&ER& U n ited States Office of Water EPA 822-F10-002 Environments I Protection 4301T November2010 Agency CWA-FIFRA Common Effects Characterization Methodology Summary Abstract: Both Office of Water (OW) and the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) have responsibilities for evaluating aquatic ecotoxicity data to assess ecological effects of chemicals in surface water. EPA's goal is to build on the substantial high quality science developed and used hy both programs and make these effects assessment methodologies consistent. Efforts are underway to develop and test approaches to support a common effects assessment methodology. Background: Both the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) and the Office of Water (OW) assess the effects of pesticides on aquatic ecosystems using approaches that afford a high degree of protection for aquatic life and that were developed with high quality data using rigorously peer-reviewed assessment methodologies. In characterizing pesticide effects, both programs consider acute effects as well as chronic and sub-lethal effects on growth, survival, and reproduction in their assessments. Stakeholders have identified a need for consistent and timely Federal input that will allow EPA, states, tribes and the public to gauge whether pesticides represent a concern for aquatic life, for example, based on water monitoring results. EPA is now exploring how to build on the substantial high quality science developed under both programs to develop additional tools and approaches to support a consistent and common set of effects characterization methods using best available information. EPA held six regional public meetings in January 2010 to solicit stakeholder input on its initial thinking regarding a common effects assessment process and tbe scope and content of three white papers that will explore the following topics: (1) the use of various tools to estimate aquatic toxicity data; (2) approaches for deriving community-level benchmarks; and (3) procedures for better integrating plant effects data into community-level assessments. The meetings were held in the following regions: (3,4,5,7,9, and 10) Region 2,3 Edison, NJ Region 7 Kansas City, KS Region 4 Atlanta, GA Region 9 Oakland, CA RegionS Chicago, IL Region 10 Seattle, WA Current Status & Next Steps: EPA is holding a national public stakeholder meeting in Washington, D.C on December I, 2010 to solicit input on methods being evaluated by the OPP, the OW, and the Office of Research and Development to characterize aquatic ecosystems effects using available data. EPA expects to solicit stakeholder input on the tools and approaches presented in the three draft white papers through a Federal Register notice and at the national stakeholder meeting. The EPA then plans to hold a formal peer review of these methodologies (SAB/SAP) in the summer of 2011. More information on this project, including access to a docket to provide comments is available at: http://www.epa.gov/oppefed l/cwa_fifra_effects_methodology/index.htrnl or at http://wwAv.regulations.gov, identified hy Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0773. To get more information ------- Contacts: • Joe Beaman (Office of Water): Bcaman.Joe@epa.gov; • Mark Corbin (Office of Pesticide Programs): Corbin.Mark@epa.gov • Cindy Roberts (Office of Research and Development): Roberts.Cindy@epa.gov ------- |