US Water Quality Legislation of Concern to Trace Element Analysis Labs

The Clean Water Act (CWA), of 1972, gave the USEPA power to set and regulate permits for the discharge of polluting waste into bodies of water.  Under the CWA, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) is regulated by authorized States and overseen by EPA’s Office of Water (OW).  Water samples taken at point discharge sources (e.g. pipes, ditches, etc) must comply with the permitted contaminant values.

The approved methods for this are GF-AAS method 200.9 and ICP method 200.7. ICP is normally preferred since it is more efficient for multi-element analysis. The ICP-MS method 200.8 is not expressly permitted for these regulations. General approval for this has been pending since 1995. Some States approve its use under the Alternate Test Procedure (ATP). General approval (with prep. method 200.2) was proposed in the Federal Register Notice (Vol 69, No 66), April 2004. This may signal further pressure on States to allow the use of 200.8 for this analysis.

See http://www.epa.gov/region5/water/cwa.htm for further information on the Clean Water Act and http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/index.cfm for further information on NPDES.

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s iCAP 6000 Series ICP is ideal for this analysis. See our method 200.7 application note for further details. Alternatively, our XSeriesII ICP-MS is ideal if your local certification officer allows its use under the Alternate Test Protocol (ATP), especially if lower detection limits in the sub-ppb range are desirable. See our method 200.8 application note for further details and note that we offer a Productivity Pack to get you running samples faster.