1985 Guidelines for Deriving Aquatic Life Criteria. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Minneapolis, MN, November 12 - 16, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
Share status of update to water quality criterion methods with user community.
Description:
National Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Aquatic Organisms and Their Uses (Stephan et al. 1985), to reflect the current state-of-the-science for aquatic effects assessments. Following a 2015 public meeting soliciting early input from the scientific community, EPA decided to undertake two overarching parallel tracks for this revision: 1) updating and refining methods for deriving state-of-the-science criteria through comprehensive analyses, and 2) developing criteria more rapidly for the broader protection of aquatic life from the potential adverse effects of the large number of chemicals released into the aquatic environment. The first track reflects that for a smaller group of chemicals, criteria development may be scientifically complex, and deriving robust criteria for these chemicals may require detailed investigation. The second track reflects the recognition that extensive testing of all chemicals is infeasible and there is a need to efficiently derive criteria using approaches that estimate safe environmental concentrations with limited empirical data. Based on these objectives, EPA will develop two criteria documents for this revision: 1) a Comprehensive Guidelines Document, intended to directly update and expand upon approaches presented in the 1985 Guidelines, and that will describe methods that provide criteria for chemicals requiring a more detailed level of evaluation, and 2) an Expedited Guidelines Document, which will focus on criteria development methods that are resource-conserving and that can be used to develop scientifically-robust criteria, even when supporting data are more limited. This latter guidance will place emphasis on methods that encompass predictive tools, data extrapolation methods, threshold-based methods, and probability-based approaches. A Scoping Document is currently under development that provides a “roadmap” to the revision process for both tracks. The Scoping Document details the specific objectives and approach to the revision process, and discusses the specific scientific and technical topic areas that are being considered for the revision and their relevance and applicability to the Comprehensive and Expedited Guidelines documents. This poster presentation provides an update to the ongoing revision process, with emphasis on information contained within the Scoping Document, which is scheduled for release in late 2017 in support of a planned Initial Consultation with the EPA’s Science Advisory Board. These are the authors views and do not necessarily represent views or policies of U.S. EPA.