Methods for Deriving Pesticide Aquatic Life Criteria for Sediments

Sediments represent an integral component of aquatic ecosystems that provide habitat and food sources for aquatic life. Although many international and local governments have regulations in place to protect aquatic life, the majority of these are focused on or are based upon criteria for conserving water quality, and these have been in place for many years. After release to the aqueous environment, however, various organic chemicals tend to accumulate in sediments, where they may cause toxicity to aquatic life, even when water quality criteria (WQC) are met. Sediments comprise a complex medium and pose unique challenges for those who would like to develop single numeric concentrations below which aquatic life is protected. Currently, no official US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) methods or other agreed upon approaches are available in the United States for generating such sediment quality criteria (SQC).