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Determination of Aquatic Hazard Concentrations for the Oil Spill Response Product Class of Surface Washing Agents using Species Sensitivity Distributions
Citation:
Alloy, M., D. Sundaravadivelu, R. Conmy, P. Meyer, AND M. Barron. Determination of Aquatic Hazard Concentrations for the Oil Spill Response Product Class of Surface Washing Agents using Species Sensitivity Distributions. MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, 193:115063, (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115063
Impact/Purpose:
The purpose of this research was to assess the aquatic toxicity hazards of the large group of surface washing agents (SWA). The impact of the research is that it provides the first comprehensive assessment of 62 SWAs that may be used in spill response. SWA's are the largest class of spill response agents, have high environmental application rates and aquatic exposures, and have limited toxicity data. This research fills a huge data gap providing more informed spill response decisions.
Description:
Surface washing agents (SWAs) are a large diverse class of oil spill response products intended to facilitate removal of stranded oil from shorelines. This class of agents has high application rates relative to other categories of spill response products, but global toxicity data is generally limited to two standard test species: inland silverside (Menidia beryllina) and mysid shrimp (Americamysis bahia). To broadly characterize species sensitivity to SWAs, the toxicity of three agents spanning a range of chemical and physical properties were tested in eight species: mysids, menidia, two algal species (Raphidocelis subcapitata, Dunallela tertiolecta), a freshwater minnow (Pimpephales promelas), a freshwater cladoceran (Ceriodaphina dubia), a freshwater midge (Chirnonomus tentans), and a marine echinoderm (Arbacia punctulata). To assess the range in fifth percentile hazard concentrations (HC5) for SWAs, species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) were generated for 62 different surface washing products. The relative sensitivity of mysids and menidia as surrogate test organisms was determined using ratios of the HC5s and species toxicity values. Using conventional SSD methods, we estimated HC5 values for the three products we tested (HC5 range: 0.82 to 22.9 mg/L). Grouped chemical SSDs were generated for all 62 SWAs using the toxicity normalized SSD approach (SSDn; Lambert et al. 2022) (HC5 range: 0.2 to 2000 mg/L). Mysids and menidia had inconsistent relative sensitivity across the range of SWAs and were not consistently representative of estimated HC5 values. The results of this study showed large ranges in species sensitivity and estimated HC5 values across the SWA product class. The SSDn grouped chemical HC5 estimation and other new approach methods can provide a more comprehensive assessment of hazards across a spill response product class than traditional single species or single agent approaches.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Determination of Aquatic Hazard Concentrations for the Oil Spill Response Product Class of Surface Washing Agents using Species Sensitivity Distributions