PARENT SESSION
PA2 - SETAC Advisory Committee Updates
ALL DAYS
8:00 AM to 6:30 PM
Exhibit Hall
(PA08) Development of SETAC Technical Expert Advisory Committees: Scientific Guidance Involving Testing, Characterization and Identifying Sources of Toxicity in Complex Effluents.
Burton, D.B.*,1, Ausley, L.W.2, Denton, D.L.3, Dorn, P.B.4, Fulk, F.5, Goodfellow, W.L.6, Gully, J.G.7, Norberg-King, T.J.8, Pletl, J.9, Rodgers, Jr., J.H.10, 1 University of Maryland, Queenstown, MD2 NC Division of Water Quality, Raleigh, NC3 U.S. EPA, Sacramento, CA4 Shell Global Solutions, Houston, TX5 U.S. EPA, Cincinatti, OH6 EA Engineering Science & Tech., Sparks, MD7 LA County Sanitation Districts, Whittier, CA8 Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach, VA9 U.S. EPA, Duluth, MN10
ABSTRACT- One of the major recommendations from the 1996 SETAC Pellston Workshop on Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) was to provide expert panels and training concerning WET. In 1996, the SETAC Foundation began a cooperative venture with USEPA to provide expert scientific advice on technical aspects of WET, surface water toxicity testing, characterizing and identifying sources of toxicity (TRE/TIEs). SETAC established Expert Advisory Panels to provide the mechanism to develop consensus opinion and to have a continued exchange on key scientific issues that are essential to surface water and wastewater management. Each workgroup was formed using SETAC's balance of experts from academia, business, and government, and instructed to not delve into policy issues or issues in litigation. The result is that technical assistance has been provided through training courses, advice on SETAC's website, publications and educational resources, and publications. More than 1000 professionals have taken the four short courses that cover the basics of applying toxicity testing for whole effluent toxicity, statistical analysis and interpretation of toxicity tests, hands-on toxicity testing, and toxicity identification methods. Example products available on the SETAC website are a paper on the "Application of TIEs/TREs to Whole Effluent Toxicity" and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). New products are a CD-ROM compilation of WET-related documents, Technical Issue Papers (TIPs), a journal article reviewing the changes or developments in method assessments, test variability and field assessment endpoints, review article on ion related toxicity, and the workshop proceedings on the method development for TRE/TIEs in effluents, surface waters, and sediments. Through these efforts, state-of-the-art scientific advancements in wastewater management are disseminated to the public and the intrinsic opportunity for scientific collaboration.
Key words: effluent, toxicity, TRE/TIE, SETAC