The ubiquity of engineered nanomaterials in consumer products results in their delivery to municipal wastewater treatment systems, where they may be subsequently discharged to the environment.  At sufficient concentrations, many common nanomaterials, including titanium dioxide nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes, are toxic or disruptive to aquatic organisms, but significant challenges exist regarding the application of contemporary environmental policies to mitigate these potential impacts.  For example, the traditional standards-to-permits approach of the Clean Water Act (CWA), which applies to most wastewater treatment plant effluents in the United States, typically involves the development of contaminant-specific water quality criteria.  However, existing research regarding the detection, fate, and toxicology of nanomaterials is still in its infancy and rapidly changing, thereby limiting the ability of policymakers to justify and establish static effluent discharge standards for these emerging contaminants.  Hence, I describe herein an adaptive nanomaterial management approach that strives to bridge the gap between significant scientific uncertainties and an ostensive need for some type of policy structure.  At the core of this adaptive management procedure is a robust mechanism for information and data organization, which is programed to alert policymakers of convergence in the literature between: (a) observed and/or anticipated concentrations of target nanomaterials in wastewater effluents; (b) demonstrated impacts of these concentrations on aquatic organisms or ecological function; and (c) our technological capacity to reliably detect these target nanomaterial concentrations.  The confluence of these factors is expected to be a significant trigger in evaluating the need for specific management actions and/or expansion of policies related to the release of engineered nanomaterials to environmental systems.  Finally, I describe how specific elements of this approach may be applied to policy challenges for other emerging contaminants.

Adaptive management tools for engineered nanomaterials in municipal wastewater effluents

246th National Meeting (2013)

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