MTBE ambient water quality criteria development: a public/private partnership.

A public/private partnership was established in 1997, under the administrative oversight of the American Petroleum Institute (API), to develop aquatic toxicity data sufficient to calculate ambient water quality criteria for methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), a gasoline oxygenate. The MTBE Water Quality Criteria Work Group consisted of representatives from private companies, trade associations, and USEPA. Funding was provided by the private entities, while aquatic biological/toxicological expertise was provided by industry and USEPA scientists.

The toxicity of aluminum to aquatic species in the US.

In August 1988 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published an ambient water quality criteria document for the protection of aquatic organisms from the toxic effects of aluminum. The EPA water quality criteria were developed utilizing procedures described in theGuidelines for Deriving Numerical National Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Aquatic Organisms and Their Uses, and after careful analysis of the latest toxicological information available to EPA on the adverse effects of aluminum on aquatic vertebrates, invertebrates and plants.The EPA criteria recommend that the four-day average concentration of aluminum not exceed 87 μg L(-1) more than once every three years on the average when the ambient pH is between 6.