Toxicity Testing

Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) Testing

Compliance with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits generally includes a component that assesses the potential for the effluent to cause toxicity to aquatic life. Whole effluent toxicity (WET) testing is conducted using specific EPA guidance with multiple test species such as fish, invertebrates, and algae. WET testing often requires laboratory certification when part of a permit compliance program, to meet EPA Clean Water Act protocols.

Criteria Development Toxicity Testing

As part of updating EPA water quality criteria, it is common to discover data gaps which represent the need for information on the sensitivity of key aquatic species without any toxicity testing information. Our laboratory frequently conducts specialty toxicity testing on native species and other laboratory organisms to fill data gaps and provide the data to update existing water quality criteria or create new criteria for chemicals with no current EPA standard.