Applied
Turning Test Results into Action
Our work in the applied realm primarily focuses on the interpretation and investigation of the outcomes of toxicity tests. After working for over a decade at a commercial testing laboratory, Josh is familiar with the tests and their outcomes, and how to translate their outcomes for environmental protection. Rise Over Run Environmental can help with identifying causes of toxicity (TIEs) or with using toxicity tests to set appropriate environmental benchmarks for pollutants (WQOs), amongst other toxicity-related issues. We are currently working with water treatment operators (from mines to nuclear power) to consult on environmental toxicity. We are also assisting BQE Water in their development of ecotoxicology services.
Toxicity Identification Evaluations (TIEs)
Toxicity detective, trout mortician, daphnid coroner, algae whisperer…call him whatever you want….Josh has extensive experience identifying toxic agents in water samples. He has efficiently identified causes of toxicity in discharges from a variety of sources including mines, oil and gas, municipal wastewater, construction, coal, pulp and paper, power plants, urban highways, airports, landfills, etc. This has led to experience with an assortment of pollutants, including investigations on most of the inorganic elements on the periodic table (e.g., trace metals, nutrients, major ions), non-polar organics (e.g., naphthenic acids, petroleum hydrocarbons), treatment additives (e.g., flocculants, chelators), dissolved gases (e.g., carbon dioxide, chlorine) and biological agents (e.g., harmful bacteria).
Toxicity Identification Evaluations (TIEs) can vary in nature. They can range from a simple screening of sample chemistry to a multi-stage lab study. At their best, TIEs produce empirical data with multiple lines of evidence as to the cause of the observed adverse effects. Typically, in lab studies, samples are manipulated and re-screened for toxicity to elucidate where the toxicity is originating from (e.g., a metal or an organic). Josh has used his training in chemistry (B.Sc., M.Sc.) to determine the chemical manipulations best suited for the project, which helps narrow the scope-budget and hopefully leads to more direct answers. Having extensive experience with the toxicity tests also helps in the interpretation. Over time, he has begun to pick up the “toxicity fingerprints” of contaminants, and he brings this catalog of fingerprints from the many cases he has solved with him into new investigations. Do you need help identifying the cause of toxicity?
Water Quality Objectives
If Paracelsus described the basis of toxicology as the “dose makes the poison”, then modern environmental toxicology has extended this concept further to read: “The dose makes the poison, and the medium makes the dose”. In other words, one concentration never defines the toxicity of a potential pollutant, but rather a pollutants’ threshold for toxicity could occur over a range of values, depending on how it is modified by what else is in the water. There are plenty of examples of this, and a few that we have published (e.g., with nitrite, nitrate, sulfate) can be found on our publication page.
In this regard, generic water quality guidelines, almost certainly have not been derived with your specific water or project in mind, they are generic by nature. Thus, developing site-specific objectives for contaminants becomes imperative in ensuring that water quality benchmarks are scientifically defensible for your site and ensuring that water treatment is not unnecessarily targeting inappropriate levels. These site-performance or site-specific water quality objectives (SPOs or SSWQOs) can help in a number of ways – do you think you need one?
Other Services
- Statistical analysis of toxicity data with the Comprehensive Environmental Toxicity Information System (CETIS)
- Water quality measures with YSI ProQuatro water quality meter