New methods for determining petroleum hydrocarbon(PHC)-induced soil toxicity with the goal of developing appropriate, site-specific soil guidelines

石油碳氢化合物（PHCs）是加拿大最广泛的土壤污染物之一，由石油，煤炭和沥青等地质来源中发现或衍生的各种有机化合物组成。 PHCs可引起与其毒性、流动性和持久性有关的各种问题。 由于加拿大有大量的受PHC污染的场地，因此对受影响土壤的补救是一项持续的活动。 最常见的是，土壤修复一般联邦和/或省的指导方针，主要是使用来自温带的测试物种。 由于温带试验物种的反应可能与其他环境中发现的物种非常不同，因此可以为加拿大其他地区的PHC污染土壤制定特定的指导方针。 本研究建议的一个方面是获得网站特定的PHC准则，在西北地区使用植物和无脊椎动物物种原产于该地区的网站。 使用以前从未以这种方式使用过的适当植物和无脊椎动物物种进行标准化（加拿大环境部批准的）生态毒理学测试是重要的，但人们认识到，对PHC混合物进行常规毒性测试存在固有的局限性。 从实际的角度来看，传统的测试过程是耗时的，需要收集和培养活物种，并将大量的土壤运到专门的实验室。 我们建议通过同时开发用于土壤毒性测试的非标准方法来解决其中的一些限制，这些方法是高通量的，并且具有较低的资源负担（即较低的成本，较少的材料运输，节省时间等）。非标准方法正处于测试、验证和监管接受/采用的各个阶段，但我们建议，它们最终将改变测量和监管环境介质中PHCs和其他污染物毒性的方式。 该项目的成果将在环境补救和政策领域具有重要价值。 此外，该项目有可能在加拿大主要工业部门应用毒性测试方法方面开创先例。

Petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs) are one of the most widespread soil contaminants in Canada and consist of a wide range of organic compounds found in, or derived from, geological sources such as oil, coal and bitumen. PHCs can cause a wide variety of problems related to their toxicity, mobility and persistence. Due to the abundance of PHC-contaminated sites, remediation of affected soils is an ongoing activity in Canada. Most commonly, soils are remediated to generic federal and/or provincial guidelines that have largely been derived using test species from the temperate zone. As temperate test species may react very differently than those found in other environments, it is permissible to derive site-specific guidelines for PHC-contaminated soils in other areas of Canada. One aspect of this research proposal is to derive site-specific PHC guidelines for a site in the Northwest Territories using plant and invertebrate species native to the area. Standardized (Environment Canada approved) eco-toxicological testing, using appropriate plant and invertebrate species that have not been used in this manner before is important, but it is recognized that there are inherent limitations to conventional toxicity testing for PHC mixtures. From a practical standpoint, the process of conventional testing is time consuming, requires the collection and culturing of living species, and the shipment of large quantities of soil to specialized laboratories. We propose to address some of these limitations, by concurrently developing non-standard approaches for soil toxicity testing that are high-throughput, and have a lower resource burden (i.e. lower cost, less transport of material, time savings, etc.). The non-standard approaches are at various stages of testing, validation and regulatory acceptance/adoption, but we propose that they are ultimately poised to change the manner in which toxicity of PHCs and other contaminants in environmental media are measured and regulated. The results of this project will be of significant value in the fields of environmental remediation and policy. Furthermore, this project has the potential to set a precedent in toxicity testing methodology applied across major industrial sections in Canada.********