Ecological risk assessment of contaminated soil by the ERAGS and TRIAD approaches: applicability in the brazilian context

Abstract

The constant threats to ecosystem services posed by anthropogenic activities have been managed by contaminated-sites policies. Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) has been extensively used for the environmental management of contaminated sites, especially through the international approaches - ERAGS and TRIAD. In Brazil, CONAMA 420/2009 suggests the use of ERA, but only the state norms DD 38/2017 (CETESB) and IN 74/2018 (IMA-SC) present guidelines for its execution. The purpose of this review paper was to assess the applicability of these guidelines relative to the ERAGS and TRIAD approaches, as well as to evaluate the existing standard procedures for ecotoxicological and ecological testing required by ERAs of contaminated soils. Accordingly, a review of the international ERA guidelines was conducted to assess the applicability of these methodologies in the Brazilian context, and an assessment of 42 ecological risk assessments that followed ERAGS and TRIAD approaches was used to identify the frequently performed tests and compare them to the Brazilian standard testing panorama. Overall, the current limitations identified were (i) the considerably shallowness of state guidelines; (ii) lack of laboratory infrastructure to perform the tests, which underlines (iii) the need for a national standard guideline that can thoroughly describe the ERA procedures to enable its execution and thereby, effectively promote the protection of ecosystem services.