Ecological Risk Assessment at the Department of Energy: An Evolving Process

1999 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Burger
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Ecological Risk ◽  
Ecological Risk Assessment ◽  
Adverse Outcome ◽  
The United States ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
United States Department ◽  
Stakeholder Input ◽  
Ecological Risk Assessments

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has facilities in 34 states, and many of these have chemical or radiological contami-nation that provides a potential risk to human or ecological health. Over the next few decades many of these sites will be cleaned up, and ecological risk assessment will be one tool used to make decisions about remediation and future land use. The DOE has developed an overall strategy for making remediation decisions that involves using risk assessment, with stakeholder input, although the final decisions are the Departments. The key elements of its ecological risk assessments involve valuing the severity and likelihood of occurrence of adverse ecological effects. It is currently using a process that incorporates descriptions of the environmental risk, and valuations of the severity and likelihood of an adverse outcome before, during, and after any remedial activity. The primary difficulty with the current DOE approach to risk has been a failure to use existing information to identify either species of concern or unique habitats at risk, and a lack of uniformity across the DOE complex. Nonetheless, the inclusion of ecological risk assessment in the decision-making process will help achieve one of the new missions of DOE: the protection and maintenance of biodiversity and healthy ecosystems at sites under its control.

scholarly journals Common insecticide disrupts aquatic communities: A mesocosm-to-field ecological risk assessment of fipronil and its degradates in U.S. streams

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (43) ◽  
pp. eabc1299
Author(s):  
Janet L. Miller ◽  
Travis S. Schmidt ◽  
Peter C. Van Metre ◽  
Barbara J. Mahler ◽  
Mark W. Sandstrom ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Ecological Risk ◽  
Ecological Risk Assessment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Aquatic Communities ◽  
Stream Communities ◽  
Low Concentrations ◽  
Field Samples ◽  
Multiple Regions ◽  
Global Concern

Insecticides in streams are increasingly a global concern, yet information on safe concentrations for aquatic ecosystems is sparse. In a 30-day mesocosm experiment exposing native benthic aquatic invertebrates to the common insecticide fipronil and four degradates, fipronil compounds caused altered emergence and trophic cascades. Effect concentrations eliciting a 50% response (EC50) were developed for fipronil and its sulfide, sulfone, and desulfinyl degradates; taxa were insensitive to fipronil amide. Hazard concentrations for 5% of affected species derived from up to 15 mesocosm EC50 values were used to convert fipronil compound concentrations in field samples to the sum of toxic units (∑TUFipronils). Mean ∑TUFipronils exceeded 1 (indicating toxicity) in 16% of streams sampled from five regional studies. The Species at Risk invertebrate metric was negatively associated with ∑TUFipronils in four of five regions sampled. This ecological risk assessment indicates that low concentrations of fipronil compounds degrade stream communities in multiple regions of the United States.

scholarly journals A Blueprint for the Problem Formulation Phase of EPA-Type Ecological Risk Assessments for 316(b) Determinations

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 271-298
Author(s):  
Webster Van Winkle ◽  
William P. Dey ◽  
Steve M. Jinks ◽  
Mark S. Bevlhimer ◽  
Charles C. Coutant
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Ecological Risk ◽  
Ecological Risk Assessment ◽  
Problem Formulation ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
Management Objectives ◽  
Ecological Risk Assessments ◽  
Generic Analysis ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

The difference between management objectives focused on sustainability of fish populations and the indigenous aquatic community, and a management objective focused on minimizing entrainment and impingement losses accounts for much of the ongoing controversy surrounding §316(b). We describe the EPA’s ecological risk assessment framework and recommend that this framework be used to more effectively address differences in management objectives and structure §316(b) determinations. We provide a blueprint for the problem formulation phase of EPA-type ecological risk assessments for cooling-water intake structures (CWIS) at existing power plant facilities. Our management objectives, assessment endpoints, conceptual model, and generic analysis plan apply to all existing facilities. However, adapting the problem formulation process for a specific facility requires consideration of the permitting agency’s guidelines and level of regulatory concern, as well as site-specific ecological and technical differences. The facility-specific problem formulation phase is designed around the hierarchy of biolo gical levels of organization in the generic conceptual model and the sequence of cause-effect events and risk hypotheses represented by this model. Problem formulation is designed to be flexible in that it can be tailored for facilities where §316(b) regulatory concern is low or high. For some facilities, we anticipate that the assessment can be completed based on consideration of susceptibility alone. At the other extreme, a high level of regulatory concern combined with the availability of extensive information and consideration of costly CWIS mitigation options may result in the ecological risk assessment relying on analyses at all levels. Decisions on whether to extend the ecological risk assessment to additional levels should be based on whether regulatory or generator concerns merit additional analyses and whether available information is adequate to support such analyses. In making these decisions, the functional dependence between levels of analysis must be considered in making the transition to the analysis phase and risk estimation component of the ecological risk assessment. Regardless of how the generic analysis plan is modified to develop a facility-specific analysis plan, the resulting plan should be viewed as a tool for comparing representative species and alternative CWIS options by focusing on relative changes (i.e., proportional or percent changes) in various measures. The analysis plan is specifically designed to encourage consideration of multiple lines of evidence and to characterize uncertainties in each line of evidence. Multiple lines of evidence from different levels of analysis, obtained using both prospective and retrospective techniques, provide a broader perspective on the magnitude of potential effects and associated uncertainties and risks. The implications of the EPA’s recent (April 2002) proposed regulations for existing facilities on the applicability of this blueprint are briefly considered.

scholarly journals Adverse outcome pathways and ecological risk assessment: Bridging to population-level effects

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent J. Kramer ◽  
Matthew A. Etterson ◽  
Markus Hecker ◽  
Cheryl A. Murphy ◽  
Guritno Roesijadi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Ecological Risk ◽  
Ecological Risk Assessment ◽  
Adverse Outcome ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Adverse Outcome Pathways

Lessons Learned in Ecological Risk Assessment Planning Efforts

2001 ◽  
Vol 2001 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Hayward Walker ◽  
Debra Scholz ◽  
Don V. Aurand ◽  
Robert G. Pond ◽  
James R. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Ecological Risk ◽  
Ecological Risk Assessment ◽  
Puget Sound ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Bulk Oil ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Trade Offs

ABSTRACT There is growing interest in the United States for using the full mix of environmentally appropriate countermeasures during spill response to achieve the highest level of environmental protection and recovery possible. Determining the right mix of technologies, including mechanical recovery, shoreline cleanup, dispersants, and monitoring (no active response), is particularly challenging in sensitive and valuable estuaries through which high volumes of bulk oil shipment transit. This paper summarizes an ecological risk assessment (ERA) project to consider the potential effectiveness and effects of using dispersants, in addition to conventional countermeasures, to mitigate the impacts of oil spilled into the marine and nearshore environments and to facilitate preparedness efforts at the federal, state, local, and industry level. Sponsored by industry and federal and state agencies, the primary goal was to bring technical and resource experts together to use their collective knowledge and experience in methodically comparing the trade-offs associated with the use of various countermeasures in Puget Sound, Washington. The ERA process used for Washington State waters was the first ERA that specifically addressed oil spill response options in U.S. coastal estuaries. It occurred as a follow-up to several other preparedness activities jointly sponsored by government and industry. The project team learned several important lessons, which were used to refine the process as it subsequently was applied in California and Texas in 1999.

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