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

Methods and Data Comparability Board

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

Getting to comparability –The 4 elements are the steps or building blocks moving us toward the goal of comparability. –Each of the Board’s workgroups is focused on one or more of these elements or steps –Effective and innovative outreach is an overarching need for each workgroup DQOs & MQOs Field Performance Lab Performance Data Reporting NEMI * PBS * Accreditation * WQDE * Biology * Nutrients*New Technologies

Water Quality Data Elements Presentation by LeAnne Astin and Chuck Spooner

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

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 EPA’s nutrient criteria Newsletters, website, seminars, workshops, speakers bureau 2-yr strategic plans for each Workgroup

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

NEMI accomplishments Over 96,000 visits since public release in October 2002 – 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

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)

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

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

Chemical Oxygen Demand Pilot

COD Pilot Study ACWI provided comments previously on the Methods Board’s recommendations to promote a PBS system Implementation issues to be addressed prior to adopting recommendations Pilot studies suggested by ACWI

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 MQO’s Initial demonstration that lab is capable of using methods

What Was Examined in This Pilot? Two methods for chemical oxygen demand (COD) studied: –Approved reference method (Hach 8000) –New Hach method (10125) -- doesn’t 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

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)

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

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