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Setting Water Quality Criteria in China: Approaches for Developing Species Sensitivity Distributions for Metals and Metalloids

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Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology volume

Part of the book series: Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology ((RECT,volume 230))

Abstract

Water quality criteria (WQCs) refer to the maximum acceptable concentrations of specific chemicals or magnitudes of parameters in water that protect aquatic life and human health under certain conditions (USEPA 1976). When deriving WQC for use in regional ecosystems, sociopolitical and economic factors need to be considered (Meng and Wu 2010). The WQC concept is often used for making policy, managing the environment, assessing water quality, controlling pollution, restoring ecosystems, and managing environmental crises (Wu et al. 2010). Some countries and organizations have created WQC guidelines that describe what is suitable for the specific conditions prevalent in that country or region. Since the 1960s, the United States has undertaken a series of long-term studies to develop national WQC for specific water pollutants that threaten aquatic organisms and human health (USEPA 1968, 1976, 1986, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2009). In the past few decades, Australia, Canada, the European Union, the Netherlands, and the World Health Organization have, respectively, developed their own WQCs to protect national or regional water environments (CCME 1999; ANZECC and ARMCANZ 2000; ECB 2003; WHO 2006; RIVM 2007).

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Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2008CB418200) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U0833603 and 41130743). Prof. Giesy was supported by the program of 2012 “High Level Foreign Experts” (#GDW20123200120) funded by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, the P.R. China to Nanjing University, and the Einstein Professor Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was also supported by the Canada Research Chair program, a Visiting Distinguished Professorship in the Department of Biology and Chemistry and State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong. The authors give special thanks to Dr. Yanping Chen in Southern Medical University, China, for his helpful comments on solving statistical problems during the review process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China

    Yuedan Liu, Fengchang Wu, Yunsong Mu, Chenglian Feng, Yixiang Fang & Lulu Chen

  2. Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control Research Center, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Guangzhou, 510065, China

    Yuedan Liu

  3. Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences and Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    John P. Giesy

  4. Zoology Department and Center for Integrative Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    John P. Giesy

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  1. Yuedan Liu
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  2. Fengchang Wu
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Correspondence to Fengchang Wu .

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    David M. Whitacre

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Liu, Y. et al. (2014). Setting Water Quality Criteria in China: Approaches for Developing Species Sensitivity Distributions for Metals and Metalloids. In: Whitacre, D. (eds) Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology volume. Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, vol 230. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04411-8_2

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