Man-made chemicals are everywhere in our modern world—in pharmaceuticals, health care products, pesticides, and cookware. But a vast array of the same chemicals present in our household goods also contaminate our environment and aquatic ecosystems. These Constituents of Emerging Concern, or CECs, are gaining notoriety as potential hazards to marine environments, aquatic wildlife, and human health. In response to rapid advancements in testing and a growing body of literature surrounding emerging contaminants, the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) was asked by the State Water Board (SWB) in April, 2020, to reconvene the CEC Ecosystem Panel. The panel, tasked with updating previous recommendations for monitoring CECs, is on track to produce a new report by the end of the year. 

The panel was first convened in 2009 to address the thousands of unregulated contaminants detected in California’s aquatic environments. These emerging contaminants enter watersheds through a variety of point and nonpoint sources—most commonly via treated municipal wastewater effluent and stormwater. Once in the aquatic ecosystem, water soluble CECs dissolve and disseminate among wildlife while hydrophobic contaminants accumulate in the tissues of aquatic biota. Because most CECs are relatively unstudied, the exact biological effects of CEC exposure remain unknown. But some studies have found that CECs in pharmaceuticals, fragrances, fire retardants, detergents, and insecticides can disrupt the functions of the endocrine system—impacting organism reproduction, growth, and development. 

The CEC Ecosystem Board was tasked with developing methods for effectively monitoring CECs in oceanic, brackish, and fresh waters that receive treated municipal wastewater and stormwater. From 2009 to 2012, the panel reviewed scientific literature studying the sources and environmental risks of CEC contamination; held multiple conferences with experts on CEC issues; and published final recommendations for creating effective CEC risk assessment and monitoring programs. The final recommendations, published in April of 2012, created a risk assessment framework for identifying and prioritizing chemicals with the highest potential of impacting the environment and human health. Once initial monitoring programs narrow down the list of chemicals, the report offers guidelines for additional monitoring and action. But the panel acknowledged that monitoring CECs was complicated by a variety of technical problems—a need for better analytical methods, a scarcity of data tracking the prevalence of CECS in the environment, and a lack of refined environmental fate prediction models—among other issues. 

Over the past decade, advances in cell-line assay and non-targeted analysis science have greatly enhanced CEC monitoring and testing capabilities. More data is also available about the prevalence and fate of CECs in the environment. Given these advances, the State Water Board (SWB) and California Ocean Protection Council felt it was time to update California’s plan for monitoring and addressing emerging substances. 

When the SWB reconvened the CEC Ecosystem Panel last April, seven members with esteemed academic backgrounds and international work experience were selected to staff the panel. Each member is a leading expert in their field with extensive experience in the fields of biology, chemistry, engineering, and human health. The Panel members bring education and work experience from renowned universities and institutions in Germany, Canada, and Singapore, as well as local knowledge from one of California's top schools for environmental science--the University of California, Riverside. 

This expert panel plans to host three web conferences over the course of 2020-2021, with guest speakers providing additional expertise and input. The first conference was held in October and spread across four days. Two more meetings, in the summer and fall of this year, are planned before the final report is released in December. During the first conference, the panel listed their six main objectives for the updated recommendations report: 

1. Identifying classes of CECs, including those with data gaps, that have the potential to impact marine, estuarine, and freshwater wildlife and ecosystems. This includes consulting with leading experts for different classes of CECs and learning all applicable monitoring and reporting limits for CEC classes.

2. Updating the risk prioritization framework to accommodate classes of chemicals, structurally related chemicals, and data-poor chemical classes that may lack monitoring trigger levels, environmental concentration, or predicted no-effect concentration.

3. Tracking the sources and pathways of CEC classes in marine, estuarine, and freshwater ecosystems.

4. Deciding, based on the interactions between CECs and different ecosystems, which matrices (tissue, sediment, ambient water, or wastewater) should be screened in marine, estuarine, and freshwater ecosystems.

5. Compiling important biological effects—known and suspected—for both CEC classes and specific chemicals of concern.

6. Implementing risk prioritization frameworks to improve state management.

Going forward, the State Water Board seems interested in addressing CECs as groups of contaminants, rather than focusing on single chemicals. The SWB also directed the Ecosystem Panel to focus on anthropogenic toxic chemicals rather than other substances of concern, like microplastics. Once the recommendations report is released in December, the State Water Board seems inclined to make modernizing the CEC monitoring programs a new priority.

With scientists discovering more about emerging contaminants every day, Babcock Laboratories stays up to date with the latest methods, techniques, and technologies. As a leading lab for CEC testing, Babcock employs expert staff and boasts state-of-the-art instrumentation capable of testing all matrices. For more information about CECs in your local area, contact Babcock Labs.