[Federal Register: December 17, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 242)]
[Notices]
[Page 75541-75546]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr17de04-76]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[OW-FRL-7849-4]
Notice of Draft Aquatic Life Criteria for Selenium and Request
for Scientific Information, Data, and Views
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of Availability of Draft Aquatic Life Criteria Document
for Selenium, and Request for Scientific Information, Data, and Views
Pertaining to the Criteria.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency announces the availability
of a
[[Page 75542]]
draft aquatic life criteria document for selenium and requests
scientific information, data, and views. The document contains draft
water quality criteria recommendations for the protection of freshwater
and saltwater aquatic life. EPA is soliciting information, data, and
views on issues of science pertaining to the information the Agency
used to derive the draft criteria. When completed and published in
final form, the revised criteria will replace EPA's current recommended
aquatic life criteria for selenium. EPA's recommended water quality
criteria provide technical information for states and authorized tribes
in adopting water quality standards, but themselves have no binding
legal effect.
DATES: Scientific views, data, and information should be submitted by
April 18, 2005.
ADDRESSES: Scientific information, data, and views may be submitted
electronically, by mail, or through hand-delivery/courier. Follow
detailed instructions provided in section C of the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION section.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Charles Delos, e-mail
delos.charles@epa.gov or postal address, Mail Code 4304T, U.S. EPA,
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20460 at (202) 566-1097.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
A. Which Entities Might Be Interested?
Entities potentially interested in today's notice are those that
discharge or release selenium to surface waters, and federal, state,
tribal, and local authorities that regulate selenium levels in surface
water. Categories and entities interested in today's notice include but
are not limited to:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Examples of interested
Category entities
------------------------------------------------------------------------
State/Local/Tribal Government............. States, municipalities,
tribes.
Industry.................................. Mining, coal-fired power
generation.
Agriculture............................... Irrigated agriculture.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This table is not intended to be exhaustive. Other types of
entities not listed in the table may also be interested.
B. How Can I Get Copies of the Draft Document and Related Information?
1. Docket. EPA has established an official public docket for this
action under Docket ID No. OW-2004-0019. The official public docket is
the collection of materials that are available for public viewing at
the Water Docket in the EPA Docket Center, EPA West, Room B102, 1301
Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. The EPA Docket Center Public
Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through
Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Public
Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the Water
Docket is (202) 566-2426. Alternatively, copies of the draft may be
obtained from EPA's Water Resource Center by phone at (202) 566-2426,
or by e-mail to center.water.resource@epa.gov or by conventional mail
to: EPA Water Resource Center, 4101T, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.,
Washington, DC 20460.
2. Electronic Access. Use http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/criteria/aqlife.html to obtain the draft document. Use http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/
to obtain this Federal Register document electronically.
An electronic version of the public docket is available through
EPA's electronic public docket and comment system, EPA Dockets. You may
use EPA Dockets at http://www.epa.gov/edocket/ to access the index
listing of the contents of the official public docket and to access
those documents in the public docket that are available electronically.
Although not all docket materials may be available electronically, you
may still access any of the publicly available docket materials through
the docket facility identified in section B.1. Once in the system,
select ``search,'' then key in the appropriate docket identification
number.
Certain types of information will not be placed in the EPA Dockets.
Information claimed as Confidential Business Information (CBI) and
other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute, which is
not included in the official public docket, will not be available for
public viewing in EPA's electronic public docket. EPA's policy is that
copyrighted material will not be placed in EPA's electronic public
docket but will be available only in printed, paper form in the
official public docket. To the extent feasible, publicly available
docket materials will be made available in EPA's electronic public
docket. When a document is selected from the index list in EPA Dockets,
the system will identify whether the document is available for viewing
in EPA's electronic public docket. Although not all docket materials
may be available electronically, you may still access any of the
publicly available docket materials through the docket facility
identified in section B.1.
It is important to note that EPA's policy is that data,
information, and views, whether submitted electronically or in paper,
will be made available for public viewing in EPA's electronic public
docket as EPA receives them and without change, unless the data or
information contains copyrighted material, CBI, or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. When EPA identifies
copyrighted material, EPA will provide a reference to that material in
the version of the document that is placed in EPA's electronic public
docket. The entire printed document, including the copyrighted
material, will be available in the public docket.
Data, information, and views submitted on computer disks that are
mailed or delivered to the docket will be transferred to EPA's
electronic public docket. Data, information, and views that are mailed
or delivered to the Docket will be scanned and placed in EPA's
electronic public docket. Where practical, physical objects will be
photographed, and the photograph will be placed in EPA's electronic
public docket along with a brief description written by the docket
staff.
C. How Do I Submit Scientific Information, Data, or Views?
You may submit scientific information, data, or views
electronically, by mail, or through hand delivery/courier. To ensure
proper receipt by EPA, identify the appropriate docket identification
number in the subject line on the first page.
1. Electronically. EPA recommends that you include your name and
mailing address, or e-mail address or other contact information,
particularly if you submit data in tables or figures. Also include this
contact information on the outside of any disk or CD ROM you submit,
and in any cover letter accompanying the disk or CD ROM. This ensures
that you can be identified as the submitter and allows EPA to contact
you in case EPA has technical difficulties reading your submission or
needs further information on the substance of your submission. EPA's
policy is that EPA will not edit your submission, and any identifying
or contact information provided in the body of the submission will be
included in the official public docket, and made available in EPA's
electronic public docket. If EPA cannot read your submission due to
technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA
may not be able to consider it.
i. EPA Dockets. Your use of EPA's electronic public docket to
submit data, information, and views to EPA electronically is EPA's
preferred method for receiving submissions. Go directly to
[[Page 75543]]
EPA Dockets at http://www.epa.gov/edocket and follow the online
instructions. Once in the system, select ``search,'' and then key in
Docket ID No. OW-2004-0019. The system is an ``anonymous access''
system, which means EPA will not know your identity, e-mail address, or
other contact information unless you provide it.
ii. E-mail. Submissions may be sent by electronic mail (e-mail) to
ow-docket@epa.gov attention Docket ID No. OW-2004-0019. In contrast to
EPA's electronic public docket, EPA's e-mail system is not an
``anonymous access'' system. If you send an e-mail directly to the
Docket without going through EPA's electronic public docket, EPA's e-
mail system automatically captures your e-mail address. E-mail
addresses that are automatically captured by EPA's e-mail system are
included as part of the submission that is placed in the official
public docket, and made available in EPA's electronic public docket.
iii. Disk or CD ROM. You may send your submission on a disk or CD
ROM to the mailing address identified in section B.1. These electronic
submissions will be accepted in WordPerfect or ASCII file format. Avoid
the use of special characters and any form of encryption.
2. By Mail. Send an original and three copies of your submission
to: Water Docket, Environmental Protection Agency, Mailcode: 4101T,
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460, Attention Docket ID
No. OW-2004-0019.
3. By Hand Delivery or Courier. Deliver your submission to: EPA
Docket Center (EPA/DC), EPA West, Room B102, 1301 Constitution Ave.,
NW., Washington, DC 20460, Attention Docket ID No. OW-2004-0019. Such
deliveries are only accepted during the Docket's normal hours of
operation as identified in section B.1.
D. What Are EPA Recommended Water Quality Criteria?
An EPA recommended water quality criterion is a level of a
pollutant or other measurable substance in water that, when met, will
protect aquatic life and/or human health. Section 304(a) of the Clean
Water Act (CWA) requires EPA to develop and publish and, from time to
time, revise, recommended water quality criteria to accurately reflect
the latest scientific knowledge. Water quality criteria developed under
section 304(a) provide guidance to states and tribes in adopting water
quality criteria into their water quality standards under section
303(c). Once adopted by a state or tribe, the water quality standards
then are a basis for developing regulatory controls on the discharge or
release of pollutants and other alterations of water quality. EPA's
section 304(a) criteria also provide a scientific basis for EPA to
develop any necessary federal water quality regulations under section
303(c) of the CWA.
The draft criteria in today's notice are based on the factors
specified in section 304(a) of the Clean Water Act, including the kind
and extent of effects of the pollutant on human health and aquatic
organisms. Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA can not consider the
economic and technical feasibility of meeting the draft criteria in
their development. Economic and technical feasibility factors are
considered by states and tribes when they adopt water quality criteria
into their water quality standards under section 303(c) of the Act and
when states, tribes, and EPA consider variance requests for regulatory
controls. Moreover, states and tribes may also consider alternative
scientifically-defensible approaches to adopting criteria into their
water quality standards that may be different from approaches presented
by EPA in final water quality criteria published under section 304(a).
E. What Is Selenium and Why Are We Concerned About It?
Selenium is a naturally-occurring element that is nutritionally
essential. However, it has been toxic to aquatic life and terrestrial
wildlife where concentrations were excessive. Under real-world field
conditions, aquatic life is exposed to selenium primarily through the
diet. When the input of a toxic substance to an organism is greater
than the rate at which the substance is lost, the organism is said to
bioaccumulate that substance. Although selenium bioaccumulates in
aquatic organisms, it is not significantly biomagnified. That is,
concentrations do not increase significantly in aquatic organisms at
each successive level of the food chain. For aquatic life, the lowest
toxic thresholds (the smallest levels at which toxic effects are
noticeable) are generally associated with effects on larval offspring
of the adult fish that were exposed to excessive selenium or with
effects on juvenile fish.
Being a natural element, selenium is everywhere in the environment.
Concerns about too much selenium in water have most often been
associated with irrigation return flows from soils that are naturally
high in selenium, ash pond discharges from coal-fired power plants (due
to the selenium content of coal), and certain mining activities (due to
exposure of selenium-bearing soil or rock to weathering).
F. What Has EPA Done in the Past on the Aquatic Life Criteria for
Selenium?
EPA's currently-recommended aquatic life water quality criteria for
selenium were published in 1987. EPA made minor adjustments in the
criteria concentrations when it converted the selenium criteria from a
total recoverable (dissolved plus particulate) measurement basis to a
dissolved measurement basis in 1995 and 1999 as follows: (a) In 60 FR
15366, March 23, 1995, only for the Great Lakes Initiative; (b) in 60
FR 22228, May 4, 1995, only for the saltwater criteria; and (c) in 64
FR 19781, April 22, 1999, optionally for freshwater nationwide.
In 1996, EPA proposed but did not complete an additional change in
the freshwater acute criterion for the Great Lakes system (61 FR 58444,
November 14, 1996). In 2000, EPA revoked the existing acute criterion
for the Great Lakes system (65 FR 35283, June 2, 2000) in response to a
lawsuit challenging the use of a single acute criterion applicable to
selenite and selenate, the two common chemical forms of selenium (see
AISI v. EPA, 115 F. 3d 979 (D.C. Cir. 1997)).
EPA's most recent compilation of criteria presents (a) the above-
mentioned 1996 GLI proposed freshwater acute criteria, (b) the 1987
freshwater chronic criterion, and (c) the 1987 saltwater acute and
chronic criteria as converted to dissolved in 1995. You can find the
compilation at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/standards/wqcriteria.html.
In 1998 EPA held a peer consultation workshop to evaluate possible
courses of action regarding the selenium aquatic life criterion and
notified the public of our intent to review the selenium criteria. In
1999, EPA announced its intention to revise its national aquatic life
criterion for selenium and requested data (64 FR 58409, October 29,
1999).
In 2002, EPA prepared an early draft revision of its aquatic life
criteria document and submitted it to peer review (Versar 2002, Lemly
2004). EPA considered the comments and suggestions submitted by the
peer reviewers (U.S. EPA 2004b) and made many technical and scientific
changes in response (U.S. EPA 2004a). In the future, EPA will review
any scientific information, data, and views submitted in response to
today's notice. The Agency will also continue to work closely with the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other key federal agencies to arrive
at final water quality criteria
[[Page 75544]]
for selenium which are protective of aquatic life.
Today's announcement of the draft aquatic life criteria document
for selenium has no effect on EPA's human health criteria
recommendation for selenium published in 2002 (see http://epa.gov/waterscience/standards/wqcriteria.html
).
G. What Are the Draft Aquatic Life Criteria Values?
The draft selenium criteria recommendations state that freshwater
aquatic life should be protected under the following conditions:
A. The concentration of selenium in whole-body fish tissue is not
more than 7.91 [mu]g/g (micrograms per gram) dw (dry weight). This is
the chronic exposure criterion. In addition, if whole-body fish tissue
concentrations exceed 5.85 [mu]g/g dw during summer or fall, fish
tissue should be monitored during the winter to determine whether the
selenium concentration exceeds 7.91 [mu]g/g dw.
B. The 24-hour average concentration of total recoverable
(dissolved and particulate) selenium in water seldom (e.g., not more
than once in three years) exceeds 258 [mu]g/L for selenite, and
likewise seldom exceeds the numerical value given by
exp(0.5812[ln(sulfate)]+3.357) for selenate. These are the acute
exposure criteria. At an example sulfate concentration of 100 mg/L, the
24-hour average selenate concentration should not exceed 417 [mu]g/L.
Sulfate is a commonly measured water quality parameter that has been
found to have a mitigating influence on the acute toxicity of the
selenate form of selenium.
Likewise, the draft selenium criteria recommendations state that
saltwater aquatic life should be protected from acute effects of
selenium if the 24-hour average concentration of selenite seldom
exceeds 127 [mu]g/L. Because selenium might be as chronically toxic to
saltwater fishes as it is to freshwater fishes, the fish community
should be monitored if selenium exceeds 5.85 [mu]g/g dw in summer or
fall or 7.91 [mu]g/g dw during any season in the whole-body tissue of
saltwater fishes.
H. What Would the Draft Aquatic Life Criteria Recommendations Protect?
The draft selenium criteria recommendations were derived from data
on aquatic life and are intended to protect aquatic life. Specifically,
the draft chronic exposure recommendation is designed to protect
against mortality, reproductive interferences, and growth abnormalities
in fish and other aquatic organisms due to long-term excessive exposure
to selenium in the aquatic food chain. The draft acute exposure
recommendations are designed to protect against lethality or
immobilization of aquatic organisms due to brief elevated exposure to
selenium in water.
Although the draft recommendation took into account dietary
exposure for aquatic life, no nationally-applicable scientific
methodology yet exists to derive national water quality criteria to
protect birds or terrestrial wildlife that consume fish, water, or
aquatic plants and organisms that contain selenium. Therefore, this
draft selenium recommendation is not designed to protect birds or
terrestrial wildlife. (Similarly, EPA's existing 1987 water quality
criteria for selenium were not designed to protect birds or wildlife.)
However, EPA is working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and
other interested federal agencies to develop selenium criteria
protective of wildlife within the State of California. The California-
specific wildlife criteria effort is separate from the national-scale
draft aquatic life criteria announced in today's notice. Its
development is on a different time track; it involves analysis of
toxicity data for aquatic-dependent wildlife (not aquatic life); and it
is intended to apply only to California.
I. How Do the Draft Aquatic Life Criteria Recommendations Differ From
Previous Criteria Recommendations?
In contrast to the existing 1987 freshwater chronic criterion,
which was expressed as a conventional water concentration, the draft
freshwater chronic criterion sent to peer review in 2002 and the draft
criterion announced in today's notice are each expressed as a whole-
body fish tissue concentration ([mu]g selenium per gram of fish tissue
on a dry weight basis). At a given location or for a given water body,
a fish tissue level of selenium can be used with a site-specific
bioaccumulation factor to estimate the concentration of selenium in the
water. A bioaccumulation factor is a measured or predicted ratio
between the tissue concentration and the water concentration of a
chemical, in this case, selenium.
Early in the process of developing these draft criteria, EPA
concluded, and the peer reviewers agreed that a fish-tissue approach is
better than a conventional water concentration approach to protect
aquatic life from the chronic adverse effects of selenium. Because fish
and aquatic invertebrates are exposed to selenium primarily through
their diet rather than directly through water, the fish-tissue
concentration better reflects site-specific exposure and risk than does
the water concentration. Therefore, using the fish-tissue approach
allows users to consider site-specific factors in translating to a
water concentration.
However, consistent with the type of toxicity tests used for their
derivation, the draft aquatic life criteria to protect against the
acute effects of selenium in fresh water and salt water are expressed
as traditional water concentrations (total recoverable selenium).
Expanding the toxicity database with a substantial number of more
recent acute toxicity tests yielded relatively little change in the
freshwater selenite criterion, but yielded a substantial increase in
the selenate criterion due to repeated retesting of an amphipod that
formerly appeared to have an anomalously low LC50, and due to
normalization of the acute data for sulfate concentration.
Normalization of all acute test results for sulfate concentration
reveals that some species formerly thought to be highly sensitive were
actually tested at low sulfate. Including sulfate in the draft criteria
formula assures their protection at low sulfate concentrations.
Expansion of the database caused the saltwater selenite criterion to
decrease because a scallop, formerly untested, was found to be highly
sensitive. A saltwater chronic criterion is not presented in the draft
announced today, because EPA lacks sufficient and appropriate data to
derive one.
J. Are There Particular Issues on Which EPA is Requesting Scientific
Information, Data, and Views?
EPA is requesting information, data, and views on all facets of the
science supporting the draft criteria recommendations for selenium, but
it is particularly interested in the following topics:
1. The Appropriateness of Basing the Freshwater Chronic Criterion on a
Tissue Concentration
Because the same water concentration may yield different amounts of
bioaccumulation and therefore different levels of risk at different
sites, EPA developed this draft criterion as a fish tissue
concentration to reduce the need for resetting the criterion on a site-
by-site basis. Where translation from the tissue benchmark to a water
concentration is needed, a bioaccumulation factor (BAF), which may vary
substantially from site to site, would need to be established.
Participants in the 1998 Peer Consultation Workshop suggested that
a tissue-based approach for a selenium aquatic life criterion would be
feasible
[[Page 75545]]
(U.S. EPA 1998). The underlying concept is different from that used
historically for developing aquatic life criteria that are applied to
the water column, the surrounding environment shared by a range of
aquatic species. Nevertheless, this tissue-based approach appears to be
appropriate because, at concentrations not far above the draft
criterion, selenium is toxic to the offspring (embryos, larvae, or
juveniles) of sensitive species, but not to the adult fish that might
be present and from which an environmental sample could be taken.
EPA is requesting scientific information, data, and views on (a)
the concept of protecting aquatic life by applying a criterion to
whole-body fish tissue concentrations of selenium, (b) the
appropriateness of applying a fish tissue-based water quality criterion
uniformly across waterbodies to protect sensitive species, and (c) the
possibility of applying the same criterion to invertebrate tissue where
invertebrate samples are obtained with or in place of fish tissue
samples.
Because EPA has not yet made decisions on the form or values of its
final water quality criteria for selenium, EPA has not yet developed
implementation procedures. Therefore, EPA is also interested in
scientific information, data, and views on (d) approaches for sampling
tissues, and (e) available data for deriving localized BAF values for
translating the tissue concentrations to water concentrations, where
needed for pollution control decisions.
2. Studies of Freshwater Aquatic Life Effects and Chronic Effect
Concentrations
Based on studies involving exposure through a contaminated diet,
the genus mean chronic EC20 (concentration effecting 20% of test
organisms) for effects on larval or juvenile common sunfish (Lepomis)
was found to be 9.5 [mu]g/g dry weight whole body concentration of
selenium in the adult parental fish or in the juveniles (depending on
the study). This genus mean value is based on four studies. No data
indicated that other genera were more sensitive than Lepomis. Useful
chronic toxicity data were available for a rotifer (a small
invertebrate), chinook salmon, rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, fathead
minnow, flannelmouth sucker, razorback sucker, stripped bass, and a
mixture of sunfish.
One of the above studies was by Lemly (1993), who investigated
overwinter survival of juvenile bluegill in the laboratory. This study
consisted of a control (only background selenium exposure) and one
elevated selenium exposure level, both subjected either to (a) a
temperature regime of 20 [deg]C for 180 days, or (b) a temperature
regime changing from 20 [deg]C to 4 [deg]C over the course of 60 days,
and remaining at 4 [deg]C for the remaining 120 days of the study. He
observed substantially less survival when elevated selenium was
combined with low temperature. The whole body concentration associated
with mortality was 5.85 [mu]g/g at Day 60 just prior to a significant
increase in mortality, and 7.91 [mu]g/g later in the study during and
subsequent to the death of 40% of the organisms. For the same selenium
exposure at 20 [deg]C, mortality was 6% and whole body concentrations
were 5.74 [mu]g/g. Little mortality was observed at either temperature
regime for unexposed organisms, but since there was only one selenium
treatment, no concentration-response curve can be constructed.
One possible implication of the Lemly (1993) study might be that
effects on overwinter survival of juveniles occur at lower
concentrations than do effects on reproduction or early life stages. In
the Monticello macrocosm study, at 4 to 5[deg]C overwinter conditions,
reproductive success and adult bluegill overwinter survival were
unaffected at concentrations higher than those of the Lemly (1993)
study (Hermanutz et al. 1996, corrected by Tao et al. 1999, and peer
reviewed in Versar 2000).
Based on the Lemly (1993) results, to protect sensitive fish
species under winter conditions, EPA has set the draft criterion at
7.91 [mu]g/g, the concentration measured during the period of reduced
survival, with the provision that winter monitoring should be performed
if summer or fall tissue levels exceed 5.85 [mu]g/g, the concentration
occurring prior to the period of reduced survival. Three of five peer
reviewers of the 2002 draft questioned whether the results from only
one study should be used as the basis for lowering the nationally
recommended criteria from 9.5 [mu]g/g to 7.91 [mu]g/g as EPA has done
in this document. On the other hand, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(White 2002) has questioned whether 7.91 [mu]g/g is sufficiently
protective, citing the high mortality observed at that tissue
concentration during the study.
EPA is requesting scientific information, data, and views on (a)
the most appropriate interpretation and use of the Lemly (1993)
results, and its applicability to a range of climatic regimes and
fisheries types and (b) other data that may be relevant to the winter
exposure issue. Because EPA expects it has seen all the available
laboratory studies relevant to the issue, it is particularly interested
in field observations (such as age structure or species occurrence)
that may be relevant to the selenium winter exposure issue under
various climatic conditions. EPA is also requesting scientific
information, data, and views on (c) approaches for accounting for
different climatic conditions.
3. Alternative Values for the Freshwater Chronic Criterion
The current draft criteria document has set the aquatic life
criterion for selenium at a whole body fish tissue concentration of
7.91 [mu]g/g, with the provision that winter monitoring should be
performed if summer or fall tissue levels exceed 5.85 [mu]g/g. EPA is
requesting information and analyses relevant to alternative fish tissue
benchmarks. EPA will only consider analyses that have a formal, fully
transparent, and reproducible derivation from laboratory or field data,
where all the supporting information quantifies a toxic effect metric
and an exposure metric.
EPA is also receptive to formally-derived benchmarks applicable to
other aquatic media, such as water, sediment, or prey tissue. Again,
the derivations should be transparent and fully reproducible from
laboratory or field data.
4. Site-Specific Factors Affecting the Freshwater Chronic Criterion
Expressing the chronic criterion as a tissue concentration rests on
the assumption that there is reasonable geographic uniformity in the
tissue threshold, while the BAF, and therefore the water concentration
threshold, may vary considerably across sites. EPA believes that the
route of exposure affects the tissue threshold. The same tissue
concentration, if accumulated through water-only exposure, appears to
be more toxic than if accumulated via diet. Fish provided with an
uncontaminated diet and exposed to very high water concentrations of
selenium (for example, 300 [mu]g/L in the Cleveland et al. (1993)
study) may show effects when whole body concentrations exceed only 4
[mu]g/g. When exposed through a contaminated diet but essentially
uncontaminated water in the same study, effects were not observed until
tissue concentrations exceeded around 13 [mu]g/g.
Because EPA did not use studies involving uncontaminated diets
coupled with high water exposures, the criterion assumes that the
dominant environmental exposure route for the target species is
dietary. Consistent with the views of the EPA peer consultation
[[Page 75546]]
workshop in 1998, EPA believes that this assumption corresponds to the
real-world problems of selenium contamination.
While recognizing that the BAF can vary from site to site, EPA is
requesting scientific information, data, and views on the general
approach of using a uniform tissue benchmark (expressed as total
selenium concentration in whole body) without regard to site
differences that might include:
The species to be protected,
The type of water body,
The character of the food web, for example, autochthonous
versus nonseleniferous allochthonous,
The form and concentration of selenium in the water or
diet,
The form of selenium in the sampled tissue,
The nature of the selenium release,
Interactions with other trace elements,
Acclimation or adaptation,
Hormesis,
Climatic conditions, and
Any other relevant site factors.
EPA is also requesting scientific information, data, and views
relevant to the need for and appropriate basis for adjusting the tissue
benchmark to account for site-specific factors.
5. Saltwater Chronic Criterion
For chronic exposure, we found no data that were useful for
deriving a saltwater aquatic life criterion. However, selenium might be
as toxic in the tissues of saltwater organisms as it is in the tissues
of freshwater organisms. Therefore, the draft contains the cautionary
recommendation that the status of the saltwater fish community be
monitored if selenium exceeds 5.85 [mu]g/g dw in summer or fall or 7.91
dw during any season (same as the freshwater benchmarks) in the whole-
body tissue of saltwater fishes.
EPA is requesting scientific information, data, or views on (a)
toxicity thresholds applicable to protecting saltwater organisms
exposed to selenium through the food chain, or (b) the appropriateness
of extending to saltwater what is known about freshwater toxicity
thresholds.
6. Acute Criteria Concentrations
As discussed above, selenium toxicity problems have generally
involved contamination of the food web. If the diet of the target
species is not contaminated, very high water-column concentrations are
needed to bring out effects, particularly when exposure is brief. As
with bioaccumulative pollutants in general, acute toxicity (that is,
toxicity from a brief sharp increase in the water concentration) is of
less concern than chronic exposure through the food chain.
Nevertheless, a large body of toxicity test data are available for
brief water-only exposure. Therefore, EPA was able to derive acute
criteria to protect aquatic life against the toxic effects of that type
of exposure to selenium. For ambient freshwater, the draft selenite or
Se (IV) acute criterion is 258 [mu]g/L, and the draft sulfate-dependent
selenate or Se (VI) criterion ranges from 109 to 1590 [mu]g/L at
sulfate concentrations from 10 to 1000 mg/L. For ambient saltwater the
draft selenite acute criterion is 127 [mu]g/L.
EPA is requesting scientific information, data, and views on the
appropriateness of the draft values for the acute exposure criteria.
References
Hermanutz, R.O., K.N. Allen, N.E. Detenbeck, and C.E. Stephan.
1996. Exposure to bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) to selenium in
outdoor experimental streams. U.S. EPA Report. Mid-Continent Ecology
Division, Duluth, MN.
Lemly, A.D. 1993. Metabolic stress during winter increases the
toxicity of selenium to fish. Aquat. Toxicol. (Amsterdam) 27(1-
2):133-158.
Lemly, D. 2004. Letter to Denise Keehner. U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service. June 22, 2004.
Tao, J., P. Kellar, and W. Warren-Hicks. 1999. Statistical
analysis of selenium toxicity data. Report submitted for U.S. EPA,
Health and Ecological Criteria Division. The Cadmus Group, Inc.,
Durnham, NC.
U.S. EPA. 1998. Report on the peer consultation workshop on
selenium aquatic toxicity and bioaccumulation. Office of Water. EPA-
822-R-98-007.
U.S. EPA. 2004a. Draft aquatic life water quality criterion for
selenium--2004. Office of Water. EPA-822-D-04-001.
U.S. EPA. 2004b. Draft response to peer review of 2002 update
aquatic life water quality criteria for selenium. Office of Water.
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toxicity data. Report submitted to U.S. EPA, Office of Water,
Washington, DC.
Versar. 2002. Peer review of 2002 update aquatic life water
quality criteria for selenium. Report submitted to U.S. EPA, Office
of Water, Washington, DC.
White, W. 2002. Letter to Geoffrey H. Grubbs. U.S. Department of
Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, California/Nevada Operations
Office, Sacramento, CA. May 15, 2002.
Dated: December 9, 2004.
Geoffrey H. Grubbs,
Director, Office of Science and Technology.
[FR Doc. 04-27665 Filed 12-16-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P