Toxicant default guideline values for water quality in aquatic ecosystems

​​​​​Throughout the Water Quality Guidelines, we provide context and detailed guidance on how to use default guideline values (DGVs) correctly.

You can search for toxicant DGVs for the protection of aquatic ecosystems in freshwater and marine water.

Where possible, DGVs for toxicants have been derived using the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) approach, using methods described in the ANZECC & ARMCANZ (2000) guidelines for DGVs published in 2000 and Warne et al. (2018) for all DGVs published since 2000. Where the SSD approach could not be used, the less preferred ‘assessment-factor approach’ was used, following the method described in the ANZECC & ARMCANZ (2000) guidelines. Refer to Deriving guideline values for details.

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