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The development of aquatic assays for the assessing the toxicity of effluents
Citation:
Norberg-King, T. The development of aquatic assays for the assessing the toxicity of effluents. University of Nebraska Graduate Virtual Course, Duluth, MN, October 16, 2020. https://doi.org/10.23645/epacomptox.12999860
Impact/Purpose:
At the USEPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD)’s research laboratory, the Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division, aquatic toxicology is the core of our mission and research. This presentation will cover research highlight some history of environmental pollution and aquatic toxicity testing development, focusing on how the research provided valuable insights into the ecological impacts to aquatic communities due to exposure to pollutants. This is an overview of the effluent toxicity research objectives and accomplishments.
Description:
Pollution occurred with the Industrial Revolution when factories began releasing pollutants directly into rivers and streams. In 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio had become so polluted that it catches on fire, which resulted in national attention for many water pollution control activities, such as the Clean Water Act. A pesticide, DDT, was identified as polluting rivers and destroying the eggs of birds of prey, and oil spills in the ocean helped turn the public concern about pollution into an earth day movement. This, in turn, led to the creation of EPA and first scientific laboratories were set up to better understand the state of the nation’s deteriorating water resources, pinpoint sources of trouble, and deliver solutions. As EPA researchers worked to develop water quality assessment methods for regulating the discharge of pollutants into the nation’s waterways, numerical water quality criteria for many environmental contaminants were developed. It became apparent that protecting surface waters from chemicals in municipal and industrial effluents would require more than numerical criteria of pollutants. During the 1980s the Duluth laboratory began a research program to develop Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) test methods that measure the aggregate acute and short-term chronic toxicity of an effluent using standardized freshwater plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates. The focus was on developing toxicity test methods that could meet the practical demands of effluent testing, demonstrating the connection between effluent and the ambient water toxicity and effects on instream communities; and developing methods to identify the causes of effluent toxicity so that the sources of toxicity could be controlled. This presentation presents a history of aquatic pollution and highlights scientific accomplishments over the years. This is an overview of the effluent toxicity research objectives and accomplishments.
