Final Comprehensive Conservation Plan - U.S. Fish and Wildlife ...

Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge
Comprehensive Conservation Plan
If BAF or BCF>1000, then a PUP would not approved, except under unusual circumstances where
approval would only be granted by the Washington Office.
Worst-Case Ecological Risk Assessment
Max Application Rates (acid equivalent): Service personnel would record the highest application
rate of an active ingredient (ae basis) for habitat management and cropland/facilities maintenance
treatments in this data field of a Chemical Profile. These rates can be found in Table CP.1 under the
column heading “Max Product Rate – Single Application (lbs/acre – AI on acid equiv basis)”. This
table would be prepared for a chemical profile from information specified in labels for trade name
products identified in PUPs. If these data are not available in pesticide labels, then write “NS” for
“not specified on label” in this table.
EECs: An estimated environmental concentration (ECC) represents potential exposure to fish and
wildlife (birds and mammals) from using a pesticide. EECs would be derived by Service personnel
using an USEPA screening-level approach (US Environmental Protection Agency 2004). For each
max application rate [see description under Max Application Rates (acid equivalent)], Service
personnel would record 2 EEC values in a Chemical Profile; these would represent the worst-case
terrestrial and aquatic exposures for habitat management and croplands/facilities maintenance
treatments. For terrestrial and aquatic EEC calculations, see description for data entry under
Presumption of Unacceptable Risk/Risk Quotients, which is the next field for a Chemical Profile.
Presumption of Unacceptable Risk/Risk Quotients: Service personnel would calculate and record
acute and chronic risk quotients (RQs) for birds, mammals, and fish using the provided tabular
formats for habitat management and/or cropland/facilities maintenance treatments. RQs recorded in
a Chemical Profile would represent the worst-case assessment for ecological risk. See Section 7.2
for discussion regarding the calculations of RQs.
For aquatic assessments associated with habitat management treatments, RQ calculations would be
based upon selected acute and chronic toxicological endpoints for fish and the EEC would be derived
from Urban and Cook (1986) assuming 100% overspray to an entire 1-foot deep water body using
the max application rate (ae basis [see above]).
For aquatic assessments associated with cropland/facilities maintenance treatments, RQ calculations
would be done by Service personnel based upon selected acute and chronic toxicological endpoints
for fish and an EEC would be derived from the aquatic assessment in AgDRIFT ® model version 2.01
under Tier I ground-based application with the following input variables: max application rate (acid
basis [see above]), low boom (20 inches), fine to medium/coarse droplet size, 20 swaths, EPAdefined
wetland, and 25-foot distance (buffer) from treated area to water.
See Section 7.2.1.2 for more details regarding the calculation of EECs for aquatic habitats for habitat
management and cropland/facilities maintenance treatments.
For terrestrial avian and mammalian assessments, RQ calculations would be done by Service
personnel based upon dietary exposure, where the “short grass” food item category would represent
the worst-case scenario. For terrestrial spray applications associated with habitat management and
cropland/facilities maintenance treatments, exposure (EECs and RQs) would be determined using the
Kanaga nomogram method through the USEPA’s Terrestrial Residue Exposure model (T-REX)
G-42 Appendix G. Integrated Pest Management