Expert panel affirms California’s CEC management strategy is working

An advisory panel of international scientific experts that has been working to review California’s management strategy for monitoring CECs (contaminants of emerging concern) in aquatic environments has concluded that California has successfully implemented the strategy as conceptualized and that these investments have been effective.

The seven-member CEC Ecosystems Panel, which completed its review in April, found that the risk-based management framework that California has been using for deciding which CECs to prioritize and monitor is fundamentally sound. The framework uses multiple tools – including bioanalytical cell assays and non-targeted chemical analysis – to expeditiously zero in on the CECs that pose the greatest health risks to aquatic life.

The CEC Ecosystems Panel was originally convened in 2009 to conceptualize a proposed CEC monitoring strategy for California; this strategy was published in 2012. Since that time, California has largely implemented the original panel’s recommendations, including generating extensive CEC monitoring data.

The reconvened panel reviewed the monitoring data and developed a prescriptive workflow that the State Water Resources Control Board can use to analyze and complete quality-control steps for the data – and ultimately use the data to produce updated lists of CECs that should be monitoring priorities for California.

The panel’s findings are expected to be published in May to the State Water Board’s CEC Program website.