A flow-chart for developing water quality criteria from two field-based methods.

ABSTRACT: Field-based methods increase relevance and realism when setting water quality criteria. They also pose challenges. To enable a consistent process, a flow chart was developed for choosing between two field-based methods and then selecting among candidate results. The two field-based methods estimated specific conductivity (SC) levels likely to extirpate 5% of benthic invertebrate genera: an extirpation concentration distribution (XCD) method and a background-to-criterion (B-C) model developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The B-C model is a least squares regression of the 5th centile of XCD (XCD₀₅) values against estimates of background SC. Selection of an XCD₀₅ from the flowchart is determined by characteristics of the paired chemical and biological dat

SUBMITTER: Cormier SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7249996 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature