National Water Quality Monitoring Council

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National Water Quality Monitoring
Council
Methods and Data Comparability Board Advisory
Committee on Water Information Herb
Brass September 15, 2004
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Methods and Data Comparability Board
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Topics to be Discussed

• Water Quality Data Elements (LeAnne Astin, Chuck
  Spooner). Major item for this session
• Update on Methods Board focusing on NEMI
• Request to publish PBS COD pilot study as
  National Monitoring Council report

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Getting to comparability

• The 4 elements are the steps or building blocks
  moving us toward the goal of comparability.
• Each of the Boards workgroups is focused on one
  or more of these elements or steps
• Effective and innovative outreach is an
  overarching need for each workgroup

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Water Quality Data Elements

• Presentation by LeAnne Astin and Chuck Spooner

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Major Methods Board Products and Activities

• National Environmental Methods Index (NEMI)
• Water Quality Data Elements and pilot projects
• Recommended the accreditation of Federal
  Laboratories recommended accrediting authority
  is NELAP coordination with NELAC and INELA
• PBS position paper published as Council report
  PBS pilots for chemistry and biology

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Major Methods Board Products and Activities

• Coordination with Wadeable Streams Assessment
  (new activity)
• New technology methods for NEMI and NEMI-CBR
• White paper on selecting nutrient methods using
  a DQO approach and relating to EPAs nutrient
  criteria
• Newsletters, website, seminars, workshops,
  speakers bureau
• 2-yr strategic plans for each Workgroup

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ACWI Endorsement of NEMI

• The Advisory Committee on Water Information
  (ACWI) endorses the continued development and
  timely delivery of NEMI as a vital tool to
  enhance the generation of comparable data of
  known quality, across all entities that conduct
  water quality monitoring. Use of NEMI will
  assist in the design of water quality monitoring
  programs, so that data quality objectives and
  measurement quality objectives are more readily
  achieved.Endorsement on May 16, 2001

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NEMI accomplishments

• Over 96,000 visits since public release in
  October 2002 www.nemi.gov
• Continue to publicize availability
• 680 Methods Currently in NEMI
• EPA methods
• USGS methods
• NOAA methods
• DOE radiochemical methods
• ASTM methods
• Standard Methods methods
• AOAC methods
• private sector methods

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Where is NEMI going?

• Continued maintenance and upgrades
• Use of on-line forms to add methods EPA, USGS,
  Standard Methods, ASTM, Environment Canada,
  others
• Focus on new and improved methods
• Developing an approach to add field sampling
  methods
• Considering an approach to add methods for media
  in addition to water EPA (FEM)

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NEMI CBR and Associated Expert System

• Creating a central system for locating,
  evaluating, and retrieving analytical methods for
  chemical, biological, and radiochemical agents
  in one federally managed location. NEMI-CBR
  alpha version reviewed
• Expert system (Methods Advisor) will help users
  prioritize considerations and serve as a training
  tool. Beta version under review

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Water Protection Objectives

• Methods that provide highly selective
  identification (low false positives and
  negatives) of target analytes as rapidly as
  possible
• Accuracy and precision of methods less
  important than confident identification of
  presence or absence
• Ability to confirm presence of target analytes

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Chemical Oxygen Demand Pilot
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COD Pilot Study

• ACWI provided comments previously on the Methods
  Boards recommendations to promote a PBS system
• Implementation issues to be addressed prior to
  adopting recommendations
• Pilot studies suggested by ACWI

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COD Pilot Study

• Two approaches studied
• Reference method approach compare results of a
  new method to those of the approved (reference)
  method
• Measurement Quality Objective (MQO) approach
  compare method performance to stated MQOs
• Initial demonstration that lab is capable of
  using methods

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What Was Examined in This Pilot?

• Two methods for chemical oxygen demand (COD)
  studied
• Approved reference method (Hach 8000)
• New Hach method (10125) -- doesnt use or
  generate hazardous chemicals
• Analyses of methods using representative
  wastewater samples
• Eight labs participated, plus many more expert
  reviewers, data analysts, and data auditors

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What Did the Pilot Show?

• Analysis of 12 matrix spikes, along with
  associated unspiked samples, allowed a
  statistical assessment of whether a laboratory
  could use the alternative COD method using a PBS
  approach.
• Analysis of actual samples (matrices) are
  critical to success of a PBS (note also for
  prescriptive methods)
• Different results were obtained depending on the
  type of PBS used (reference methods or MQO)

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What Did the Pilot Show?

• Lab performance of the approved (reference)
  method should be documented in any PBS
• Labs did not always obtain satisfactory results
  using the approved or new method -- a profound
  observation that speaks to laboratory performance
  whether a prescriptive or PBS methods approach is
  used

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COD Pilot Study

• Request that ACWI approve publishing the results
  of the COD Pilot Study as a National Water
  Quality Monitoring Council report

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