Revised Method for Deriving Australian and New Zealand Water Quality Guideline Values for Toxicants

Author:

Warne, Michael; Batley, Graeme; van Dam, Rick; Chapman, John; Fox, David; Hickey, Chris; Stauber, Jenny

Date of Publication:

2014-08-10

Publication Type:

Report

Pages:

43 p.

Abstract:

A revised method has been developed for deriving water quality guideline values (GVs) for metal, non-metallic inorganic and organic toxicants in Australia and New Zealand. The method has retained most of the key principles of the method described in 2000 Australian and New Zealand Water Quality Guidelines (ANZECC/ARMCANZ 2000; referred to herein as the 2000 Guidelines), while including the most recent advances in ecotoxicology. As such, it is a significant advance on the 2000 Guidelines’ method. The method is focused on the derivation of default (i.e. Australian and New Zealand) GVs, but provides additional guidance, where necessary, for the derivation of regional, site-specific and short-term GVs. The preferred method for GV derivation continues to be based on the use of species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) of chronic toxicity data. The minimum data requirements for using a SSD have not changed from the 2000 Guidelines, i.e. toxicity data for at least five species that belong to at least four taxonomic groups, but using toxicity data from at least 8 species is strongly encouraged, and from more than 15 species is considered optimal. Different statistical distributions are fitted to the toxicity data depending on how many species and taxa they belong to, in order to avoid over-fitting of the data. The basis of the reliability classification for GVs has been expanded from the original number and types of toxicity data points (i.e. chronic or converted acute) to also include an estimate of the fit of the distribution to the data. This report provides the rules governing the revised method for calculating toxicant GVs using the SSD method, including the collation and screening of the toxicity data and determining the reliability of these values. While the less-preferred assessment factor (AF) method is also covered, it is unchanged from the 2000 Guidelines and, hence is not described in detail here. The technical rationale for the key changes made to the method in the 2000 Guidelines is provided in the supplementary report by Batley et al. (2014).

Publisher:

Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts (Qld)

Place of Publication:

Brisbane

Field Of Research:

Environmental Management

Full Text Availability:

Published Version (pdf) (751KB)

Rights Notice:

This report has been placed on the CSIRO repository and may be made available to persons outside of CSIRO for non commercial purposes, in its entirety and without deletion of disclaimers and copyright information.

Funding Sources:

Funding Body Name	Project/Grant ID
Australia. Department of the Environment

Identifier:

EP159161

Publication Sub Type:

Technical Report (Author)

Language:

English

Attribution Statement:

Warne, Michael; Batley, Graeme; van Dam, Rick; Chapman, John; Fox, David; Hickey, Chris; Stauber, Jenny. Revised Method for Deriving Australian and New Zealand Water Quality Guideline Values for Toxicants. Brisbane: Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts (Qld); 2014. csiro:EP159161. http://hdl.handle.net/102.100.100/94410?index=1