Species sensitivity distributions: data and model choice

127

280

The Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality are a key document in the Australian National Water Quality Management Strategy. These guidelines released in 2000 are currently being reviewed and updated. The revision is being co-ordinated by the Australian Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, while technical matters are dealt with by a series of Working Groups. The revision will be evolutionary in nature reflecting the latest scientific developments and a range of stakeholder desires. Key changes will be: changing the guidelines to an electronic format; increasing the types and sources of data that can be used; working collaboratively with industry to permit the use of commercial-in-confidence data; increasing the minimum data requirements; including a measure of the uncertainty of the trigger value; improving the software used to calculate trigger values; increasing the rigour of site-specific trigger values; improving the method for assessing the reliability of the trigger values; providing guidance of measures of toxicity and toxicological endpoints that may, in the near future, be appropriate for trigger value derivation. These changes will markedly improve the number and quality of the trigger values that can be derived and will increase end-users' ability to understand and implement the Guidelines in a scientifically rigorous manner.

Section: Site-specific Investigationsmentioning

confidence: 85%

Revisions to the derivation of the Australian and New Zealand guidelines for toxicants in fresh and marine waters

Warne

Batley

Braga³

et al. 2013

127

280

“…SSDs provide a relatively simple and understandable means of converting the large body of species-level ecotoxicity data into a single community metric (i.e., the hazardous concentrations 5%, HC5), which corresponds to a concentration at which 5% of species would be expected to be adversely affected after exposure to a chemical (Posthuma et al 2001;Wheeler et al, 2002). However, SSD methodologies tend to only deal with interspecies differences and they make a number of assumptions.…”

Section: Deriving Wqgs For Ecosystem Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water quality guidelines for chemicals: learning lessons to deliver meaningful environmental metrics

Merrington

Grist

et al. 2013

Many jurisdictions around the globe have well developed regulatory frameworks for the derivation and implementation of water quality guidelines (WQGs) or their equivalent (e.g. environmental quality standards, criteria, objectives or limits). However, a great many more still do not have such frameworks and are looking to introduce practical methods to manage chemical exposures in aquatic ecosystems. There is a potential opportunity for learning and sharing of data and information between experts from different jurisdictions in order to deliver efficient and effective methods to manage potential aquatic risks, including the considerable reduction in the need for aquatic toxicity testing and the rapid identification of common challenges. This paper reports the outputs of an international workshop with representatives from 14 countries held in Hong Kong in December 2011. The aim of the workshop and this paper was to identify 'good practice' in the development of WQGs to deliver to a range environmental management goals. However, it is important to broaden this consideration to cover often overlooked facets of implementable WQGs, such as demonstrable field-validation (i.e., does the WQG protect what it is supposed to?), fit for purpose of monitoring frameworks (often an on-going cost) and finally how are these monitoring data used to support management decisions in a manner that is transparent and understandable to stakeholders. It is clear that regulators and the regulated community have numerous pressures and constraints on their resources. Therefore the final section of this paper addresses potential areas of collaboration and harmonisation. Such approaches could deliver a consistent foundation from which to assess potential chemical aquatic risks, including, for example, the adoption of bioavailability-based approaches for metals, whilst reducing administrative and technical burdens in jurisdictions.

“…SSDs were constructed by fitting cumulative probability distributions that plotted the concentration associated with eliciting a particular response from a particular species as a function of rank-assigned centile (Aldenberg and Slob 1993;Wheeler et al 2002). Usually, a point estimate known as the HC 5 (hazardous concentration for 5% of species) is calculated from the SSD.…”

Section: Effect Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

A tiered ecological risk assessment of three chlorophenols in Chinese surface waters

Jin

Gao

Zha

et al. 2011

Introduction The ecological risks posed by three chlorophenols (CPs), 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP), 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (2,4,6-TCP), and pentachlorophenol (PCP) in Chinese surface waters were assessed. Materials and methods This was achieved by applying a tiered ecological risk assessment (ERA) approach ranging from deterministic methods to probabilistic options to measured concentrations of CPs in surface water of seven major watersheds and three drainage regions in China and the chronic toxicity data for indigenous Chinese species. Results and discussionThe results show that the risks of three chlorophenols are ranked PCP>2,4-DCP≈2,4,6-TCP. PCP posed little ecological risk while 2,4-DCP and 2,4,6-TCP posed negligible or de minimis risk in Chinese surface water. However, the risks varied with different river basins, for example, PCP posed some ecological risk in the Yangtze, Huaihe, and Pearl Rivers. The magnitude of 2,4-DCP and 2,4,6-TCP pollution in North China was more serious than that in South China. Conclusion The probabilistic risk assessment approach, which can provide more information for risk managers Res (2012) 19:1544-1554 DOI 10.1007 and decision makers, was favored over the screening-level single-value estimate method. However, the results from all tiers of the ERA methods in the framework were consistent with each other.