20 environmental and water quality guidelines Flashcards
what is the CCME?
canadian council of minister of the environment
-CCME is comprised of the environment ministers from the federal, provincial and territorial governments
-through the CCME, province, territories and federal government jointly undertake initiatives to address major environmental issues that are of concern to CCME members
-issues are national and intergovernmental in nature and of interest to a significant portion of CCMA member jurisdictions
-through CCME, a variety of national policies and technical products have been developed (e.g. canadian environmental quality guidelines)
what are the canadian environment quality guidelines?
use dependent (can be numerical or narrative)
-chapter 1: canadian national ambient air quality objectives: process and status
-chapter 2: community water supplies
-chapter 3: recreational water quality guidelines and aesthetics
-chapter 4: canadian water quality guidelines for the protection of aquatic life
-chapter 5: canadian water quality guidelines for the protection of agricultural uses
-chapter 6: canadian sediment quality guidelines for the protection of aquatic life
-chapter 7: canadian soil quality guidelines for the protection of environmental and human health
-chapter 8: canadian tissue residue guidelines for the protection of wildlife consumers of aquatic biota (carnivorious wildlife)
what are the differences between guideline, objective and standard?
-water quality guideline: numerical concentration or narrative statement recommended to support and maintain a designated water use
-water quality objective: a numerical concentration and narrative statement that has been established to support and protect the designated uses of water at a specified site
-water quality standard: an objective that is recognized in enforceable environmental control laws of a level of government
what is the background of derivation of canadian water quality guidelines for the protections of aquatic life?
based on: a protocol for the derivation of water quality guidelines for the protection of aquatic life 2007
background
-the current WQGs contain limits for approximately 85 substances
-these include everything from pesticides and industrial chemicals, to metals, nutrients and inorganic ions
-new substances are added regularly
-these limits are only “guidelines”, they are not legally enforceable and provinces and territories can set their own limits that are either more or less protective
what are the guiding principles for the development of freshwater aquatic life guidelines?
-all components of the aquatic ecosystems (e.g. algae, macrophytes, invertebrates, fish) are considered if the data are available
-guidelines are set at such values as to protect all forms of aquatic life and all aspects of the aquatic life cycles
-for most water quality variables, two values, which are not to be exceeded, are recommended as canadian water quality guidelines. These maximum values are intended as guidelines for short-term or long-term (indefinite) exposure periods
-unless otherwise specified, a guideline value refers to the total concentration in an unfiltered sample
what are the two exposure guidelines?
-short-term exposure guidelines
-long-term exposure guidelines
what is the purpose of short-term guidelines?
are meant to estimate severe effects to aquatic ecosystems and to protect most species against lethality during intermittent and transient events (e.g. spill events to aquatic-receiving environments, infrequent releases of short-lived/non-persistent substances; 96 hours or less)
-they protect only a specified fraction of individuals from severe effects such as lethality for a defined short-term exposure period. These guidelines do not fulfill the guiding principle of protecting all components of the aquatic ecosystem all the time
what is the purpose of long-term guidelines?
meant to protect against all negative effects during indefinite exposures
what is an example of an episodic event?
the dam busted and filled a couple hundred kilometers
-killed everything (not from metals, due to very high pH)
what happened in canada?
what does ECx mean?
the effective concentration
-it is the concentration of material in water, soil or sediment that is estimated to cause a specified toxic effect to x% of the test organisms
-the ECx describes quantal effects, lethal or sublethal, and is not applicable to quantitative effects (see ICp)
what does LC50 mean?
the median lethal concentration
-i.e. the concentration of material in water, soil or sediment that is estimated to be lethal of 50% of the test organisms
what does ICx mean?
is the inhibiting concentration for a (specified) percent effect
-it represents a point estimate of a concentration of test material that is estimated to cause a designated percent impairment in a quantitative biological function such as the size attained by organisms during a growth period
-the ICx is estimated by regression
what does NOEC mean?
the no-observed effect concentration
-this concentration is the next lower from the LOEC, among those concentrations tested
what does MATC mean”
the maximum acceptable toxicant concentration
-its true value lies somewhere between the NOEC and LOEC; it is estimated as the geometric mean of those two concentrations
what does median mean?
the middle measurement is a set of data that has been ordered from small to large or large to small
what is the guideline derivation protocol?
- selection of variables
- literature search
- data set requirements
- evaluation of toxicological data
- guideline derivation (type A or type B guideline) (availability/quality of data)
what is the selection of variable in the guideline derivation protocol?
-variables of concern at the national level are given priority for guideline development
-for example, the canadian environmental protection act includes a priority substances list (I and II) for which water quality guidelines are required
-variable are also selected for guideline development after consultation with other federal and provincial jurisdictions
what is the literature search of guideline derivation protocol?
-for each variable selected, a literature search is conducted to gather all relevant information
what are the data set requirements for guideline derivation protocol?
-miniqmum toxicological data set requirements must be met
what is the evaluation of toxicological data of guideline derivation protocol?
-each toxicology study found in the literature search is evaluated to ensure that acceptable laboratory practices were used in the design and execution of the experiment
-each study is then classified as primary, secondary, or unacceptable
what are the guideline derivation protocol of type A?
are derived using a species sensitivity distribution (SSD) approach when there are adequate primary and secondary toxicity data to satisfactorily fit and SSD curve
-first and more preferred approach
what are the guideline derivation protocol of type B?
are derived for substances that either have inadequate or insufficient toxicity data for the SSD approach (i.e. type A guideline), but for which enough toxicity data from a minimum number of primary (B1) and/or secondary (B2) studies are available. Guideline is based on the extrapolation from the lowest available and acceptable toxicity endpoint
-can be further subdivided into B1 and B2 based on quality and quantity of available data
what are the preferred endpoints of minimum toxicological data set requirements for derivation of full freshwater life guidelines (type A and type B)?
what are the minimal toxicological data set requirements for derivation of full freshwater life guidelines (type A and type B) of organisms required in the data set?
organisms required in the data set (type A and B1 guidelines)
fish
-at least three freshwater species residents in North America, including at least one salmonid (cold water) and one non-salmonid (warm water fish tend to be more resistant to stress)
invertebrates
-at least three aquatic or semi-aquatic invertebrates, at least one of which includes a planktonic crustacean (e.g. daphnid)
plants
-at least one study of a freshwater vascular plant or freshwater algal species
-for highly phytotoxic variables (e.g. herbicides), three studies on non-target freshwater plant or algal species are required
what is the evaluation of toxicological data in protocol?
-since standard protocols for toxicity testing may become outdated or are not always available or followed, a great deal of variability exists in the quality of published toxicity data
-to ensure a consistent scientific evaluation for each chemical/variable, the data included in the minimum data set should meet certain criteria
-data are categorized as: primary, secondary or unacceptable
what is the primary data in evaluation of toxicological data?
-toxicity tests must employ currently acceptable laboratory practices of exposure and environmental controls
-as a minimum requirement, toxicant/stressor concentrations must be measured at the beginning and end of the exposure period
-preferred endpoints from a partial or full-cycle test include a determination of effects on embryonic development, hatching, or germination success, survival of juvenile stages, growth, reproduction and survival of adults (need control groups)
-responses and survival of controls must be measured and should be appropriate for the life stage of the test species used
-measurements of abiotic variables such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and water hardness should be reported so that any factors that may affect toxicity can be included in the evaluation process
what is type B guideline derivation?
-guidelines are preferably derived from the lowest-observed-effect concentration (LOEC) from a chronic study using a nonlethal endpoint for the most sensitive life stage of the most sensitive aquatic species investigated
-minimum data requirements must be met with primary data
what is the guideline derivation from a chronic study (type B)?
-the most sensitive LOEC is multiplied by a safety factor of 0.1 (or divided by 10) to arrive at the guideline value
-this safety factor has been chosen to account for differences in sensitivity to a chemical due to differences in species, laboratory versus field conditions, and test endpoints
what is the table of freshwater toxicity data for arsenic?
what is type A guideline derivation?
what is an aquatic community risk model?
what is the guideline for chloride ion?
if endangered and underline of 5th percentile, then maybe dont listen to guideline
what is the graph of chloride of short-term SSD?
what is the graph of chloride of long-term SSD?
