CHAPTER 8 • Quality Status, Appropriate Monitoring and Legislation of the North Sea
177
These data are of especial significant because they show for the first time that pollution in the North Sea is not restricted to the coastal margins (QSR 1987), or localized
to areas close to sources or deposition areas (QSR 1993), but affects the North Sea as
an entity. They demonstrate that the UK East Coast is a single pollution gradient shown
by the decline in water quality from north to south (Fig. 8.7).
At present scope for growth appears to satisfy the various criteria as a biological
monitoring technique for general use. It provides in mussels, a sensitive yet robust technique for measuring water quality that is independent of natural stressors, such as salinity and turbidity (Widdows et al. 1995). Combined with QSARs it can provide a toxicological interpretation of contaminant tissue burdens, partitioning the extent of the
depression of scope for growth between contaminants. The limiting factor is the availability of QSARs relating tissue concentrations to effects for different classes of contamin<1nts (Donkin et al. 1991, 1997).
8.7
Biological and Ecological Quality Standards
If the regulator's role was set in the context of maintaining assimilative capacity, rather
than to serve legislation for individual contaminants, we believe monitoring would be more
appropriately directed. Thus EcoQSs should be defined such as to measure and conserve
assimilative capacity. That the approach of determining the EQS for individual contaminants is scientifically dubious, and that it would be better to determine and monitor actual effects on the sensitive compartments (i.e., the biota), and use these to direct the need for regulation. The use of biologically defmed quality standards (EcoQSs)
means that the statutory instrument for regulating pollution can relate directly to the
criteria for environmental quality, and the status of biological systems, rather than indirectly through EQSs for specific contaminants based on laboratory toxicity tests.
If the criteria for environmental quality are predominately biological or ecological,
then environmental quality objectives should also be expressed in such terms. Such
proposals are not new (Elliott 1996), but various factors have prevented their adoption.
Defining protocols for biological techniques in a way that yield reproducible results
has, in the past, been a problem. There is also the mistaken belief that the inherent
variability of biological material prevents its ability to provide precise data. Biological
effects techniques typically do not indicate whether they are due to natural factors or
to chemical contamination, so the approach must be linked to some means of identifying the chemical causes of significant effects. Their advantage is that they integrate
both natural and anthropogenic determinants of environmental quality.
Over the last decade there has been a growing recognition that utilising the integrative capacity of biological techniques is the only way of detecting and controlling
pollution by the escalating number of chemical contaminants (Stebbing and Harris 1987). Improved biological techniques are more sensitive and provide more reproducible results. Moreover they now often provide some indication of their chemical
causes. We suggest that the evidence presented constitutes a case to develop practical
techniques that allow environmental quality to be assessed in biological terms, which
should be allied to methods to identify the chemical causes of observed effects. Such
techniques will then provide the tools to implement more appropriate legislation, and
the regulators with a mandate to apply them.
177
These data are of especial significant because they show for the first time that pollution in the North Sea is not restricted to the coastal margins (QSR 1987), or localized
to areas close to sources or deposition areas (QSR 1993), but affects the North Sea as
an entity. They demonstrate that the UK East Coast is a single pollution gradient shown
by the decline in water quality from north to south (Fig. 8.7).
At present scope for growth appears to satisfy the various criteria as a biological
monitoring technique for general use. It provides in mussels, a sensitive yet robust technique for measuring water quality that is independent of natural stressors, such as salinity and turbidity (Widdows et al. 1995). Combined with QSARs it can provide a toxicological interpretation of contaminant tissue burdens, partitioning the extent of the
depression of scope for growth between contaminants. The limiting factor is the availability of QSARs relating tissue concentrations to effects for different classes of contamin<1nts (Donkin et al. 1991, 1997).
8.7
Biological and Ecological Quality Standards
If the regulator's role was set in the context of maintaining assimilative capacity, rather
than to serve legislation for individual contaminants, we believe monitoring would be more
appropriately directed. Thus EcoQSs should be defined such as to measure and conserve
assimilative capacity. That the approach of determining the EQS for individual contaminants is scientifically dubious, and that it would be better to determine and monitor actual effects on the sensitive compartments (i.e., the biota), and use these to direct the need for regulation. The use of biologically defmed quality standards (EcoQSs)
means that the statutory instrument for regulating pollution can relate directly to the
criteria for environmental quality, and the status of biological systems, rather than indirectly through EQSs for specific contaminants based on laboratory toxicity tests.
If the criteria for environmental quality are predominately biological or ecological,
then environmental quality objectives should also be expressed in such terms. Such
proposals are not new (Elliott 1996), but various factors have prevented their adoption.
Defining protocols for biological techniques in a way that yield reproducible results
has, in the past, been a problem. There is also the mistaken belief that the inherent
variability of biological material prevents its ability to provide precise data. Biological
effects techniques typically do not indicate whether they are due to natural factors or
to chemical contamination, so the approach must be linked to some means of identifying the chemical causes of significant effects. Their advantage is that they integrate
both natural and anthropogenic determinants of environmental quality.
Over the last decade there has been a growing recognition that utilising the integrative capacity of biological techniques is the only way of detecting and controlling
pollution by the escalating number of chemical contaminants (Stebbing and Harris 1987). Improved biological techniques are more sensitive and provide more reproducible results. Moreover they now often provide some indication of their chemical
causes. We suggest that the evidence presented constitutes a case to develop practical
techniques that allow environmental quality to be assessed in biological terms, which
should be allied to methods to identify the chemical causes of observed effects. Such
techniques will then provide the tools to implement more appropriate legislation, and
the regulators with a mandate to apply them.