Recommended Human Health Recreational Ambient Water Quality Criteria Or Swimming Advisories for Microcystins and Cylindrospermopsin
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United States Office of Water EPA 822-R-19-001 Environmental Mail Code 4304T May 2019 Protection Agency Recommended Human Health Recreational Ambient Water Quality Criteria or Swimming Advisories for Microcystins and Cylindrospermopsin Recommended Human Health Recreational Ambient Water Quality Criteria or Swimming Advisories for Microcystins and Cylindrospermopsin Prepared by: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water (4304T) Health and Ecological Criteria Division Washington, DC EPA Document Number: 822-R-19-001 Date: May 2019 NOTICES This document has been drafted and approved for publication by the Health and Ecological Criteria Division, Office of Science and Technology, United States Environmental Protection Agency, and is approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. Recommended Human Health Recreational Ambient Water Quality Criteria or 3 Swimming Advisories for Microcystins and Cylindrospermopsin FOREWORD Section 304(a) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) requires the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 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. The EPA is publishing these recommended values under CWA 304(a) for states to consider as the basis for swimming advisories for notification purposes in recreational waters to protect the public. The EPA envisions that if states decide to use the values as swimming advisory values they might do so in a manner similar to their current recreational water advisory programs. Alternatively, states may consider using these same values when adopting new or revised water quality standards (WQS). If adopted by states as WQS and approved by the EPA under CWA 303(c), the WQS could be used for all CWA purposes. States may also wish to consider using these values as both swimming advisory values and WQS. This document has undergone an EPA intra-agency peer-review process. The Health and Ecological Criteria Division, Office of Science and Technology, Office of Water, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has completed the final review and the document is approved for publication. The values were derived using the existing peer-reviewed and published science on the adverse human health effects of the toxins including previous EPA analysis, such as the EPA’s Health Effects Support Document for the Cyanobacterial Toxin Microcystins and Health Effects Support Document for the Cyanobacterial Toxin Cylindrospermopsin (HESDs), and the EPA’s Drinking Water Health Advisory for the Cyanobacterial Microcystin Toxins and Drinking Water Health Advisory for the Cyanobacterial Toxin Cylindrospermopsin (Drinking Water Health Advisories) (U.S. EPA 2015a, 2015b, 2015c, 2015d). The EPA used established criteria methodologies (U.S. EPA 2000) and recreation-specific exposure parameters from the EPA’s Exposure Factors Handbook (EFH) (U.S. EPA 2011) to derive these values. Detailed information that can be found in the EPA’s HESDs and Drinking Water Health Advisories is summarized in this document. The term “water quality criteria” is used in two sections of the CWA section 304(a)(1) and section 303(c)(2). The term has a different legal meaning in each section. In section 304, the term represents a non-regulatory, scientific assessment of effects on human health or aquatic life. The criteria recommendations presented in this document are such a scientific assessment. If the state or authorized tribe adopts water quality criteria associated with specific designated uses as WQS under section 303, and approved by the EPA, they become applicable CWA WQS in ambient waters within that state or tribe. Water quality criteria adopted in state or tribal WQS could have the same numerical values as criteria developed by the EPA under section 304. Alternatively, states and authorized tribes may derive numeric criteria based on other scientifically defensible methods, but the criteria must be protective of designated uses. States and tribes can adopt criteria into their standards. When approved by the EPA, the criteria become Clean Water Act-applicable WQS. Guidelines to assist in modifying the criteria recommendations presented in this document are contained in the Water Quality Standards Handbook (U.S. EPA 2012). This document provides recommendations 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 CWA and EPA regulations on the basis of specific facts presented and scientific information then available. Recommended Human Health Recreational Ambient Water Quality Criteria or 4 Swimming Advisories for Microcystins and Cylindrospermopsin ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The development of this document was made possible through an effort led by John Ravenscroft, EPA Project Manager, Health and Ecological Criteria Division, Office of Science and Technology, Office of Water. The following Office of Science and Technology staff provided valuable contributions to the development and review of this document: Tracy Bone, Dr. Lesley D’Anglada, Dr. Joyce Donohue, Lars Wilcut, Oakridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) fellow Meghann Niesen, and summer intern Ana-Maria Murphy-Teixidor. The EPA gratefully acknowledges the valuable contributions of the EPA internal technical reviewers who reviewed this document. Staff from the following EPA program and regional offices completed a formal review of these Human Health Recreational Ambient Water Quality Criteria (AWQC) or Swimming Advisories for Microcystins and Cylindrospermopsin. U.S. EPA Office of Children’s Health Protection U.S. EPA Office of General Counsel U.S. EPA Office of Policy U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development U.S. EPA Office of Water Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water Office of Science and Technology Office of Wastewater Management Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds U.S. EPA Regional Offices Region 1 Region 4 Region 5 Region 7 Region 8 Technical support was provided by ICF and its subcontractor Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences under EPA Contract No. EP-C-16-011. The EPA acknowledges important input received from the states, tribes, local governmental agencies, individual citizens, and stakeholder groups, such as the Association of Clean Water Administrators, and other nongovernmental organizations, who submitted comments on the draft. Recommended Human Health Recreational Ambient Water Quality Criteria or 5 Swimming Advisories for Microcystins and Cylindrospermopsin TABLE OF CONTENTS NOTICES ........................................................................................................................................ 3 FOREWORD .................................................................................................................................. 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ 6 LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... 9 LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... 11 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................... 12 1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................... 15 2.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND .......................................................................... 18 International and State Guidelines ............................................................................................ 18 3.0 NATURE OF THE STRESSORS ......................................................................................... 26 3.1 Cyanobacteria and Cyanobacterial Blooms ....................................................................... 26 3.1.1 Environmental Factors Influencing Occurrence of Cyanobacteria and Cyanotoxins ............................................................................................................ 28 3.2 Cyanotoxins ........................................................................................................................ 35 3.2.1 Chemical and Physical Properties ............................................................................ 35 3.2.2 Sources and Occurrence in Surface Waters ............................................................. 38 3.2.3 Estuarine and Marine Waters ................................................................................... 44 3.2.4 Other Sources of Microcystins and Cylindrospermopsin ........................................ 45 3.3 Environmental Fate ............................................................................................................ 45 3.3.1 Mobility.................................................................................................................... 45 3.3.2 Persistence...............................................................................................................