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Water Quality CIP Information Summary This document is one in a series that establishes ambient water quality guidelines for British Columbia. The guidelines represent safe conditions or levels of a variable, which have province-wide application and are set to protect various water uses. This report sets guidelines for chlorate to protect marine and freshwater algae and drinking water for humans, wildlife and livestock. Guidelines were not set for other uses due to the low sensitivity of other organisms to chlorate, presently known ambient and effluent levels, and lack of good data. The Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) has not set a guideline for chlorate. A major use of the guidelines is to set site-specific ambient water quality objectives. These objectives are the guidelines, adopted or modified to meet specific local conditions, applied to a particular body of water to protect the most sensitive designated water use. The guidelines and objectives do not have legal standing, but are used in the preparation of Waste Management Permits, Orders or Approvals, which do have legal standing. Microorganisms can adapt their metabolic processes to use virtually any source of carbon, including chlorate, for growth. There is evidence for anaerobic bacterial degradation of chlorate in nature. If the organisms have never been exposed to chlorate, there will be an initial adaptation period but once the adaptive phase is over and a large microbial population has been established, breakdown of chlorate is rapid. Subsequent additions of chlorate to the environment would be quickly degraded, if the concentrations were not excessive. The guidelines to protect wildlife, freshwater life, marine life, livestock and source human drinking water are summarized in Table 1.
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