Posted By Enrique Garcia on May 01, 2001 at 06:12:48:

In Reply to: WET legislation posted by mohd yusoff on April 29, 2001 at 23:55:19:

There ara a number of countries doing applying WET for discharge monitoring or permitting. As far as I know, and apart of the US, where this is noe I believe very extended, here are some examples:

Sweden and Denmark have published guidelines, and I believe WET is being used in permitting on a case by case basis.

Germany has traditionally used a Fish test and now employs crustacean, algal and bioluminescences tests for discharges (again I am not sure if only on a case by case basis). Legislation is in German and distributed by Lander (states) so it is rather difficult to follow from outside Germany

Spain has a rather unconsistent approach. There a WET based perfitting criteria for discharges to the sea in the Autonomous Region of Andalucia, as well as for discharges to the sewer system in Madrid, bit there is no general natiuonal policy.

The UK is ultimating their DTA (direct toxicity assessment) policy. I do not know when it will be introduced into legislation.

Also within the frame of OSPAR, there is a WEA (Whole Effluent Assessment) work group discussing the applicability of these techniques for monitoring duscharges to the sea.

Try the following references:

Danish EPA. Ecotoxicological Evaluation of Industrial Wastewater, Ministerio de Medio Ambiente. Dinamarca, 1994.

United States Environmental Protection Agency. Technical Support Document for Water Quality-Based Toxics Control. US-EPA. Office of Water, Washington, DC 20460, 1991.

Swedish EPA. Biological-Chemical Characterisation of Industrial Wastewater. Statens naturvardsverk, Estocolmo, 1990.

Wharfe, J.R. & Tinsley, D. The Toxicity-Based Consent and the Wider Application of Direct Toxicity Assessment to Protect Aquatic Life. J. CIWEM, 1995, 9, 526-530.

as well as the well known

· USEPA Methods for measuring the acute toxicity of effluents and receiving waters to freshwater and marine organisms. Fourth Edition. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Report EPA/600/4-90/027F, Cincinnaty, OH. 1993

· USEPA Short-term methods for estimating the chronic toxicity of effluents and receiving water to marine and estuarine organisms. Second edition. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Report EPA/600/4-91/003, Cincinnaty, OH. 1994

· USEPA Short-term methods for estimating the chronic toxicity of effluents and receiving water to freshwater organisms. Third edition. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Report EPA/600/4-91/002, Cincinnaty, OH. 1994

and

· WRc Plc. Short-term Ecotoxicological Method Guidelines for Effluent and Receiving Water Assessment (Draft). R&D Technical Report E83. Environment Agency, Bristol, 1998.

I hope this is of help. If you wish you can contact me via my usual e-mail, Maybe we could exchange some information, I am also interested in these issues, and how they are treated worlwide.

Regards

Enrique García

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