Aquatic Life Metals Criteria Under Development in OW Kathryn Gallagher, Ph.D. Chief, Ecological Risk Assessment Branch Health and Ecological Criteria Division Office of Science and Technology US EPA

Criteria Process Overview All EPA aquatic life criteria documents undergo a rigorous scientific development and review process: Develop criteria document draft Intra-agency peer review process Independent external peer review Revisions based on external peer review Intra-agency review of draft criteria document Release to the public in draft form to obtain scientific views Revisions considering public comments Intra-agency review of final criteria document Publication of final criteria document States may then consider this recommended criteria in the development and legal adoption of state water quality standards.

Metals Aquatic Life Criteria Updates Aluminum – Freshwater and Estuarine/marine Revises 1988 criteria Updates toxicity data and expands applicability to broader range of pH conditions and includes consideration of hardness Draft expected early 2017 Cadmium – Freshwater and Estuarine/marine Revises 2001 criteria Updates toxicity data; approach to criteria derivation remains consistent with development procedures used in 2001 Freshwater criteria derived using hardness adjustment, while estuarine/marine criteria are not adjusted based on site conditions Final web-posted March 30, 2016, Federal Register Notice issued April 4, 2016

Additional Metals Aquatic Life Criteria Updates Copper – Freshwater Revises 2007 criteria Extensive update of toxicity data Still BLM-based, which was also used in 2007 revision Draft expected early 2017 Copper Freshwater Missing Parameters Recommends default values for water quality parameters that can be used in freshwater BLM when site specific data are lacking Final expected summer 2016

EPA Office of Water - Missing Parameters Document Available at: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-02/documents/draft-tsd-recommended-blm-parameters.pdf

Oregon DEQ Support Document Available at: https://www.oregon.gov/deq/RulesandRegulations/Documents/BLM-TSD.pdf

Additional Metals Aquatic Life Criteria Copper – Saltwater BLM criteria Draft criteria under development Independent external peer review (completed 2/16) Draft target date: summer 2016 Final criteria document: late Fall 2016

Interest in Overarching Approach for Metals Criteria OW is interested in an overarching/umbrella approach for metals criteria Open to different scientific potential approaches e.g., BLM/MLR Working towards a Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to facilitate scientific information sharing