Public Water Systems (PWS), regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), provide drinking water to 90% of Americans. Water systems and laboratories testing drinking water for Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) compliance must be certified and must use USEPA approved methods, which are developed by the USEPA, other government agencies, universities, consensus method organizations, water laboratories, and instrument manufacturers.. Ensuring a safe water supply requires skilled technicians with an understanding of current and evolving regulations, as well as the latest instrumentation needed to ensure testing standards are being met. This paper provides an introduction to drinking water sampling, contaminants tested, sample preservation, and instruments used to measure contaminants in drinking water.
Environmental Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) methods, such as EPA 200.7 or SW846 Method 6010, expect that samples will be fairly dilute without an overabundance of dissolved constituents (less than 2000 ppm Total Dissolved Solids). Laboratories running mine-impacted waters, such as acid rock drainage from exposed copper tailings, or mineral digests of a “waste” sample (that is actually ore) may run Method 200.7 or 6010 as written. They do this to remain in compliance, but in doing so may get incorrect...
The recovery of natural gas and oil from untraditional wells is necessary for the economic stability of the United States. Shale gas deposits are deep below the earth’s surface and recovery of gas is expensive and requires millions of gallons of water mixed with chemicals, known as "fracking solution". Most fracking solution stays underground or returns to the surface mixed with formation water, also known as production water. This article review the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, industry in the U.S.,...
As contaminants of emerging concern, research on PFCs is ongoing to determine the impacts of these materials on human health and the environment. A CDC study detected four of these analytes in >98% of serum samples representative of the general US population above age twelve. Low level analysis of these compounds is challenging due to their ubiquitous presence in the laboratory and analytical instrumentation components. This presentation shows that, though nearly ubiquitous, perfluorinated compounds can be...
Environmental contamination has been at the forefront of government policy and regulation since the US EPA was established in 1970. Over the years the US EPA has developed, published, and updated multiple methods for analysis of environmental pollutants, and single-quadrupole gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) has long been the technique of choice for determination of volatile organic contaminants (VOCs). As efforts to provide dependable analytical methods have progressed, the GC/MS instrumentation has...
Environmental laboratories practice “applied analytical chemistry” by analyzing samples using a list of potential contaminants to determine how much, if any, of the contaminant is present. These contaminants, the methods used to analyze for them, and the maximum amount of contaminant allowed in the sample are defined by regulation. This paper provides an overview of these regulations, including the Safe Water Drinking Act, Clean Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the applicabilit...
The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) specifies that total organic carbon (TOC) content be used for management of organic impurity values permitted in bulk purified water, water for injection, in addition to sterile purified water and sterile water for injection. According to USP, TOC analyzers to be used for sterile water must satisfy the TOC system suitability test using test water having a carbon content of 8.0 mg/L, and must also be able to detect TOC at 0.1 mg/L or less. This application introduces an actual...
Commercial environmental laboratories practice “applied analytical chemistry” by analyzing samples using a list of potential contaminants to determine how much, if any, of the pollutants are there. The data collected may be used by the laboratory’s client to, among other reasons, satisfy a regulatory permit, or for routine monitoring as required by a regulatory agency, such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). Despite a variety of end uses, most laboratories follow the...
Nitrogen and Phosphorus are the principal elements referred to when discussing nutrient pollution. Current, and past, efforts to control these pollutants have been generally inadequate. Efforts to date have been predominantly “regulation at the pipe” and have not addressed the non-point sources that are the root cause of elevated concentrations of nutrients in ground and surface waters. This paper details why Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen, or TKN, analysis is often an insufficient method, and explains why...
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) refer to a group of easily vapourised organic compounds. Under atmospheric pressure, these compounds boil below 250C. Studies have shown that prolonged exposure to the VOCs could increase the risk of various health problems, such as cancer. VOCs are commonly present in gasoline, dry cleaning solvents and degreasing agents. Due to improper storage, disposal or spillage of chemicals, these hazardous chemicals could contaminate the drinking water. In order to protect human health...
Method 415.3 states that the measurement of Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and DOC must use a TOC instrument that oxidizes organic carbon in the water to create carbon dioxide gas, which is then measurable. The instruments are required to use one of two basic oxidation methods – either through combustion with an oxidizing gas, or through chemical oxidation with persulfate promoted by either UV or heat catalyzing – coupled with a non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) detector or a conductivity detector. The...
Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium belong to the essential mineral substances in the human organism. These elements take influence in the generation of enzymes and hormones, control the osmotic pressure in tissues and body fluids and are important for the exchange procedures in the cell membranes.
In this application, the control of Na, K, Ca and Mg in a variety of mineral waters has been performed according to the actual DIN/ EN regulations, with the Shimadzu atomic absorption spectrophotometer AA- 7000...
Adverse human activities can increase the level of nutrients present in the environment and, consequently, disrupt the aquatic ecosystem and lead to eutrophication. Nutrients are naturally present in the environment, and are important for maintaining a balanced aquatic ecosystem. An increase in the level of nutrients is a serious issue, as more nutrients can increase the algal bloom, which block the sunlight, cloud the water, and kill underwater grass1. In addition, as the algae die and decompose, oxygen is used,...
The goal of this discussion is to demonstrate that the Shimadzu TOC-VW can effectively oxidize the Humic Acid (HA) matrix at high accuracy and precision levels never before witnessed by the wet chemical TOC community. The Shimadzu TOC-VW Carbon analyzer is the only TOC on the market that uses three oxidation techniques of UV light, Heat, and persulfate in a single analyzer. Due to this advancement in Wet Chemical TOC technology, difficult to oxidize compounds such as HA can now be efficiently analyzed with high...
On October 10, 2003, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare posted the “Enactment of the
Ministerial Ordinance regarding Water Quality Standards and Amendments to the Enforcement Rules for the Water Works Law” (Health Water Notification No. 1010001). This publication indicates the inspection methods for the water quality control criteria items in Japan.
There are 101 pesticides listed in the water quality control criteria items. The additional methods 16, 17,
18 and 19 employ the LC-MS methods,...
Shimadzu - Model GC-8A - Single Detector Gas Chromatograph
Shimadzu - Model GCMS-QP2010 SE - Single Quadrupole Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer
Shimadzu - Model LCMS-8040 - Triple Quadrupole Liquid Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (LC-MS/MS)