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is divided into grades I-V, which refer to national nature reserves, key zones for protection of surface drinking water, surface drinking water sources, industrial/recreational water, and agricultural/landscape water, respectively. With rapid economic development, China has experienced a great number of environmental pollution incidents in recent years. To protect the eco-environment and human health in China, the government and scientists have realized the importance of establishing a more scientific water environmental quality standard system that is based on its own water quality criteria (WQC), and is concordant with its regional eco-environmental characteristics.
China Embarking on Development of its Own National Water Quality Criteria System
RHONDA SAUNDERS
FENGCHANG WU WEI MENG* XIAOLI ZHAO HUIXIAN LI RUIQING ZHANG YUJING CAO HAIQING LIAO State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory for Lake Pollution Control, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, China
Environmental standards are the scientific basis for national environmental management. Like many other countries, China manages its water quality based on ambient water quality standards. Current national aquatic environmental quality standards in China are nationally unified based on water quality and functions, including water quality, pollutant discharge, monitoring methods, and environmental sample standards. However, these standards were derived from and/or based on environmental quality standards or criteria of developed countries, and have no specific protection objectives (the same standards were used to protect both ecosystem and human health); therefore, they may not fit the regional eco-environment and the current needs of environmental management in China. For example, in the national water quality standard (GB3838-2006), water quality * E-mail:
[email protected]. 7992
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WQC emphasize the idea of harmonious coexistence of humans with nature in aquatic ecosystems (1). Accordingly, criteria contain information such as the maximum acceptable concentration of pollutants that has no obvious ecoenvironmental effects, as well as information describing the regional ecosystem and social economical characteristics. As a result, WQC are important for environmental management decisions, water quality assessment, dealing with unexpected environmental incidents, evaluation of environmental effects, pollution control, ecological restoration, and environmental crisis management. Indeed, WQC are the cornerstone of the entire environmental protection and management system (2). Since the 1960s, the United States has embarked on long-term and systematic studies to develop national environmental quality criteria (EQC), particularly WQC, such as those for protecting aquatic organisms and human health. To date, the U.S. EPA has recommended 167 ambient WQC for priority toxic and non priority pollutants, as well as for organoleptic effects, and these criteria values have been updated seven times. In the last few decades, Canada, Australia, the European Union, and other developed countries have initiated major related research projects to develop national and regional EQC, which have become the new direction in current environmental protection research worldwide. In terms of geographic, regional eco-environmental, and social economic characteristics, WQC in China may different somewhat from those of other developed counties. These differences can reflect the following aspects: (a) Subtle differences in ecosystem structure and functions, economic conditions, and living habits in China. Indeed, the aquatic ecosystem and biota characteristics in China differ from those of North America, as do the distribution, tolerance, and toxic effects of pollutants in different ecosystems. Moreover, China primarily uses inland and terrestrial water, which has relatively high nutrient levels. There is also regional environmental diversity in factors such as pH, dissolved organic matter, and hardness in hydrological environments, which should be considered when establishing WQC. The criteria for protecting human health may also vary due to different exposure pathways as a result of social economic conditions, life habits, and customs. (b) Differences in priority pollutants of concern due to the distinction of China’s economic and industrial structure and development pattern. Since China is in the socialist elementary stage, the main problems are 10.1021/es1029365
2010 American Chemical Society
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primarily due to high energy consumption, high pollution, and early processing industries. Accordingly, the sources, discharges, and risks of pollutants may not be the same as those of other developed countries. For example, the discharge of urban sewage and industrial wastewater is currently the main pollution source of contamination in the rivers, as supported by the observation that >90% of heavily polluted monitored sections are near large cities (3, 4). However, the pollutants of greatest concern in China may not be major environmental problems in other countries, while those of great concern overseas may not be problematic in China. For instance, water eutrophication has recently become a major problem in China; therefore, nutrient criteria for protecting aquatic ecosystems have attracted a great deal of attention. Conversely, WQC for protecting human health for priority and new emerging pollutants are often of major concern in developed countries. (c) Tremendous pressure associated with environmental management and protection. Due to its large population and rapidly growing economy, the issue of pollution looms large in China; thus, it is urgent to reinforce WQC studies to provide a scientific basis for water pollution emergency management, which may not be the main concern in other countries. Moreover, China still has yet to develop criteria to protect wildlife in aquatic ecosystems such as lakes, wetlands, rivers, and fisheries, despite the fact that there are a large number of endangered, rare, and precious animals in China. Accordingly, China has recently attached increasing importance to studies designed to develop a national EQC system. Although comparatively late, under the support of the SinoEnvironmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST), China has initiated major projects to establish a national WQC system based on its regional characteristics and current conditions. For example, with the support of the National Basic Research Program (973 Project) of the MST, “Evolvement of Lake Water Environment Quality and Water Environmental Criteria” had set up in 2008, aimed to preliminarily establish lake WQC framework: its theoretical, technological, and methodological system. Nitrobenzene is a toxic pollutant and was the main compound involved in the Songhuajiang accident in 2007, which was one of the largest water pollution accidents in China in the past decade. WQC for protecting human health were only reported by the U.S. EPA in 2006. In this project, the criteria values for protecting aquatic organisms in both China and the United States were reported. The criteria maximum concentration (CMC) and the criteria continuous concentration (CCC) of nitrobenzene in China are 0.805 and 0.161 mg/L, while those in the U.S. are 3.15 and 0.878 mg/L, respectively. Similarly, the CMC for cadmium in China is 7.30 µg/L, which is four times (2.0 µg/L) higher than that in the United States, while the CCC for cadmium is 0.123 µg/L, which is about half of that (0.25 µg/L) in the United States (5). The CMC of zinc is 108 µg/L and the CCC is 19.8 ug/L;
both are quite different from those in the United States. These findings further suggest that WQC are dependent on regional ecosystems and biota, and clearly demonstrate that WQC of different countries should be established based on their regional eco-environmental characteristics. Studies evaluating other priority pollutants and aquatic environmental criteria methodologies are currently being conducted. The results of these studies may advance the development of the Chinese national EQC system, and provide a model for other studies, although much work is still needed before a “Madein-China” WQC system is established. The Chinese government has recognized that EQC are the theoretical basis for environmental standards, as well as the scientific basis for national environmental management. Therefore, EQC research should be the driving force for the national environmental protection study and the core element of national environmental security. “Scientifically establishing criteria” has become the national target, and strategic research into development of an EQC system has been put on the national agenda. The new State Environmental Protection Ministry, which was upgraded from SEPA in 2008, has initiated a 15-20 year major criteria research plan. Additionally, preresearch into the Technical Framework and Case Studies of Environmental Quality Criteria in China has commenced, and the objectives of this project are to (a) investigate both the domestic and foreign WQC and standards, (b) develop a roadmap of medium-term and longterm research of China’s national EQC system, and (c) conduct a case-study of WQC of priority pollutants based on the regional eco-environment and aquatic biota characteristics in China. Accomplishment of these goals will certainly play a significant role in the development of EQC and environmental protection and management research both in China and internationally.
Acknowledgments This study was supported by China’s national basic research program, “Evolvement of Lake Water Environment Quality and Water Environmental Criteria” (2008CB418200).
Literature Cited (1) Meng, W.; Wu, F. C.; Introduction of Water Quality Criteria Theory and Methodology; Science Press: Beijing, China, 2010. (2) Meng, W.; Liu, Z. T.; Zhang, N.; Hu, L. L. The study on technique of basin water quality target management: Water environmental criteria, standard and total amount control. Res. Environ. Sci. 2008, 21, 1–8 (In Chinese). (3) SEPA. Report on the State of the Environment in China; 2007, 2008; http://english.sepa.gov.cn/ghjh/hjzkgb. (4) Fu, B. J.; Zhuang, X. L.; Jiang, G. B.; Shi, J. B.; Lv, Y. H. Environmental problems and challenges in China. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2007, 15, 7597–7602. (5) U.S. EPA. National Recommended Water Quality Criteria; Office of Water, Office of Science and Technology: Washington, DC, 2006.
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