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  2. Water Quality Criteria

Invited Expert Meeting on Revising U.S. EPA's Guidelines for Deriving Aquatic Life Criteria

On September 14-16, 2015, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water, Office of Science and Technology, hosted an invited expert meeting to gather information regarding the state of the science for ecological risk assessment as it pertains to revising the 1985 Guidelines (Guidelines for Deriving Numerical National Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Aquatic Organisms and Their Uses, Stephan et al. 1985). These Guidelines are used as the basis for deriving National Ambient Water Quality Criteria for the protection of aquatic life. This meeting garnered input from technical experts on aspects of ecological risk assessment and criteria derivation and provided an opportunity for a public comment period.

The EPA is considering information presented during the meeting regarding new and alternative methods for deriving aquatic life criteria in our effort to update the 1985 Guidelines.

The agenda for the meeting and PowerPoint presentations from the invited experts are presented.

For further information, contact Mike Elias ([email protected]).

  • Invited Expert Meeting Agenda (pdf) (285.19 KB, September 14, 2015)
  • Updating EPA's Guidelines for Deriving National Recommended Water Quality Criteria (pdf) (797.38 KB, December 1, 2015)
  • Australian and New Zealand Water Quality Guideline Values for Toxicants (pdf) (829.61 KB, December 3, 2015)
  • An Overview of Canadian Water Quality Guidelines (pdf) (359.7 KB, September 14, 2015)
  • Deriving European Environmental Quality Standards: Comparisons with USEPA AWQC (pdf) (5.36 MB, December 3, 2015)
  • Use of Toxicity Models in ALC (pdf) (276.85 KB, October 1, 2015)
  • A Unified Aquatic Life Framework for Addressing Affected Percentages of Individuals, Species, and Time (pdf) (841.81 KB, December 3, 2015)
  • Applying the Assemblage Toxicity Index Concept to Assessing the Risk of Atrazine to Aquatic Plant Communities (pdf) (185.07 KB, October 1, 2015)
  • Statistical Tools to Evaluate Species Sensitivity Distribute and Calculate Final Acute and Chronic Values (pdf) (385.21 KB, December 3, 2015)
  • Statistical and Biological Interpretation of Test Endpoints (pdf) (768.32 KB, December 3, 2015)
  • Augmenting Species Diversity in Water Quality Criteria Derivation Using Interspecies Correlation Models (pdf) (2.46 MB, December 3, 2015)
  • Weight of Evidence Approaches (pdf) (463.99 KB, December 3, 2015)
  • Improving Uncertainty Characterization (pdf) (848.13 KB, December 3, 2015)
  • Minimum Data Requirement for Developing Water Quality Criteria (pdf) (909.5 KB, September 8, 2015)
  • Derivation and Application of Taxon-Specific Criteria (pdf) (6.73 MB, September 17, 2015)
  • Cross-Species Evaluation of Molecular Target Sequence (pdf) (4.18 MB, December 3, 2015)
  • Pesticides Present a Special Case for Derivation of Aquatic Life Criteria (pdf) (719.66 KB, December 3, 2015)
  • Stephan et al 1985: Guidelines (pdf) (433.37 KB, December 3, 2015)
  • Field-Based Methods for Deriving Water Quality (pdf) (853.55 KB, December 3, 2015)
  • Explanation for the Disconnection Between the Laboratory and Field in Understanding the Effects of Metals on Aquatic Species (pdf) (4.82 MB, December 3, 2015)
  • Integrating Mesocosm Experiments and Field Data to Support Development of Water Quality Criteria (pdf) (3.9 MB, September 8, 2015)
  • The Use of Multilinear Regression to Derive Water Qulity Criteria for Metals (pdf) (1.6 MB, December 3, 2015)
  • Using the BLM and FMB for Resolving Both Spatial and Temporal Variability in Setting Aquatic Life Criteria for Copper (pdf) (1.95 MB, September 16, 2015)
  • Incorporation of Field or Meso/Microcosm Data to Validate Criteria in Watersheds Supporting Federally Listed Species (pdf) (1.52 MB, October 21, 2015)
  • Ambient Water Quality Criteria: Protectiveness of Threatened and Endangered Species and Aquatic-Dependent Wildlife (pdf) (485.9 KB, December 3, 2015)
  • Application of Weight-of-Evidence Methods to Water Quality Criteria (pdf) (908.21 KB, December 3, 2015)

Water Quality Criteria

  • Aquatic Life Criteria Table
  • Human Health Criteria Table
  • Human Health Toxics Criteria and Methods
  • Recreational Criteria and Methods
  • Aquatic Life Toxics Criteria and Methods
  • Nutrient Water Quality Criteria
  • Biological Water Quality Criteria
  • Other Aquatic Life Water Quality Resources
Contact Us about Water Quality Criteria
Contact Us about Water Quality Criteria to ask a question, provide feedback, or report a problem.
Last updated on September 24, 2024
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