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OPP-OW Common Effects Assessment Methodology
About Common Effects Assessment Methodology
OPP-OW Common Effects Assessment Methodology
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About Common Effects Assessment Methodology
EPA is beginning to explore how to build on the substantial high quality science developed under both programs to develop additional tools and approaches to support a consistent and common set of effects characterization methods using best available information. A scoping document has been developed that describes this effort in more detail.
While there are differences in the effects characterization approaches used by EPA under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), both were developed with high quality data using rigorously peer-reviewed assessment methodologies. In characterizing pesticide effects, EPA takes into consideration acute effects as well as chronic and sub-lethal effects on growth, survival, and reproduction in effects assessment. Reference documents highlight these approaches.
Public meetings are planned to solicit input on methods being evaluated by the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) and Office of Water (OW), with the support of the Office of Research and Development (ORD), to assure that pesticide ecological effects are characterized consistently. Following these meetings EPA plans to develop a set of white papers describing potential new tools and analytical approaches that may be used by the Agency, state pesticide and water quality agencies, and other stakeholders. These white papers would explore methods for use of tools to estimate aquatic toxicity data, and approaches for deriving community level benchmarks, and addressing plants effects.
EPA expects to solicit additional stakeholder input on the tools and approaches as the white papers are developed. The tools and approaches would ultimately be subject to peer review prior to being made available.
EPA's goal is to develop tools and approaches that:
- continue to be based upon sound science and utilize the available data,
- are legally defensible under our statutory mandates,
- will be based upon methodologies that are as consistent and practical as possible,
- are implementable at the federal and state level,
- are developed as quickly and efficiently as possible, and
- reflect stakeholder input and comments .
Stakeholder Meetings and Docket
Docket ID (EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0773)
EPA will conduct six public meetings to solicit input on methods being evaluated by the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) and the Office of Water (OW), with the support of the Office of Research and Development (ORD) to characterize effects from pesticides on fish, other aquatic organisms, and aquatic plants in aquatic ecosystems. During the public meetings, EPA will provide presentations that detail its initial thinking on how to ensure that pesticide effects are characterized consistently by both OPP and OW. The dates, times, and locations of these public meetings can be found at Regional Meetings Locations and Times.
Comments and Feedback from Regional Stakeholder Meetings