TABLE 30: Aquatic Life Water Quality Criteria for Toxic Pollutants

Effective [EPA Approval XXXXXX]

Aquatic Life Criteria Summary

The concentration for each compound listed in Table 30 is a criterion not to be exceeded in waters of the state in order to protect aquatic life. The aquatic life criteria apply to waterbodies where the protection of fish and aquatic life are the designated uses. All values are expressed as micrograms per liter (µg/L). Compounds are listed in alphabetical order with the corresponding information: the Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) number, whether there is a human health criterion for the pollutant (i.e. “y”= yes, “n” = no), and the associated aquatic life freshwater and saltwater acute and chronic criteria. Italicized pollutants are not identified as priority pollutants by EPA. Dashes in the table column indicate that there is no aquatic life criterion.

Unless otherwise noted in the table below, the acute criterion is the Criterion Maximum Concentration (CMC) applied as a one-hour average concentration, and the chronic criterion is the Criterion Continuous Concentration (CCC) applied as a 96-hour (4 days) average concentration. The CMC and CCC criteria should not be exceeded more than once every three years. Footnote A, associated with eleven pesticide pollutants in Table 30, describes the exception to the frequency and duration of the toxics criteria stated in this paragraph.

Expanded Footnotes A, E, F, M

Footnote A: Alternate Frequency and Duration for Certain Pesticides

This criterion is based on EPA recommendations issued in 1980 that were derived using guidelines that differed from EPA's 1985 Guidelines which update minimum data requirements and derivation procedures. The CMC should not be exceeded at any time and the CCC should not be exceeded based on a 24-hour average. The CMC may be applied using a one-hour averaging period not to be exceeded more than once every three years, if the CMC values given in Table 30 are divided by 2 to obtain a value that is more comparable to a CMC derived using the 1985 Guidelines.

Footnote E: Equations for Hardness-Dependent Freshwater Metals Criteria for Cadmium Acute and Copper Acute and Chronic Criteria

The freshwater criterion for this metal is expressed as total recoverable with two significant figures, and is a function of hardness (expressed as CaCO₃ [mg/L]) in the water column. Criteria values for hardness may be calculated from the following formulas (CMC refers to the acute criterion; CCC refers to the chronic criterion):

CMC = (exp(m_A*[ln(hardness)] + b_A))

CCC = (exp(m_C*[ln(hardness)] + b_C))

Footnote F: Equations for Hardness-Dependent Freshwater Metals Criteria and Conversion Factor Table

The freshwater criterion for this metal is expressed as dissolved with two significant figures, and is a function of hardness (expressed as CaCO₃ [mg/L]) in the water column. Criteria values for hardness are calculated from the following formulas (CMC refers to the acute criterion; CCC refers to the chronic criterion):

         CMC = (exp(m_A*[ln(hardness)] + b_A))*CF

         CCC = (exp(m_C*[ln(hardness)] + b_C))*CF

“CF” is the conversion factor used for converting a metal criterion expressed as the total recoverable fraction in the water column to a criterion expressed as the dissolved fraction in the water column.

 The conversion factors (CF) below must be used in the equations above for the hardness-dependent metals in order to convert total recoverable metals criteria to dissolved metals criteria. For metals that are not hardness-dependent (i.e. arsenic, chromium VI, selenium, and silver (chronic)), or are saltwater criteria, the criterion value associated with the metal in Table 30 already reflects a dissolved criterion based on its conversion factor below.

Conversion Factor (CF) Table for Dissolved Metals

Footnote M: Equations for Freshwater Ammonia Calculations

Acute Criterion

The 1-hour average concentration of un-ionized ammonia (mg/L NH3) may? not exceed more often than once every three years on average, the numerical value given by:

CMC_NH3 = 0.52/FT/FPH/2 where:

FT = 10 ^{0.03(20-TCAP)}; TCAP ≤ T ≤ 30 C

FT = 10 ^0.03(20-T); 0 ≤ T ≤ TCAP

FPH = 1    8≤ pH ≤ 9

FPH = 1 + 10  ^7.4-pH  6.5 ≤ 8

1.25

TCAP = 20 °C; Salmonids and other sensitive coldwater species present

TCAP = 25 °C; Salmonids and other sensitive coldwater species absent

Chronic Criterion

The 4-day average concentration of un-ionized ammonia (mg/L NH3) does not exceed more often than once every three years on average, the average numerical value given by:

CCC_NH3 = 0.80/FT/FPH/RATIO

where FT and FPH are as above for acute criterion and:

RATIO = 16    7.7 ≤ pH ≤ 9

RATIO = 24    6.5≤ pH ≤ 7.7

TCAP = 15 °C; Salmonids and other sensitive coldwater species present

TCAP = 20 °C; Salmonids and other sensitive coldwater species absent

rburkha, 2013-07-25T11:50:00Z
It a little hard (for me at least) to discern the difference between the italicized and non-italicized. On the other hand, I don’t think identifying priority pollutants in this table is critical.

Lori Pillsbury, 2013-07-25T13:08:00Z
I agree. It also took me a bit of searching to find this sentence as I was wondering what the heck the italicizing was there for.

Lori Pillsbury, 2013-07-25T13:10:00Z
Do you think it would be helpful to reference to Table 40 here? In turn, referencing to Table 30 in the Aquatic life column of Table 40?

Lori Pillsbury, 2013-07-25T13:09:00Z
This applies to the whole table and table 40 as well. I personally find the footnote after each pollutant really distracting & difficult to make my way through the table. I would prefer all the footnotes at the end. But this is just my preference.

Lori Pillsbury, 2013-07-25T13:11:00Z
Total arsenic is actually the sum of inorganic (As III & As V) and organic forms. The organic forms are not prevalent but they can & do exist.

rburkha, 2013-07-25T11:50:00Z
Should this have the “A” footnote?

Lori Pillsbury, 2013-07-25T13:09:00Z
I had same question.

rburkha, 2013-07-25T11:50:00Z
Very minor – but CrIII should probably be listed before CrVI

Lori Pillsbury, 2013-07-25T13:16:00Z
This may be out of your control, but since this criterion applies to total DDT why is the pollutant specified as one form? Why not just write “DDTs”?

rburkha, 2013-07-25T11:50:00Z
Is this value correct? It’s listed as 5.0 in EPA’s recommended criteria.

rburkha, 2013-07-25T11:50:00Z
To assist in clarifying the difference between footnotes E and F, you might want to put the terms “Total Recoverable” and “Dissolved” somewhere in the footnote titles.

rburkha, 2013-07-25T11:50:00Z
Or “must be”

rburkha, 2013-07-25T11:50:00Z
As noted in the text above, several of these CFs have already been incorporated into the numeric criteria presented in the main table. I’m concerned that having these CFs in this table may lead to the double application of the CFs. I recommend including some sort of clarifying statement (maybe a footnote for each of these CFs) or deleting these CFs from the table.

rburkha, 2013-07-25T11:50:00Z
I understand that the equations presented below are probably directly from the EPA criteria, but it may help to include some clarifying info for “T” and “pH” (e.g., “T is the mixed temperature in degrees C at the edge of the applicable mixing zone” – or something like that). Or we can just leave this to Departmental policy…

Lori Pillsbury, 2013-07-25T13:14:00Z
I would recommend defining the terms, ie. FT=, FPH=. I like including the equations because those criteria documents are not easy to find & then find the appropriate equation. By including it here, there is no question. I would include the saltwater one as well.

rburkha, 2013-07-25T11:50:00Z
I think that an equation is missing here: Ratio=24* ((10^(7.7-pH)/(1+10^(7.4-pH))