1st WG3 meeting COST Action 636 Xenobiotics in the Urban Water Cycle

Institute of Environment &Resources

TechnicalUniversity ofDenmark

Kick-off meeting for COST Action 636 Xenobiotics in the Urban Water Cycle
6-8 September2005 in Kgs Lyngby

WG 3: Impact assessment

Participants:

Name / Department / Country / Email
Ralph Hobby / University Duisburg-Essen, Faculty of Engineering Science, Department of Mechanical Engineering / DE /
Verena Höckele / Projektträger Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe / DE /
Anders Baun / Institute of Environment & Resources, DTU / DK /
Jean-Marie Mouchel / CEREVE, ENPC / FR /
Sureyya Meric / University of Salerno / IT / ;
Klaus Kümmerer / Institute of Environmental Medicine and Hospital Epidemiology / DE /
K. Ole Kusk / Institute of Environment & Resources, DTU / DK /
Milda Zita Vosyliene / Institute of Ecology of VilniusUniversity / LT / ;
Tor Gunnar Jantsch / Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) / NO /

The chairman André Weidenhaupt could not attend the meeting and Anders Baun acted as chairman during this meeting. André Weidenhaupt will continue as the chairman with Anders Baun as co-chairman in 2006-2008.

ACTION PLAN 2006-2008

During the discussions it was clarified that the xenobiotics compounds included in WG3 can be defined as “man-made chemicals in ”forms” or amounts not normally found in natures – this covers xenobiotic organic compounds and heavy metals. It was emphrasized that the chemicals should have a strong urban source and input/experiences from WG1 should be included in the future work.

After fruitful discussions during the first two days of the meeting, the working group agreed on pursuing the long-term goal of developing a conceptual framework for impact assessment for xenobitics in the urban water cycle.

To address this objective an action plan for the coming 3-years period was outlined.

MEETING 1, 2006: March/April, location?

Impact thresholds in the environment & humans

  • methods from molecular level  whole organisms  ecosystem
  • which methods exist? state-of-the-art
  • what do they tell us?
  • do we really use the appropriate methods to evaluate the impacts we are interested in
  • do we have the methods for this?
  • do we have the relevant expertises represented in WG3
  • going beyond what we take for granted ... ways of evaluating results (e.g. statistical significance)
  • link to WFD?

MEETING 2, 2006: September, Vienna, Austria

Complex composition – how is dealt with in different countries?

  • Impact of the whole sample is the only relevant thing...!?
  • WET – whole effluent testing – not only xenobiotics give rise to adverse effects
  • Chem. anal. vs effects
  • TIE – Toxicity Identification Evaluation
  • Groupwise fractionation techiques
  • Source tracking – gaining knowledge about composition
  • Treatment efficiency – tox before and after cleaning WG2
  • Concentrations – continous discharge vs. intermittent discharges

Activities between meetings

  • Before 1st meeting 2006, a number of background papers will be produced and circulated among the group members
  • Background paper 1: What’s the status of applying biotests for impact assessment around Europe (and North America) (Zita Vosyliené)
  • Background paper 2: State-of-the-art for complex mixture assessment (Sureyya Meric)
  • Background paper 3: Impact assessment relation to WFD (Verena Höckele)
  • Background paper 4: Overview of the ”impact assessment” expertises within the group – 3-4 lines of expertises, key publication, test methods available, ongoing project (Anders Baun provide outline, collects input, write intro)
  • Identification opportunities for exchange of human resources – to be discussed at 1st meeting 2006
  • Identification of common topics for training courses – to be discussed at 1st meeting 2006

Activities 2007 & 2008

It was decided that 2 meetings/yr would be appropriate. Themes will be chosen from the discussions at meetings in 2006 aimed at providing ”building blocks” for the conceptual framework. The following list of possible topics for meetings in 2007/2008 was produced:

  • Bioavailability – exposure concentration
  • Chemical vs biological methods
  • By-products, degradation products, metabolites
  • Existing bioassays for monitoring discharges – WFD
  • Human toxicology – drinking water issues
  • Water vs sediments
  • Risk management
  • Urban area – defined by space or activities?
  • Test batteries
  • Sinks – long-term vs. short-term storage WG1
  • Dynamics
  • Training courses/schools QA/QC
  • Particles
  • Scales, spatial, temporal
  • Dilution
  • Does the tests/chem analyses make sense?
  • Site specific vs. generic
  • Extrapolation
  • Uncertainty
  • How to select chemicals?
  • How to choose methods?

For several of these topics and the topics of 2006-meetings overlaps to WG1, WG2, and WG4 were identified. It was the opinion of WG3-members, that plenary meetings for the whole COST 636 is needed to ensure exchange of knowledge between the WGs.

Anders Baun, 20 September 2005

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