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Biological Evaluations support Endangered Species Act (ESA) consultation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service by federal action agencies, such as the USEPA, regarding impacts of federal activities on threatened or endangered species. However, they are often time‐consuming and challenging to conduct. The identification of pollutant benchmarks or guidance to protect taxa for states and tribes when USEPA has not yet developed criteria recommendations is also of importance to ensure a streamlined approach to Clean Water Act program implementation. Due to substantial workloads, tight regulatory timelines, and the often‐protracted length of ESA consultations, there is a need to streamline the development of biological evaluation toxicity assessments for determining the impact of chemical pollutants on ESA‐listed species. Moreover, there is limited availability of species‐specific toxicity data for many contaminants, further complicating the consultation process. New approach methodologies are being increasingly used in toxicology and chemical safety assessment to rapidly and cost‐effectively provide data that can fill gaps in hazard and/or exposure characterization. Here, we present the development of an automated computational pipeline—RASRTox (Rapidly Acquire, Score, and Rank Toxicological data)—to rapidly extract and categorize ecological toxicity benchmark values from curated data sources (ECOTOX, ToxCast) and well‐established quantitative structure–activity relationships (TEST, ECOSAR). As a proof of concept, points‐of‐departure (PODs) generated in RASRTox for 13 chemicals were compared against benchmark values derived using traditional methods—toxicity reference values (TRVs) and water quality criteria (WQC). The RASRTox PODs were generally within an order of magnitude of corresponding TRVs, though less concordant compared with WQC. The greatest utility of RASRTox, however, lies in its ability to quickly and systematically identify critical studies that may serve as a basis for screening value derivation by toxicologists as part of an ecological hazard assessment. As such, the strategy described in this case study can potentially be adapted for other risk assessment contexts and stakeholder needs. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:2203–2217. © 2024 Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA. KEY POINT: The development of an automated hazard assessment tool, RASRTox, represents a novel strategy integrating new approach methodologies to complement and support federal biological evaluations with broader potential use in other ecological risk assessment contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fish serve as indicators of exposure to contaminants of emerging concern (CECs)—chemicals such as pharmaceuticals, hormones, and personal care products—which are often designed to impact vertebrates. To investigate fish health and CECs in situ, we evaluated the health of wild fish exposed to CECs in waterbodies across northeastern Minnesota with varying anthropogenic pressures and CEC exposures: waterbodies with no human development along their shorelines, those with development, and those directly receiving treated wastewater effluent. Then, we compared three approaches to evaluate the health of fish exposed to CECs in their natural environment: a refined fish health assessment index, a histopathological index, and high‐throughput (ToxCast) in vitro assays. Lastly, we mapped adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) associated with identified ToxCast assays to determine potential impacts across levels of biological organization within the aquatic system. These approaches were applied to subsistence fish collected from the Grand Portage Indian Reservation and 1854 Ceded Territory in 2017 and 2019. Overall, 24 CECs were detected in fish tissues, with all but one of the sites having at least one detection. The combined implementation of these tools revealed that subsistence fish exposed to CECs had histological and macroscopic tissue and organ abnormalities, although a direct causal link could not be established. The health of fish in undeveloped sites was as poor, or sometimes poorer, than fish in developed and wastewater effluent‐impacted sites based on gross and histologic tissue lesions. Adverse outcome pathways revealed potential hazardous pathways of individual CECs to fish. A better understanding of how the health of wild fish harvested for consumption is affected by CECs may help prioritize risk management research efforts and can ultimately be used to guide fishery management and public health decisions. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:846–863. © 2023 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). Key Points: 1.Fish exposed to contaminants of emerging concern had histological and macroscopic tissue and organ abnormalities.2.Adverse outcome pathways revealed potential hazardous pathways of individual contaminants of emerging concern to fish.3.The health of fish in undeveloped sites was as poor, or sometimes poorer, than fish in developed and wastewater effluent‐impacted sites based on gross and histologic tissue lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]