Drinking water analytical methods

EPA Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water analytical methods for drinking water... 

Glyphosate is a common herbicide that is often monitored in drinking water. Analytical testing is performed by U.S. EPA method 547 using a post-column reaction HPLC system similar to that in carbamate testing (Figure 7.12). 

With the aim of complying with the parametric value for lead of 10 pg/1, it is important to have satisfactory analytical methods for the detection of lead in drinking water. These methods need to be reviewed on the basis of requirements for the trueness and precision in measming lead concentrations. Laboratories are allowed to use their... 

Suppose you are asked to develop a way to determine the concentration of lead in drinking water. How would you approach this problem To answer this question it helps to distinguish among four levels of analytical methodology techniques, methods, procedures, and protocols. ... 

Although simple analytical tests often provide the needed information regarding a water sample, such as the formation and presence of chloroform and other organohaUdes in drinking water, require some very speciali2ed methods of analysis. The separation of trace metals into total and uncomplexed species also requires special sample handling and analysis (12). 

The differentiation of analytical signal in the photometry enables one to use non-specific reagents for the sensitive, selective and express determination of metals in the form of their intensively coloured complexes. The typical representative of such reagents is 4-(2-pyridylazo)-resorcinol (PAR). We have developed the methodics for the determination of some metals in the drinking water which employ the PAR as the photometric reagent and the differentiation of optical density of the mixture of coloured complexes by means of combined multiwave photometry and the specific destmction of the complexes caused by the change of the reaction medium. 

There is a discrepancy between the cyanide criteria for both aquatic and drinking water standards and the current analytical technology. The criteria are stated for free cyanide (which Includes hydrocyanic acid and the cyanide ion), but the EPA approved analytical methodology for total cyanide measures the free and combined forms (11). This test probably overestimates the potential toxicity. An alternative method (cyanides amenable to chlorination) measures those cyanide complexes which are readily dissociated, but does not measure the iron cyanide complexes which dissociate in sunlight. This method probably tends to underestimate the potential toxicity. Other methods have been proposed, but similar problems exist (12). The Department of Ecology used the EPA-approved APHA procedure which includes a distillation step for the quantification of total cyanide (13,14). A modification of the procedure which omits the distillation step was used for estimation of free cyanide. Later in the study, the Company used a microdiffusion method for free cyanide (15). 

From the analytical point of view there is no essential difference between drinking water and groundwater. Therefore, it is sufficient if the enforcement method is validated only for either drinking water or groundwater. The LOQ for drinking water/ groundwater must be <0.1 qgL (EU drinking water limit). 

Water for injection (WFI) is the most widely used solvent for parenteral preparations. The USP requirements for WFI and purified water have been recently updated to replace the traditional wet and colorimetric analytical methods with the more modern and cost-effective methods of conductivity and total organic carbon. Water for injection must be prepared and stored in a manner to ensure purity and freedom from pyrogens. The most common means of obtaining WFI is by the distillation of deionized water. This is the only method of preparation permitted by the European Pharmacopoeia (EP). In contrast, the USP and the Japanese Pharmacopeias also permit reverse osmosis to be used. The USP has also recently broadened its definition of source water to include not only the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Primary Drinking Water Standards, but also comparable regulations of the European Union or Japan. 

Snow, especially its water-soluble fraction, is one of the most sensitive and informative indicators of mass-transfer in the chain air - soil - drinking water. Therefore analytical data on snow-melt samples were selected for inter-laboratory quality control. Inter-laboratory verification of analytical results estimated in all the groups have shown that relative standard errors for the concentrations of all the determined elements do not exceed (5-15)% in the concentration range 0.01 - 10000 microg/1, which is consistent with the metrological characteristics of the methods employed. All analytical data collected by different groups of analysts were tested for reliability and... 

The ability to provide accurate and reliable data is central to the role of analytical chemists, not only in areas like the development and manufacture of drugs, food control or drinking water analysis, but also in the field of environmental chemistry, where there is an increasing need for certified laboratories (ISO 9000 standards). The quality of analytical data is a key factor in successfully identifying and monitoring contamination of environmental compartments. In this context, a large collection of methods applied to the routine analysis of prime environmental pollutants has been developed and validated, and adapted in nationally or internationally harmonised protocols (DIN, EPA). Information on method performance generally provides data on specificity, accuracy, precision (repeatability and reproducibility), limit of detection, sensitivity, applicability and practicability, as appropriate. 

Xie Y, Reckhow DA. 1993. A rapid and simple analytical method for cyanogen chloride and cyanogen bromide in drinking water. Water Res 27(3) 507-511. 

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