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Ecological Risk Assessment

Marine Screening Benchmarks

Note: Values are expressed in terms of the dissolved analyte in the water column except for those indicated with endnote 4 which are expressed in terms of total concentration.

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Notes and References

Literature Cited

^aU.S. EPA Region 4. 2002. Ecological Risk Assessment Bulletin, 2/11/2002. Waste Management Division Freshwater Surface Water Screening Values for Hazardous Waste Sites. Available at:
http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/ots/ecolbul.html

^b TNRCC (Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission), Toxicology and Risk Assessment Section. December 2001. Guidance for Conducting Ecological Risk Assessments at Remediation Sites in Texas. Available at: http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/comm_exec/forms_pubs/pubs/rg/rg-263_189521.pdf

^cCCME (Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment). 2003. Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines: Summary Table December 2003. Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Available at: http://www.ccme.ca/publications/ceqg_rcqe.html .

^dNYS DEC (New York State Department of Environmental Conservation), Division of Water. 1993. Technical and Operational Guidance Series (1.1.1). Ambient Water Quality Standards and Guidance Values and Groundwater Effluent Limitations. Available at: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dow/togs/togs111.pdf.The procedures to derive New York standards and guidance values to protect aquatic life are available at http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/regs/part706.html

^eU.S. EPA. 2004. National Recommended Water Quality Criteria: 2004. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/standards/wqcriteria.html.

^f U.S. EPA. OSWER (Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response). 1996. Eco Update: Ecotox thresholds. Washington, D.C. EPA 540/F-95/038. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/oswer/riskassessment/pdf/eco_updt.pdf

^gU.S. EPA. 2000. Bioaccumulation Testing and Interpretation for the Purpose of Sediment Quality Assessment. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/cs/biotesting/bioaccum.pdf

End Notes

¹ A safety factor of ten was used to derive a chronic value from an acute value.

² TNRCC Water Permits and Resource Management Division, 2001. In-house water quality chronic values derived for wastewater permits and requests from the office of waste based on LC50 values in accordance with methodology defined in the TSWQ.

³ Currently, no marine value is available. Refer to US EPA Region 3’s Freshwater Screening Benchmark table for a value.

⁴ The Canadian Water Quality Guidelines values refer to the total concentration in an unfiltered sample.

⁵ Value is protective of fish propagation in saline waters.

⁶ Texas surface water quality standards chronic criteria from Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission Texas Surface Water Quality Standards, Texas Administrative Code (TAC), Title 30, Chapter 307. Effective August 17, 2000. Available at: http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/permitting/water_quality/wq_assessment/standards/WQ_standards_1997.html

⁷ Value is the product of acute AWQC value (0.13) and mixing coefficient (0.5) and safety factor (0.1).

⁸ Value is derived from EPA Sediment Quality Criteria documents.

⁹ Value is based on the lowest plant value reported.

¹⁰ Variation from the natural pH of the area should not exceed 0.2 units.

¹¹ Applies to the sum of 1,2,3-, 1,2,4- and 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene.

¹² Applies to the sum of 1,2-, 1,3- and 1,4-xylene.

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Hierarchy for Selection of Marine Benchmarks

• Preference was given to the benchmarks based on chronic exposure, non-lethal endpoint studies designed to be protective of sensitive species.
• Absent chronic exposure benchmarks, values based on acute studies for multiple species adjusted with acute to chronic ratios were selected.
• The lowest reported effect level with a safety factor of ten to protect for a more sensitive species and/or with a safety factor of ten to convert from acute to chronic.
• Absent a marine value, refer to Region 3 freshwater tables.

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Downloadable Files

• Marine Screening Benchmarks [EXCEL | PDF]
• Notes and References [ MS Word]

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