Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2013C00288:reg:9:p1
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2013C00288
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 9 (pt 1/3)
Character Range: 1707651–1711168

9                   Nickel

9.1              Nickel compounds considered
The following salts were considered in deriving SQGs for nickel (Ni):
    * nickel metal (CAS No. 7440-02-0)
    * nickel sulphate (CAS No. 7786-81-4)
    * nickel carbonate (CAS No. 3333-67-3)
    * nickel chloride (CAS No. 7718-54-9)
    * nickel dinitrate (CAS No. 13138-45-9).

9.2              Exposure pathway assessment
For the leaching to groundwater pathway, adsorption (Kd) is the critical parameter. If the logarithm of the Kd (log Kd) of an inorganic contaminant is less than 3 then it is considered to have the potential to leach to groundwater (Schedule B5b). The log Kd reported by Commentuijn et al. (2000) for Ni was 2.08 L/kg, therefore there is some potential for Ni to leach to groundwater. If this exposure pathway was considered important for a given site, the methodology for SQG derivation advocates that this be addressed on a site-specific basis as appropriate (Schedule B5b).

The literature assessing the potential for Ni to biomagnify is limited, particularly for terrestrial ecosystems. However, all the available literature suggests that Ni does not biomagnify (Outridge & Schuehammer 1993; Torres & Johnson 2001; Campbell et al. 2005; Muir et al. 2005; Lapointe & Couture 2006). The EU ecological risk assessment for Ni also concluded that Ni did not biomagnify (EC 2008b). Therefore only direct toxic effects were considered in deriving the SQGs for Ni.

9.3              Toxicity data
The raw toxicity data available for Ni is presented in Appendix H. There was a total of 338 toxicity measures for Ni. There was toxicity data for 11 plants species, 6 species of invertebrates and 26 microbial processes. The lowest geometric means of the toxicity data for each species and soil process are presented in Tables 70 and 71 respectively. This data exceeded the minimum data requirements to use the BurrliOZ software (Campbell et al. 2000) that is recommended in Schedule B5b. Therefore the SSD approach was used to derive the SQGs for Ni.
Table 70. The lowest geometric mean values of the normalised nickel (Ni) toxicity data for soil invertebrate and plant species.
Test species        Geometric means (mg/kg)
Common name         Scientific name           NOEC or EC10  LOEC or EC30  EC50
Invertebrates
Earthworm           E. fetida                 162           245           474
Earthworm           Eisenia veneta            103           365           409
Earthworm           L. rubellus               407           523           575
Potworm             Enchytraeus albidus       134           239           205
Springtail          F. fimetaria              210           315           631
Springtail          F. candida                235           359           680
Plants
Alfalfa             Medicago sativa           36.4          80.8          87.1
Barley              H. vulgare                166.7         250           409
Fenugreek           Trigonella poenumgraceum  68.6          109           144
Lettuce             L. sativa                 52.6          125           154
Maize               Z. mays                   49.4          94.8          127
Oats                A. sativa                 55.3          83.9          122
Onion               Allium cepa               37.6          59.7          84.5
Perennial ryegrass  L. perenne                40.9          50.2          57.1
Radish              R. sativus                57.5          65.5          66.8
Spinach             Spinacia