Reash Environmental LLC, Delaware, Ohio, USA.
Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, California, USA.
Integr Environ Assess Manag. 2021 Nov;17(6):1255-1262. doi: 10.1002/ieam.4416. Epub 2021 May 13.
In 2016, the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) issued revised aquatic life water quality criteria for selenium (Se). The criteria ("elements") consisted of threshold concentrations applicable to fish tissue (three tissue types, though the egg and ovary tissue takes precedence over the whole-body and muscle tissue thresholds), and water column. The agency rationalized that measured concentrations of Se in fish tissue were more predictive of potential adverse reproductive effects than those measured in external media. The agency provided two mechanisms for derivation of site-specific Se water criteria: a bioaccumulation factor (BAF) approach, and a partitioning-based bioaccumulation model approach. The use of either approach assumes that fish tissue concentrations exceed one or more of the tissue criteria. We compared the two approaches using fish tissue samples from various species in the Ohio River to evaluate resulting similarities and differences in the calculated Se water quality criteria. Fish (five species) were collected near two coal-fired power plants at sites unaffected by Se from wastewater discharges. Using results for all species and all sites combined, the resulting site-specific Se criteria for the BAF and partitioning-based model approach (median values) were 2.0 and 1.5 µg/L, respectively. Considering all species, resulting criteria differed little between the two power plant locations. Resulting criteria for both methods were strongly influenced by a small (less than detection) background Se water concentration. At least for the upper Ohio River, the BAF approach (requiring less input data) seems adequate for derivation of site-specific Se water criteria. In the current study, however, none of the tissue samples exceeded USEPA's tissue criteria. Thus, the decision to derive site-specific Se water quality criteria should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, because the process may result in either a more stringent or less stringent value, wholly dependent on local factors. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:1255-1262. © 2021 SETAC.
2016 年，美国环境保护署（USEPA）发布了修订后的硒水生生物水质标准。这些标准（“元素”）包括适用于鱼类组织（三种组织类型，尽管卵和卵巢组织优先于全身和肌肉组织阈值）和水柱的阈值浓度。该机构认为，鱼类组织中硒的实测浓度比外部介质中的浓度更能预测潜在的不良生殖影响。该机构提供了两种推导特定地点硒水标准的机制：生物积累因子（BAF）方法和基于分配的生物积累模型方法。这两种方法的使用都假定鱼类组织中的浓度超过一个或多个组织标准。我们使用俄亥俄河不同物种的鱼类组织样本比较了这两种方法，以评估计算出的硒水质标准的相似之处和差异。在没有废水排放硒影响的两个燃煤电厂附近采集了鱼类（五种物种）。使用所有物种和所有地点的结果，BAF 和基于分配的模型方法的特定地点硒水质标准（中值）分别为 2.0 和 1.5 μg/L。考虑到所有物种，两个电厂地点之间的标准差异不大。两种方法的结果标准都受到较小（低于检测限）背景硒水浓度的强烈影响。至少在上游俄亥俄河，BAF 方法（需要较少的输入数据）似乎足以推导特定地点的硒水标准。然而，在当前研究中，没有一个组织样本超过美国环保署的组织标准。因此，应该根据具体情况评估推导特定地点硒水质标准的决定，因为该过程可能导致更严格或不那么严格的值，完全取决于当地因素。综合环境评估与管理 2021；17:1255-1262。©2021 SETAC。
