Regulatory criteria: Legal or ecological thresholds?
- Fish and Wildlife Service, Sacramento, CA (United States)
Selenium-laden irrigation drainwater has been identified as a significant threat to breeding waterfowl and shorebirds in terminal sink environments throughout the western United States. Due to historic wetland habitat losses, irrigation drainwater disposal ponds represent virtually all the available breeding habitat for waterbirds in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California. Egg selenium residues from birds breeding at these ponds have been monitored by the US Fish and Wildlife Service since 1987, and physiological risk thresholds for individual and population-level hatchability and teratogenesis have been determined from these studies. For Blacknecked stilt populations, egg selenium below 3 ppm may be considered a safe level, hatchability is significantly depressed at mean egg selenium concentrations above 8 ppm, and induction of teratogenesis is virtually certain at egg selenium levels above 18 ppm (p < 0.05). Egg samples collected in 1993 from these ponds showed concentrations as high as 160 ppm. Despite the high degree of statistical confidence in these effects thresholds, and the incidence of selenium-induced bird death and deformity at these ponds, regulation of evaporation ponds has been problematic. Existing civil statutes regarding water quality are dependent on risk-based criteria, but irrigation drainwater is exempted from these regulations. The only applicable law is the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, a criminal statute with no risk-based guidelines, and consequently no wildlife safety factors. The authors present data from the San Joaquin Valley in the context of these regulatory and legal limitations. Evaluation of acute and chronic models for ambient water quality indicate that this approach may not provide adequate protection for breeding birds. Based on the inadequacy of these models, the authors consider the development of regulatory criteria for egg selenium, a standard which is ecologically relevant.
- OSTI ID:
- 40127
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9410273--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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