Derivation of an aquatic benchmark for invertebrates potentially exposed to imidacloprid

Water quality benchmarks are developed by many jurisdictions worldwide with the general goal of identifying concentrations that protect aquatic communities. Imidacloprid is a widely-used neonicotinoid insecticide for which benchmark values vary widely between North America and Europe. For example, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) recently established chronic water quality benchmarks for imidacloprid of 0.009 and 0.0083 µg/L, respectively. In Canada and the United States (US), however, the current chronic water quality benchmarks – termed aquatic life benchmark by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) – for freshwater biota are orders of magnitude higher, i.e., 0.23 and 1.05 µg/L, respectively. Historically, aquatic benchmarks for imidacloprid have been derived for invertebrates because they are the most sensitive aquatic receptors. To date, derivation of water quality benchmarks for imidacloprid have relied on the results of laboratory-based toxicity tests on single invertebrate species. Such tests do not account for environmental factors affecting bioavailability and toxicity or species interactions and potential for recovery. Microcosm, mesocosm and field studies are available for aquatic invertebrate communities exposed to imidacloprid. These higher tier studies are more representative of the natural environment and can be used to derive a chronic benchmark for imidacloprid. A water quality benchmark based on the results of higher tier studies is protective of freshwater invertebrate communities without the uncertainty associated with extrapolating from laboratory studies to field conditions. We used the results of higher tier studies to derive a chronic water quality benchmark for imidacloprid as follows: (1) for each taxon (family, subfamily or class depending on the study), we determined the most sensitive 21-day No Observed Effects Concentration (NOEC), (2) we fit the taxon NOECs to five distributions and determined the best-fit distribution, and (3) we determined the HC5 from the best-fit distribution. The higher tier chronic HC5 for imidacloprid is 1.01 µg/L, which is close to the current US EPA chronic aquatic life benchmark of 1.05 µg/L.

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Derivation of an aquatic benchmark for invertebrates potentially exposed to imidacloprid

10.7287/peerj.preprints.2584v1 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Dwayne RJ Moore ◽

Colleen D Greer ◽

Melissa Whitfield-Aslund ◽

Lisa M Bowers ◽

Sean McGee ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Water Quality ◽

Environmental Protection Agency ◽

Species Interactions ◽

The United States ◽

Toxicity Tests ◽

Aquatic Life ◽

Invertebrate Communities ◽

Us Epa ◽

Best Fit

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Establishing Climate Change Resilience in the Great Lakes in Response to Flooding

Journal of Science Policy & Governance ◽

10.38126/jspg170105 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (01) ◽

Author(s):

Gwendolyn E Gallagher ◽

Ryan K Duncombe ◽

Timothy M Steeves

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

United States ◽

Water Quality ◽

Great Lakes ◽

Environmental Protection Agency ◽

High Water ◽

The United States ◽

Water Levels ◽

Storm Events ◽

Freshwater Resource

Over the past decade, both the average rainfall and the frequency of high precipitation storm events in the Great Lakes Basin have been steadily increasing as a consequence of climate change. In this same period, cities and communities along the coasts are experiencing record high water levels and severe flooding events (ECC Canada et al. 2018). When cities are unprepared for these floods, the safety of communities and the water quality of the Great Lakes are jeopardized. For example, coastal flooding increases runoff pollution and contaminates the freshwater resource that 40 million people rely on for drinking water (Lyandres and Welch 2012, Roth 2016). Since the Great Lakes are shared between two nations, the United States and Canada, the region is protected by several international treaties and national compacts, including the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). In order to increase climate change resiliency against flooding in the region, we recommend the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) work with Environment and Climate Change Canada to relocate the GLRI under the GLWQA in order to guarantee consistent funding and protection efforts. We additionally recommend expansion of both agreements in their scope and long-term commitments to engender cooperative efforts to protect the Great Lakes against climate change.

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The National Eutrophication Survey: lake characteristics and historical nutrient concentrations

10.5194/essd-2017-52 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Joseph Stachelek ◽

Chanse Ford ◽

Dustin Kincaid ◽

Katelyn King ◽

Heather Miller ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Water Quality ◽

Quality Assurance ◽

Environmental Protection Agency ◽

Character Recognition ◽

Optical Character Recognition ◽

The United States ◽

Nutrient Concentrations ◽

Optical Character ◽

Lakes And Reservoirs

Abstract. Historical ecological surveys serve as a baseline and provide context for contemporary research, yet many of these records are not preserved in a way that ensures their long-term usability. The National Eutrophication Survey database is currently only available as scans of the original reports (PDF files) with no embedded character information. This limits its searchability, machine readability, and the ability of current and future scientists to systematically evaluate its contents. These data were collected by the United States Environmental Protection Agency between 1972 and 1975 as part of an effort to investigate eutrophication in freshwater lakes and reservoirs. Although several studies have manually transcribed small portions of the database in support of specific studies, there have been no systematic attempts to transcribe and preserve the database in its entirety. Here we use a combination of automated optical character recognition and manual quality assurance procedures to make these data available for analysis. The performance of the optical character recognition protocol was found to be linked to variation in the quality (clarity) of the original documents. For each of the four archival scanned reports, our quality assurance protocol found an error rate between 5.9 and 17 %. The goal of our approach was to strike a balance between efficiency and data quality by combining hand-entry of data with digital transcription technologies. The finished database contains information on the physical characteristics, hydrology, and water quality of about 800 lakes in the contiguous United States (https://doi.org/10.5063/F1KK98R5). Ultimately, this database could be combined with more recent studies to generate metadata analyses of water quality trends and spatial variation across the continental United States.

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Procedures used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) to develop and adopt newer dispersion models

International Journal of Environment and Pollution ◽

10.1504/ijep.2001.000643 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 16 (1/2/3/4/5/6) ◽

pp. 483 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

R.H. Schulze

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Environmental Protection ◽

Environmental Protection Agency ◽

The United States ◽

Dispersion Models ◽

Protection Agency ◽

Us Epa

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Willingness to Pay for Water Quality Improvements in the United States and Canada: Considering Possibilities for International Meta-Analysis and Benefit Transfer

Agricultural and Resource Economics Review ◽

10.1017/s1068280500001866 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 39 (1) ◽

pp. 114-131 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Robert J. Johnston ◽

Paul J. Thomassin

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Water Quality ◽

Willingness To Pay ◽

Policy Development ◽

Stated Preference ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

The United States ◽

Benefit Transfer ◽

Quality Improvements ◽

Aquatic Life

This paper presents a multinational meta-analysis estimated to identify systematic components of willingness to pay for surface water quality improvements, developed to support benefit transfer for Canadian policy development. Metadata are drawn from stated preference studies that estimate WTP for water quality changes affecting aquatic life habitats—a type of study with few Canadian examples. The goals of this paper are to assess the properties of a multinational (United States/Canada) meta-analysis compared to a single-country (U.S.) analog; illustrate the potential information that may be derived as well as the analytical challenges; and assess the performance of resulting meta-functions for benefit transfer.

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The Water Quality and Energy Impacts of Biofuels

ASME 2009 3rd International Conference on Energy Sustainability, Volume 1 ◽

10.1115/es2009-90294 ◽

2009 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kelly M. Twomey ◽

Ashlynn S. Stillwell ◽

Michael E. Webber

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Water Quality ◽

Water Treatment ◽

Ethanol Production ◽

Corn Starch ◽

The United States ◽

Nitrogen Loading ◽

Aquatic Life ◽

The Impact ◽

Hypoxic Region

Concerns over rising fuel prices, national security, and the environment have led to the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, which established a mandate for the production of at least 36 billion gallons of biofuels in 2022, up to 15 billion gallons of which can come from traditional first-generation biofuels sources such as corn starch-based ethanol. One consequence of ramped-up biofuels production is the risk of additional soil runoff. This runoff, potentially laden with nitrogen and phosphorus compounds from fertilizers, can detrimentally impact water quality. Consequently, the water treatment sector might require additional energy to remove increased quantities of sediment and run-off from nutrients and pesticides in degraded water bodies downstream of agricultural land. At the same time, the cumulative effects of increased eutrophication in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya River Basins have already negatively impacted much of the aquatic life in the Louisiana-Texas continental shelf. A recent report by U.S. Geological Survey measured nitrogen loading in the Mississippi River basin as high as 7,761 metric tons per day, the highest recorded loading in the past three decades, 52% of which is attributed to loading from corn and soybean crops. Massive algae blooms that thrive in nutrient-rich water deplete the water of oxygen when they die, creating a hypoxic region. This hypoxic region, which currently covers a region the size of New Jersey, is considered to be the second-largest dead zone in the world as of 2007. As a result, the Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan of 2008 was established to reduce nitrogen and phosphorous loading by 45% in order to shrink the hypoxic region to 5,000 square kilometers. Thus, at a time when water quality priorities aim to decrease nitrogen and phosphorous loading in waterways, legislative targets are seeking to increase corn starch-based ethanol production to 15 billion gallons a year, and thereby potentially increase nitrogen loading in this region by 10–34% due to runoff. Consequently, the energy intensity for water treatment may have a two-fold challenge. Because water and wastewater treatment is already responsible for 4% of the nation’s electricity consumption, putting more stringent demands on this sector could put upward pressure on energy consumption. This analysis quantifies the impact that the mandated increase in ethanol production might have on the energy required for water treatment in the United States. It reports results from a first-order top-level analysis of the energy impacts of ethanol. The results indicate that the increased production corn-starch based ethanol in the United States is not likely to increase the energy consumed during surface water treatment, but might cause significant increases in the energy consumed during groundwater treatment.

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Assessment of health risks from environmental factors. 16 Years of collaboration between the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), hygiene and environmental organizations in the Russian Federation: results and reflections

Hygiene and Sanitation ◽

10.47470/0016-9900-2021-100-12-1344-1349 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 100 (12) ◽

pp. 1344-1349

Author(s):

Michael Brody ◽

Simon L. Avaliani

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Risk Assessment ◽

Health Risk ◽

Environmental Protection ◽

Environmental Protection Agency ◽

The United States ◽

Environmental Legislation ◽

Protection Agency ◽

Environmental Health Risk ◽

Us Epa

Environmental health risk assessment has a long history in both the United States and Russia. Risk assessment methods have arisen and developed to protect against the dangers of the forced use of tens of thousands of chemicals in the modern world. Because chemicals play such an important role, it is impossible to ban their use altogether, and the task of their safe use becomes more and more critical. With the solution of this problem, the creation of modern environmental legislation began, based on an assessment of the hazard or potential hazard associated with the impact of these substances on humans. Risk assessment has become the scientific basis for calculating exposure limits for many chemicals that pollute the environment. Since compliance with environmental legislation is costly to industry, methods have been developed. They are being improved on to quantify the burden of proof and the appropriateness of environmental quality regulation. Environmental Health Risk Assessment was first developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). Russia has accumulated a great deal of practical experience in assessing environmental risks and developing appropriate methodological recommendations. Thus, the basis was created for long-term cooperation between the two countries. This article summarizes the history of such collaboration, including a joint project to disseminate practical risk assessment in Ukraine.

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Water Quality Violations

Pained ◽

10.1093/oso/9780197510384.003.0006 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 15-18

Author(s):

Michael D. Stein ◽

Sandro Galea

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Water Quality ◽

Drinking Water ◽

High Risk ◽

Environmental Protection Agency ◽

Quality Standards ◽

The United States ◽

University Of California ◽

Contaminated Water ◽

The University

This chapter focuses on water quality violations in America. Most Americans have access to safe drinking water. However, there are pockets of American communities that are afflicted with high levels of contaminated water. In 2015, almost 10% of Americans were drinking contaminated water that violated water quality standards. The chapter then evaluates research at the University of California, Irvine, which examined water quality violations across the United States from 1982 to 2015. Researchers analyzed geographic and temporal patterns, with the goal of helping state enforcement agencies focus their attention on areas at high risk of contamination. The researchers cite decreasing population size and incomes as common obstacles faced by rural populations trying to follow water purification standards. Indeed, rural towns often rely on outside funding and low-interest government loans to support infrastructure to correct water quality violations. However, as of June 2017, over $600 million in grant funding was cut from Environmental Protection Agency drinking water programs. Such cuts, coupled with attempted environmental deregulation, threaten the public’s health.

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