Navy Ecological Risk Assessment Screening Process for Aquatic Systems. G. McDermott, J. Markwiese, B. Williams, D. Gunster, and T. Bernhard; Neptune and Co., Entrix, Walnut Creek, Battelle, and EFA ChesDiv NFEC
Screening protocols for ecological risk assessments (ERA) at Naval facilities have been subject to multiple, and at times inconsistent, approaches as technical methods to conduct ERA have evolved over the years. Currently, different facilities are in varying stages of the ERA process and a consistent approach to screening Chemical Constituents of Potential Ecological Concern (COPEC) is needed. The screening protocol presented for aquatic systems serves a dual purpose: it narrows the ERA focus to COPECs that are present in off-shore and wetland environmental media at levels exceeding conservative thresholds of ecological toxicity; and it eliminates from consideration those site-related compounds that are not expected to result in risk to ecological receptors. This process is consistent among Naval sites and facilities and that follows both the US Environmental Protection Agency ERA Guidance for Superfund and the Navy Policy for Conducting ERA. COPEC designation identifies those constituents that should be carried further in the baseline risk assessment. The screening process assumes that an initial Conceptual Site Model (CSM) exists, and that existing data are adequate to support the initial CSM, providing a logical and defensible basis for focusing the CSM and developing the ERA problem formulation.
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