Derivation of Environmental Quality Standards for 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene

Abstract

To assess the risks posed by legacy munition contamination, preliminary quality standards for TNT (2,4,6-trinitrotoluene) were developed for the protected resources of pelagic communities in freshwater and seawater, for human health via seafood consumption, and for drinking water. The quality standard for the pelagic community (freshwater and seawater) is the "critical quality standard" for deriving the proposed environmental quality standard (EQS).To protect aquatic communities in freshwater and saltwater, an annual average environmental quality standard (AA-EQS) of 0.15 µg/L and a maximum acceptable concentration (MAC-EQS) of 1.8 µg/L are proposed for TNT.