Ecological risk assessment and the Clean Water Act`s TMDL program: Parallels and opportunities
- Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC (United States)
The EPA`s 1991 Framework for Ecological Risk Assessment was the first step in a long term program that now needs demonstration of its applicability in EPA programs where parallels and similarities to the process may already exist. Some of EPA`s Clean Water Act (CWA) programs present significant opportunities to apply the principles of ecological risk assessment in an operational, Agency regulatory program setting. The philosophy and techniques of watershed protection share many characteristics with risk assessment and risk management. For example, narrative water quality standards and specific numeric criteria parallel the environmental values, assessment endpoints and measurement endpoints of ecological risk assessment. The CWA Section 303(d) program also provides for the development of quantitative, watershed-based Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), which identify loadings from all sources of a stressor and prescribe the loading reductions necessary to meet water quality standards. In risk assessment terms, these activities could be described as assessing a stressor/ecological effects relationship and prescribing risk management actions. This paper asks and answers several key questions for determining applicability of ecological risk assessment to the TMDL program, and relates the issue to current experiences with managing nutrient problems in the Middle Snake River and temperature problems in the Grande Ronde River.
- OSTI ID:
- 49558
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9410273--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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