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Risk-based Prioritization of Contaminants of Emerging Concern Detected in Great Lakes Tributaries, 2010-2018.
Citation:
Villeneuve, Dan, E. Maloney, M. Pronschinske, A. Baldwin, S. Corsi, K. Kimbrough, M. Edwards, J. Frisch, S. Hummel, A. Bellamy, AND N. Vinas. Risk-based Prioritization of Contaminants of Emerging Concern Detected in Great Lakes Tributaries, 2010-2018. SETAC North America 42nd Annual meeting, Portland, OR, November 14 - 18, 2021. https://doi.org/10.23645/epacomptox.17105561
Impact/Purpose:
Presentation to the SETAC North America 42nd Annual meeting November 2021. Under Focus area 1 (Toxic Substances and Areas of Concern), one of the aims of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) was to identify emerging contaminants and assess their effects on Great Lakes fish and wildlife. Comparison of detected chemical concentrations with established toxicity benchmarks from regulatory authorities or effect concentrations in published studies is often required. This presentation provides an overview of the results of a risk-based screening of 420 contaminants detected in surface water of Great Lakes tributaries. Contaminants that appear to warrant management action and/or additional monitoring are identified. Likewise, chemicals that don’t warrant concern based on available evidence were determined. These results support Region 5 GLNPOs and associated stakeholder efforts efforts to achieve defined goals under the GLRI Focus area 1.
Description:
As part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, extensive contaminant monitoring, including 830 unique compounds, was conducted in Great Lakes tributaries over the course of eight years. The goal was to support the aim of identifying significant sources and impacts of new toxics and assessing their potential impacts on Great Lakes fish and wildlife. To support this aim, data regarding potentially hazardous concentrations of substances detected, including contaminants of emerging concern, were assembled from publicly accessible sources. The sources queried included published water quality standards and screening values, data from peer-reviewed studies compiled in the ECOTOX knowledgebase (https://cfpub.epa.gov/ecotox/) and bioactive concentrations in ToxCast assays, and/or Quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs). Among the 830 unique contaminants monitored, 420 were detected in surface water. Among those 420, biological effect concentrations from ECOTOX or ToxCast were available for 71%. A two-dimensional prioritization which considered detection frequency for individual contaminants and toxicity quotients or exposure activity ratios (i.e., ratio of detected environmental concentration to biological effect concentration) was used to group chemicals based on their relative priority for management action, additional monitoring, or research. Examples of high-priority chemicals identified included 2,4-dioxychlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D), naled, methomyl, azoxystrobin, benzo[b]fluoranthene, pyrene, and a number of herbicide degradates. Several steroidal compounds exceeded biological effect benchmarks, but were infrequently detected, suggesting more site-specific concerns. Just as importantly, over 65% of the detected chemicals were ranked as relatively low priority based on available exposure and effects data. Priorities based on the individual lines of evidence are being integrated to provide an overall ranking, and the 120 surface water contaminants for which effect benchmarks were unavailable have been prioritized for collection of toxicity data based on overall detection frequencies. The contents of this abstract neither constitute nor necessarily reflect official policy of the agencies and organizations involved in this research.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Risk-based Prioritization of Contaminants of Emerging Concern Detected in Great Lakes Tributaries, 2010-2018.
VILLENEUVE_SETAC NA 2021 RISK-BASED PRIORITIZATION OF CECS_V5.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 3257.203 KB, about PDF)