인체의 위해성과 수생태계를 고려한 장래 수질환경기준 설정에 관한 연구

Abstract

본 연구의 목적은 국내 수질환경기준의 문제점을 분석하고 우리나라 실정에 적합한 수질환경기준 설정 체계의 구축, 수질준거치 설정, 인체건강과 수생태계 보호를 통합 고려하는 기준 설정 방안과 인체 위해성 등 항목을 확대하기 위한 우선 조사대상 항목을 제시하고, 이를 뒷받침하기 위한 법적 장치 방안을 제안하는 것이다.; ROK's environmental water quality standards have been established by referring to those of other countries and/or the drinking water standards. In this standard establishment process, the priority has been given on the items related to the standards of living environment rather than the protection of human health. It is only since 2006 that the living environmental standards that had been operated for long period of time were revised and the items for the protection of human health were added. Despite the fact, ROK's environment water quality standards are not as scientific as those of advanced countries and still not properly take into consideration effects on the aquatic ecosystem. In the recent revision process only 8 items related to human health protection were added and the number of items related to the human health protection are still low compared to 122 items of US and 33 items of EU. Furthermore, a systematic basis for an appropriate environment water quality standard establishment protocol has yet to be instituted, which limits the nation's capacity for the comprehensive water quality management. The purpose of the study is to analyze the current status of ROK's environmental water quality standards setting practices and to propose a legal system in which the followings are included : systematic approach for appropriate environment standards setting, reference standard setting, methods to setting standards considering human health and aquatic ecosystem, and items to be investigated to set the health-based standards. The research methods applied in this study are literature survey, interview with experts from relevant national institutes and academia. Based on these research technique, comparative analysis of the environment water quality standard setting system with the major environmentally advanced countries such as USA, Japan, and Australia was conducted. This enables to evaluate the current status and the situation of government activities related to the environment water quality standard setting and to devise policy alternatives. Research data and calculation methods used by IARC and EPA was applied. Technical and economic impact assessments on test methods, cost and etc. are also conducted. The following are the summary for the direction for standardizing the future environment water quality standard setting. First, as a means to systemize the procedure of setting the environment water quality standards, the following are proposed. Steps such as the researchers for basic & standard data collection, reference standard setting and opinion gathering should be required to be taken. Periodic evaluation and amendment of the standards every 5 years should be undertaken. Establishment of "Committee of evaluation and review for setting environment water quality standard" is also proposed. These proposals must be set forth in the provisions in the law such as the Basic Environmental Policy Act. Second, a proposal is made to introduce the concept of the reference water quality standard for the purpose of collecting objective background information and increased scientific basis for water quality setting. Also, a method is proposed which include technique to setting standards with the consideration of the protection of aquatic ecosystem and the human health according to the situation of ROK. Reference Data used for human health protection are those of US EPA's for carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effect but factors such as the cancer potency factor, weight, intake of drinking water, intake of fish are those of ROK. Excess cancer risk value is proposed to 10-6. For the reference standard for aquatic ecosystem protection, this study propose to adopt the PNEC method used by EU as the step I considering the situation that ROK toxicity data is insufficient. As the step 2, this study proposed to adopt the method used by Australia/New Zealand which differentiate the procedure and method according to data's reliability. In the long term, if sufficient toxicity data is available, the method such as CMC and CCC used by the US deems appropriate. Third, in an attempt take toxicity for both human health and aquatic into consideration for ROK this study proposed a integrated standard setting method by which the reference is set both for human health and aquatic ecosystem and the conservative value is selected from them. This method is applied for copper as an example since it is known to affect the aquatic ecosystem, Fourth, as an attempt to promptly increase the number of regulated substances for the protection of human health equivalent to those of the advanced countries, 250 substances were selected for the primary review and went through examination for other country's practices and research findings from relevant national institutes. By considering carcinogenicity, persistency test method and the cost, among the 250 substance, 36 were chosen as the highest priority substance. For them, priority substances are selected for which the research will be conducted in step I and step II during the 10-year Water Environmental management plan till 2015. Among 250 chemicals, as the step I, 64 substances which have carcinogenicity and persistency are selected to be tested for 4 years. Among them it is proposed that human heath protection standards will be increased for 36 substances which are selected by both step I and step II, Fifth, an attempt to find a way to strengthen the relevancy among the environment water quality standard, the drinking water standard and the permissible discharge standard like that of advanced countries. In case of Japan, the environment water quality standards are generally determined to be 10 times of dilution concentration of the permissible discharge standard. In the state of New Jersey, US is applying 1.5-2 times of the dilution concentration of the permissible discharge standard. Likewise, it is recommended that ROK shall also have similar approaches by making a rule for this relevancy and conducting the evaluation for the relevant hazardous water pollutants . Sixth, the aforementioned proposals can be realized in the legal system as follows. 7 items is proposed to be included in the Basis Environmental Policy Act and other Acts. and items are proposed to be reflected in the Act on preservation of water quality and water ecosystem. By systemizing the method and procedure to set environment standards for water quality and providing the legal basis for systemic consideration for human health and aquatic ecosystem, not only will an efficiently enhanced management of water be accomplished, but also provide the opportunity to bring a breakthrough for the enhancement of an environment policy in the area of water quality that appropriately reflects the environmental condition of ROK.