SCHEER - Scientific Opinion on "Draft Environmental Quality Standards for Priority Substances under the Water Framework Directive" - Glyphosate

SCHEER WG on Water Framework Directive
SCHEER members: Marian Scott (Chair), Marco Vighi (Rapporteur), Thomas Backhaus, Teresa Borges, Peter Hoet, Pim de Voogt, Rodica Mariana Ion
External experts: Andrew Johnson, Jan Linders
Contact: SANTE-SCHEERec [dot] europa [dot] eu (SANTE-SCHEER[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
On request from: European Commission
Adopted on: 22 December 2022

The dossier on Environmental Quality Standards for glyphosate is reviewed by the SCHEER according to the general mandate on EQS dossiers.

The SCHEER does, in principle, endorse the employed approaches for the determination of the different QS values, except for the use of an additional AF of 2 for the derivation of the AA-QS_fw,eco because no specific reasons are given that would justify a deviation from the standard approach provided by the EQS guidance document (EC 2018). However, the SCHEER cannot, currently, endorse the suggested numerical values for MAC-QS_fw,eco, MAC_sw,eco, AA-QS_fw,eco and AA-QS_sw,eco, as all of these QS values are determined using studies that are based on nominal concentrations – despite a specific statement at the beginning of the dossier that only analytically verified concentrations shall be used for the QS determination. The SCHEER recommends reconciling this conflict between the description of the data selection and the actual implementation of the data selection process.

The SCHEER endorses the values of 3.08 mg kg^-1_dw (rounded to 3.1 mg kg^-1_dw) for QS_{sediment, fw} and 0.308 mg kg^-1_dw. (rounded to 0.31 mg kg^-1_dw) for QS_{sediment, sw}.

The SCHEER does not endorse the suggested EQS of 0.125 μg L^-1 but instead supports an EQS of 0.1 μg L^-1, based on the QS_dw,hh of 0.1 μg L^-1 for pesticides in drinking water. SCHEER suggests restricting this EQS to surface waters currently used for drinking water abstraction. For surface waters currently not used for producing drinking water, an EQS should be set in accordance with the values for AA-QS_fw,eco and AA-QS_sw,eco. These values should be estimated using the probabilistic approach based on an improved SSD analysis of the available data.

Keywords:

Glyphosate, Water Framework Directive, environmental quality standards

Opinion to be cited as:

SCHEER (Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks), Final Opinion on Draft Environmental Quality Standards for Priority Substances under the Water Framework Directive - glyphosate, 22 December 2022.