You are here:
USEPA research on mussels and magna: Developing toxicity testing methods and guidance for new species for effluent and ambient waters
Citation:
Norberg-King, T. AND Jim Lazorchak. USEPA research on mussels and magna: Developing toxicity testing methods and guidance for new species for effluent and ambient waters. SETAC Europe-virtual Meeting, Duluth,MN, May 07, 2020. https://doi.org/10.23645/epacomptox.12374906
Impact/Purpose:
Clean Water Act (CWA) implementation starts with the development of water quality criteria to protect uses, such as aquatic life. EPA’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits system provides protection for our nation’s waters with water quality criteria, whole effluent toxicity and bioassessments. As such, whole effluent toxicity (WET) methods are used to assess whether chemical mixtures of effluents and ambient waters are causing toxicity to aquatic life, thereby filling a key role in meeting the CWA goal of “no toxics in toxic amounts.” While EPA currently relies a small number (one cladoceran, one fish, one plant species) for assessing toxicity and other groups of organisms have been identified as potential test species. Additional methods are needed to ensure that the NPDES WET program has new tools to assess whether effluents or waters comply with this “no toxics” provision of the CWA.
Description:
In the USA, the Clean Water Act (CWA) gives the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to implement pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry and water quality standards for contaminants in surface waters. However, applying water quality criteria to control the release of chemicals into water bodies is insufficient to manage all potentially toxic pollutants in the effluent, and EPA has applied aquatic toxicity testing analyses to wastewater discharges. Further, the CWA stipulates that it is unlawful to discharge any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters unless a permit is obtained through the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program. Toxicity data is used to assess and control the discharge of toxic substances to surface waters under the USEPAs integrated approach to water-quality-based toxics control, which compliments the aquatic-life-chemical-specific criteria and biological assessments. EPA has toxicity testing methods for effluent and ambient testing promulgated under the Clean Water Act Part 136, and toxicity test methods required by the USEPA are codified in the regulations. The codified freshwater methods include our 4 fish species (fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas), bannerfish shiner (Cyprinella leedsi), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and brown trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), 3 species of cladocerans (Daphnia magna, D. pulex, Ceriodaphnia dubia), and an alga (Raphidocelis subcapitata). In 2019, EPA began focusing on additional species and/or test methods. In the first stage, EPA will be developing protocols for the short-term chronic test using the cladoceran, Daphnia magna, and acute and short-term chronic test protocols using freshwater mussel (Lampsilis siliquoidea). We will be developing test protocols and performing test refinements in the EPA laboratories. These procedures will aid in the detection of both known and unknown chemical and biological contaminants in wastewater and ambient waters, and these short-term assays can help prioritize contaminants and contaminant mixtures. Subsequently, EPA plans to develop effluent and ambient water protocols for additional species, such as the acute and short-term methods for the mayfly, amphipod, midge, a short-term using trout, and a plant species. In this presentation, we will outline the general study plans for each species for the first phase and the progress to date.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: USEPA research on mussels and magna: Developing toxicity testing methods and guidance for new species for effluent and ambient waters