2014 External Peer Review Draft Aquatic Life Ambient WQC for Se

637 Pages·2014·8 MB·English

United States Office of Water EPA 822-P-14-001
Environmental Protection 4304T May 2014
A gency

External Peer Review Draft
Aquatic Life Ambient Water Quality
Criterion for
Selenium – Freshwater
2014

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Office of Science and Technology
Washington, D.C.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ ii
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. iv
List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................v
Notices .......................................................................................................................................... vii
Foreword ...................................................................................................................................... viii
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ ix
Acronyms ....................................................................................................................................... xi
1 Executive Summary .................................................................................................................1
2 Introduction and Background ...................................................................................................6
2.1 History of the EPA Selenium AWQC for Aquatic Life ................................................... 6
3 Problem Formulation ................................................................................................................9
3.1 Overview of Selenium Sources and Occurrence .............................................................. 9
3.2 Environmental Fate and Transport of Selenium in the Aquatic Environment ............... 13
3.2.1 Selenium Species in Aquatic Systems ...................................................................... 13
3.2.2 Bioaccumulation of Selenium in Aquatic Systems ................................................... 15
3.3 Mode of Action and Toxicity of Selenium..................................................................... 17
3.4 Narrow Margin between Sufficiency and Toxicity of Selenium ................................... 20
3.5 Interactions with Mercury .............................................................................................. 21
3.6 Assessment Endpoints .................................................................................................... 21
3.7 Measures of Effect ......................................................................................................... 24
3.7.1 Fish Tissue................................................................................................................. 25
3.7.2 Water ......................................................................................................................... 29
3.7.3 Summary of Assessment Endpoints and Measures of Effect .................................... 30
3.7.4 Conceptual Model of Selenium Effects on Aquatic Life .......................................... 31
3.8 Analysis Plan .................................................................................................................. 32
3.8.1 Analysis Plan for Derivation of the Chronic Fish Tissue-Based Criterion Element . 32
3.8.2 Analysis Plan for Derivation of Duration of Fish Tissue Criterion Elements .......... 34
3.8.3 Analysis Plan for Derivation of Chronic Water-based Criterion Element ................ 34
3.8.4 Analysis Plan for Intermittent-Exposure Water-based Criterion Element
Derivation .................................................................................................................. 38
4 Effects Analysis for Freshwater Aquatic Organisms .............................................................39
4.1 Chronic Tissue-Based Selenium Criterion Element Concentration ............................... 39
4.1.1 Acceptable Studies of Reproductive Effects ............................................................. 40
4.1.2 Summary of Acceptable Studies of Fish Reproductive Effects ................................ 51
4.1.3 Invertebrate Chronic Effects ..................................................................................... 54
4.1.4 Summary of Relevant Invertebrate Tests .................................................................. 56
4.1.5 Derivation of Tissue Criterion Element Concentrations ........................................... 57
4.2 Chronic Water Column-based Selenium Criterion Element .......................................... 62
Do not distribute, quote or cite ii Draft Document
4.2.1 Translation from Fish Tissue Concentration to Water-Column Concentration ........ 62
4.2.2 Equation Parameters .................................................................................................. 71
4.2.3 Food-Web Models ..................................................................................................... 80
4.2.4 Classifying Categories of Aquatic Systems. ............................................................. 81
4.2.5 Deriving Protective Water Column Concentrations for Lentic and Lotic System
Categories .................................................................................................................. 85
4.2.6 Derivation of Averaging Period for Chronic Water Criterion Element .................... 91
4.3 Intermittent-Exposure Water Criterion Element: Derivation from the Chronic Water
Criterion Element ........................................................................................................... 92
5 National Criterion for Selenium in Fresh Waters ...................................................................96
6 Site-specific Criteria .............................................................................................................100
7 Effects Characterization .......................................................................................................102
7.1 Fish ............................................................................................................................... 102
7.1.1 Principles for Using Studies for which EC s Cannot Be Calculated ..................... 102
10
7.1.2 Reproductive Effects in Catfish (Ictaluridae).......................................................... 103
7.1.3 Reproductive Studies Not Used in the Numeric Criterion Derivation .................... 105
7.1.4 Salmo GMCV: EPA Re-analysis of a Key Study Used in Criterion Derivation..... 107
7.1.5 Influence of Curve-fitting on Calculation of Lepomis GMCV ............................... 111
7.1.6 Impact of Number of Tested Species on Criterion Derivation................................ 112
7.1.7 Conversions between Concentrations in Different Tissues..................................... 112
7.1.8 Studies of Non-Reproductive Effects ...................................................................... 113
7.1.9 Comparison of Fish Chronic Reproductive Effects and Chronic Non-Reproductive
Effects...................................................................................................................... 130
7.2 Water ............................................................................................................................ 133
7.2.1 Validation of Translation Equation for Developing Water Column
Concentrations ......................................................................................................... 133
7.2.2 Evaluating the Protectiveness of the Final Water-Column Criterion Values.......... 135
7.2.3 Uncertainty in Bioaccumulation of Total Dissolved Selenium ............................... 138
7.3 Protection of Threatened or Endangered Species ........................................................ 139
7.4 Aquatic-Dependent Wildlife is Beyond the Scope of this Aquatic Criteria Derivation.
...................................................................................................................................... 140
8 References ............................................................................................................................141
Do not distribute, quote or cite iii Draft Document
List of Tables
Summary of the External Peer Review Draft Freshwater Selenium Ambient Chronic Water
Quality Criterion for Protection of Aquatic Life (See Section 5 for the complete
criterion statement.) ..................................................................................................................4
Table 1. Predominant chemical forms of selenium in discharges associated with different
activities and industries. .........................................................................................................13
Table 3. 1985 Guidelines Minimum Data Requirements Summary Table Reflecting the
Number of Species and Genus Level Mean Values Represented in the Chronic Toxicity
Dataset for Selenium in Freshwater. ......................................................................................28
Table 4. Summary of Assessment Endpoints and Measures of Effect Used in Criteria
Derivation for Selenium. ........................................................................................................30
Table 5. Maternal Transfer Reproductive Toxicity Studies...........................................................52
Table 6a. Ranked Genus Mean Chronic Values for Fish Reproductive Effects. ...........................54
Table 6b. Ranked Invertebrate Whole-Body Chronic Values with Translation to Expected
Accompanying Fish Egg-Ovary Concentrations. ...................................................................57
Table 6c. Four lowest Genus Mean Chronic Values for Fish Reproductive Effects. ....................58
Table 7a. Tested Reproductive-Effect Egg-Ovary (EO) Concentrations Converted to Whole-
Body (WB) Concentrations. ...................................................................................................59
Table 7b. The lowest four reproductive-effect whole-body GMCVs. ...........................................60
Table 8a. Tested Reproductive-Effect Egg-Ovary (EO) Concentrations Converted to Muscle
(M) Concentrations. ................................................................................................................61
Table 8b. The lowest four reproductive-effect fish muscle GMCVs.............................................61
Table 9. EPA-derived Trophic Transfer Function (TTF) Values for Freshwater Aquatic
Invertebrates. ..........................................................................................................................76
Table 10. EPA-Derived Trophic Transfer Function (TTF) Values for Freshwater Fish. ..............77
Table 11. EPA-Derived Egg-Ovary to Whole-Body Conversion Factor (CF) Values..................79
Table 12. Site-Specific Data for the 132 Species-Site Combinations and Translation of the
Egg-Ovary Criterion Concentraiton Element to a Water Column Concentration.a ...............85
Table 13. Summary of water column criterion element concentration values translated from
the egg-ovary criterion element. .............................................................................................91
Table 14. Representative Values of the Intermittent Water Criterion Concentration Element. ....95
Table 15. 2014 External Peer Review Draft Freshwater Selenium Ambient Water Quality
Chronic Criterion for Aquatic Life. ........................................................................................97
Table 16. Correlation matrix (values of r) for Ictaluridae and Centrarchidae abundance and
for selenium food chain contamination for the Hyco Reservoir data reported by
Crutchfield (2000). ...............................................................................................................104
Table 17. Freshwater Chronic Values from Acceptable Tests - Non-Reproductive Endpoints
(Parental Females Not Exposed.) .........................................................................................125
Table 18. Comparison of criterion attainment using the water column and egg-ovary
concentration values in lentic aquatic systems. ....................................................................137
Table 19. Comparison of selenium criterion attainment using the water column and
egg-ovary concentration values in lotic aquatic systems. ....................................................137
Table 20. Binary classification statistics for lentic and lotic aquatic systems. ............................138

Do not distribute, quote or cite iv Draft Document
List of Figures
Figure 1. Map indicating deposits of selenium in mining regions. ................................................11
Figure 2. Areas of western U.S. susceptible to selenium contamination (gray) and where
agricultural land is irrigated (green). ......................................................................................12
Figure 3. Diagram of selenium partitioning, bioaccumulation, and effects in the aquatic
environment. ...........................................................................................................................31
Figure 4. Conceptual model for translating the selenium egg-ovary concentration to a water-
column concentration. ............................................................................................................38
Figure 5. Distribution of (a) reproductive-effect GMCVs for fish measured as egg-ovary
concentrations (diamond markers), (b) the reproductive-effect value for mosquito fish
(square marker), a live-bearer measured as adult whole-body but translated to an
equivalent egg-ovary concentration using the median conversion factor 1.71, and (c)
invertebrate effect concentrations (triangle markers) measured as whole-body but
translated to the equivalent fish egg-ovary concentrations expected in an accompanying
fish assemblage, through the median trophic transfer factor of 1.27 from Table 10 and
the median egg-ovary conversion factor of 1.71 from Table 11 ............................................58
Figure 6. Distribution of (a) reproductive-effect GMCVs for fish, measured as egg-ovary
concentrations but converted to whole-body concentrations as shown in Table 7, (b) the
reproductive-effect value for mosquito fish, a live-bearer already measured as adult
whole-body, and (c) invertebrate effect concentrations measured as whole-body and
translated to equivalent fish whole-body concentrations through the median trophic
transfer factor of 1.27 from Appendix B. ...............................................................................60
Figure 7. Example aquatic system scenarios and the derivation of the equation parameter
TTFcomposite. .......................................................................................................................68
Figure 8. Effect of relative sample collection time on correlation coefficients of selenium
measurements in particulate material, and invertebrate and fish tissue. ................................73
Figure 9. Distribution of EF values for 69 aquatic sites derived from published studies and
grouped into 4 categories. ......................................................................................................83
Figure 10. Distribution of EF values for the same 69 aquatic systems as shown in Figure 9
grouped into 2 categories (lentic and lotic). ...........................................................................84
Figure 11. Probability distribution of the water-column concentrations translated from the
egg-ovary criterion at lentic and lotic aquatic sites. ...............................................................89
Figure 12. Illustration of intermittent spike exposure occurring for a certain percentage of
time (e.g., 10%) over a 30-day period, and background exposure occurring for the
remaining percentage of time (e.g., 90%). .............................................................................93
Figure 13. Concentration-response relationships of brown trout deformities (a-b), survival
(c-d), and deformities+survival (e-f) in response to selenium concentrations in eggs. ........110
Figure 14. Fitting the Hermanutz et al. (1992, 1996) data to yield (a) the 12.68 mg Se/kg
EC (dotted line) with TRAP measuring error vertically, and (b) a possible alternative
10
18.40 mg Se/kg EC (dashed line), reducing horizontal error by running TRAP after
10
combining two points averaging 49.85% normal (absence of edema) into one point at
their geometric mean exposure of 24.56 mg Se/kg, and combining the two points
averaging 19.3% normal into one at their geometric mean exposure, 24.45 mg Se/kg. ......111
Do not distribute, quote or cite v Draft Document
Figure 15. Distribution of (a) non-reproductive effect genus mean values for fish measured
as whole-body concentrations or muscle concentrations converted to whole body, and
(b) invertebrate effect concentrations converted to equivalent fish whole-body
concentrations using a trophic transfer factor of 1.27, both compared to the
reproductive effect whole-body FCV. ..................................................................................131
Figure 16. Scatter plot of predicted versus measured concentrations of selenium in fish.
Dashed line shows unity y = x line.......................................................................................135

Do not distribute, quote or cite vi Draft Document
Notices
This document has been reviewed by the Health and Ecological Criteria Division, Office
of Science and Technology, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and is approved for
publication.
When published in final form, this document will provide guidance to States and Tribes
authorized to establish water quality standards under the Clean Water Act (CWA), to protect
aquatic life from toxic effects of selenium. Under the CWA, States and Tribes are to establish
water quality criteria to protect designated uses. State and tribal decision makers retain the
discretion to adopt approaches on a case-by-case basis that differ from this guidance when
appropriate. While this document contains EPA’s draft scientific recommendations regarding
ambient concentrations of selenium that protect aquatic life, it does not substitute for the CWA
or EPA’s regulations; nor is it a regulation itself. Thus, it cannot impose legally binding
requirements on EPA, States, Tribes, or the regulated community, and might not apply to a
particular situation based upon the circumstances. EPA may change this draft document in the
future. This document has been approved for publication by the Office of Science and
Technology, Office of Water, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or
recommendation for use. This document can be downloaded from:
http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/criteria/aqlife.html

Do not distribute, quote or cite vii Draft Document
Foreword
Section 304(a)(l) of the Clean Water Act of 1977 (P.L. 95-217) requires the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to publish water quality criteria that
accurately reflect the latest scientific knowledge on the kind and extent of all identifiable effects
on health and welfare that might be expected from the presence of pollutants in any body of
water, including ground water. This document is a new proposal of an ambient water quality
criterion (AWQC) for the protection of aquatic life based upon consideration of all available
information relating to effects of selenium on aquatic organisms and comments received from
U.S. EPA staff.
The term "water quality criteria" is used in two sections of the Clean Water Act, section
304(a)(l) and section 303(c)(2). The term has a different program impact in each section. In
section 304, the term represents a non-regulatory, scientific assessment of ecological effects. The
criterion presented in this document is such a scientific assessment. If water quality criteria
associated with specific stream uses are adopted by a state as water quality standards under
section 303, they become enforceable maximum acceptable pollutant concentrations in ambient
waters within that state. Water quality criteria adopted in state water quality standards could have
the same numerical values as criteria developed under section 304. However, in many situations
states might want to adjust water quality criteria developed under section 304 to reflect local
environmental conditions and human exposure patterns. Alternatively, states may use different
data and assumptions than EPA in deriving numeric criteria that are scientifically defensible and
protective of designated uses. It is not until their adoption as part of state water quality standards
that criteria become regulatory. Guidelines to assist the states and Indian tribes in modifying the
criteria presented in this document are contained in the Water Quality Standards Handbook (U.S.
EPA 1994). This handbook and additional guidance on the development of water quality
standards and other water-related programs of this agency have been developed by the Office of
Water.
This draft document is guidance only. It does not establish or affect legal rights or
obligations. It does not establish a binding norm and cannot be finally determinative of the issues
addressed. Agency decisions in any particular situation will be made by applying the Clean
Water Act and EPA regulations on the basis of specific facts presented and scientific information
then available.

Elizabeth Southerland
Director
Office of Science and Technology

Do not distribute, quote or cite viii Draft Document
Acknowledgements
Technical Analysis Leads
Charles Delos, U.S. EPA, Office of Water, Office of Science and Technology, Health and
Ecological Criteria Division, Washington, DC

Gary Russo, U.S. EPA, Office of Water, Office of Science and Technology, Standards and
Health Protection Division, Washington, DC
[email protected]

Technical Contributor and Primary Contact Person
Joseph Beaman, U.S. EPA, Office of Water, Office of Science and Technology, Health and
Ecological Criteria Division, Washington, DC
[email protected]

Editors
Elizabeth Behl and Kathryn Gallagher, U.S. EPA, Office of Water, Office of Science and
Technology, Health and Ecological Criteria Division, Washington, DC

Reviewers (2010-2011)
Lisa Huff, U.S. EPA, Office of Water, Office of Science and Technology, Washington, DC
Joseph Beaman, U.S. EPA, Office of Water, Office of Science and Technology, Washington, DC

Intra-Agency Panel Peer Reviewers (2014)
Dale Hoff and Charles Stephan, U.S. EPA, Office of Research and Development, Mid-Continent
Ecology Division, Duluth, MN

Cindy Roberts, U.S. EPA, Office of Research and Development, Office of Science Policy,
Washington, DC

Jim Lazorchak, U.S. EPA, Office of Research and Development, National Exposure Research
Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH

Keith Sappington and Nancy Andrews, U.S. EPA, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution
Prevention, Office of Pesticide Programs, Arlington, VA

Jeff Gallagher, U.S. EPA, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, Office of
Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Washington, DC

Laura Phillips and Scott Wilson, U.S. EPA, Office of Water, Office of Wastewater Management,
Washington, DC

Rosaura Conde, Ruth Chemerys, and Eric Monschein, U.S. EPA, Office of Water, Office of
Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds, Washington, DC

Do not distribute, quote or cite ix Draft Document
Lars Wilcut and Jim Keating, U.S. EPA, Office of Water, Office of Science and Technology,
Washington, DC

Cheryl Atkinson and Frank Borsuk, U.S. EPA Region 3, Philadelphia, PA, and Wheeling, WV

Joel Hansel, U.S. EPA Region 4, Atlanta, GA

Angela Vincent, U.S. EPA Region 5, Chicago, IL

Lareina Guenzel, U.S. EPA Region 8, Denver, CO

Diane Fleck, Eugeina McNaughton, and Daniel Oros, U.S. EPA Region 10, San Francisco, CA

Do not distribute, quote or cite x Draft Document