EXPRESS NEWSVolume 5, Number 1 February, 2007

E N V I R O N M E N TA L E X P R E S Swww.environmentalexpress.com n call 1.800.343.5319

Come See Us on the Road—Visit us at Pittcon,

Booth 3676, February 26 -March 2.

Our sales staff will be traveling to severalshows and events in the next fewmonths. If you’re planning to attend any

of the following events, stop by to see ourproducts and say hello. Planned events arelisted on our web site at:www.envexp.com/news/upcoming_events.asp.

PITTCON (BOOTH# 3676)Chicago, ILFebruary 26th - March 1st 2007 Website - www.pittcon.org

Missouri Water Environment AnnualConference, Osage Beach, MO March 25th - March 28th 2007 Website - www.mwea.org

Gulf Coast Analytical SymposiumGalveston, TX May 1st - May 2nd 2007 Website - www.gulfanalyticalsummit.org

Florida Society of Environmental AnalystsSt. Petersburg Beach, FLMay 23 - May 25 2007Website - www.fsea.net

Please join us in welcoming Scott Bradyto Environmental Express, Inc., as aTechnical Sales Representative. Scottcomes to us with a Bachelor’s Degree inBiology from College of Charleston and 8 years experience as an ExecutiveTechnical Sales Representative with aninternational chemical company.

1 • EXPRESS NEWS

T he EPA has finalized extensive changesto the analysis and sampling proceduresin the wastewater and drinking water

regulations. These changes, included in aregulation known as the Methods UpdateRule (MUR), approve new methods andupdate versions of currently approvedmethods, revise method modification andanalytical requirements, withdraw certainoutdated methods and modify the samplecollection, preservation, and holding timerequirements. The rule was originallyproposed in 2004, and its effective date is 30days from the date of publication in theFederal Register, which is expected to besometime in February.

Highlights from the final rule aresummarized below:

New Chemical Test Methods

This rule approved 22 new procedures formonitoring chemical pollutants:- ASTM D6508, Dissolved Inorganic Anions

by Capillary Ion Electrophoresis.- QuikChem Method 10-204-00-1-X, Cyanide

using MICRO DIST and flow injection analysis.- Kelada-01, Automated Methods for Total

Cyanide, Acid Dissociable Cyanide, and Thiocyanate.

- Method CP-86.07, Chlorinated Phenolics by In situ Acetylation and GC/MS.

- EPA Method 245.7, Mercury by Cold VaporAtomic Fluorescence Spectrometry.

- Standard Methods 4500-Cl, Chlorine byLow Level Amperometry.

- ASTM D6888-04, Available Cyanide byLigand Exchange-FIA.

- ASTM D 6919-03, Cations and Ammoniumby Ion Chromatography.

- Standard Method 4500-Cl-D, Chloride by

Potentiometry.- ASTM D512-89, Chloride by Ion Selective

Electrode.- Standard Method 4500-CN-F, Cyanide by

Ion Selective Electrode.- ASTM D2036-98 A, Cyanide by Ion

Selective Electrode.- Standard Method 4500-S2-G, Sulfide by

Ion Selective Electrode.- ASTM D4658-92, Sulfide by Ion Selective

Electrode.- Standard Method 4500-NO3-D, Nitrate by

Ion Selective Electrode.- Method D99-003, Free Chlorine by Color

Comparison Test Strip.- Method OIA-1677, DW Available Cyanide

by Ligand Exchange_FIA.- Radium-226 and 28 by Gamma Spectrometry.- EPA Method 327.0, Chlorine Dioxide by

Colorimetry. - EPA Method 300.1 for Anions.- EPA Method 552.3 for Dalapon. - Determination of Radium-226 and Radium-

228 in Drinking Water by Gamma-raySpectrometry Using HPGE or Ge(Li)Detectors.

Note that some of these methods wereapproved for wastewater only, some fordrinking water only, and some for bothwastewater and drinking water.

Updated Chemical Test Methods

The rule also approves methods that werefirst proposed in 1995, including:

- Method 200.2, Total Recoverable ElementsDigestion.

- Method 200.8, Metals by InductivelyCoupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry.

continued on page 3

EPA Finalizes Methods Update RuleBy Jerry Parr, Catalyst Information Resources

2 • ENVIRONMENTAL EXPRESS

Water For PeopleResponding to the World Water Crisis with Sustainable Solutions

By John Kayser

A s the North American water community debates parts-per-billionof one contaminant or another, the developing world is dealingwith billions on another level—the staggering number of people

without access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. According to UNICEF, more than 1.1 billion people worldwide don’t

have access to safe drinking water. Another 2.6 billion lack adequatesanitation. The result is devastating. Every day, 5,000 people on ourplanet die from waterborne illnesses, nearly 2 million each year, andthe vast majority are children. Epidemics of cholera, dysentery, andhepatitis are common, diseases that can be traced directly to water orsanitation. Water is arguably the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time.

The crisis is hitting the most vulnerable populations, the world’spoor. Half the world—nearly 3billion people— live in abjectpoverty on less than $2 per day.Water-related diseases are killingthem at an alarming rate. Every15 seconds, a child under the ageof five dies from a preventablewater-related illness.

It is with deep conviction andhope that Water For People isworking to ensure that thesepeople are not forgotten and thattheir basic water and sanitationneeds are met. Water For People’svision is a world where all peoplehave access to safe drinkingwater and adequate sanitation; a world where no one suffers or diesfrom a water- or sanitation-related disease.

Founded in 1991, Water For People is a nonprofit internationaldevelopment organization that supports safe drinking water andsanitation projects in developing countries. The organization wasfounded by the American Water Works Association and is supportedby the North American water and wastewater communities.

To complete its mission, Water For People partners with localcommunities, municipal government, other nongovernmentalorganizations, and the private sector to help people improve theirquality of life by supporting sustainable drinking water, sanitation, andhealth and hygiene projects. Water For People supports projects withprofessional advice, financial support, and technical services. WaterFor People employs simple technologies, such as protected gravity-fed springs, shallow wells, arsenic filtration, pit latrines, and healthand hygiene education. The organization has funded more than 700projects, providing more than 2 million people with safe drinkingwater and/or improved sanitation facilities.

Sustainability is key to Water For People’s success. What it builds,it builds to last. While it might be easy to enter a remote village andinstall a state-of-the-art water system and move on, the organizationhas learned that this model doesn’t work for the long-term. What if thesystem breaks down? Who will repair it?

Instead, Water For People’s work focuses on partnerships andcommunity involvement. The community must want the system andbe willing to invest in its development with labor and funds.

Community members decidewhich technologies are mostappropriate given their economicand technical realities. They decidehow the system will be managed,what tariffs are required to financethe scheme over time, and whatstrategies will be employed tomaintain and repair the system. Toachieve this, considerable trainingsupport is provided with eachproject in the areas of financialmanagement, maintenance, andoperation.

Water For People rarely fundsprojects in their entirety but worksto acquire funding from a varietyof stakeholders and partners.Projects are funded based on needin regions where the organization has an operational presence—currently Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, India, and Malawi. Water ForPeople has committed to expand into five additional countries overthe next five years and is taking a more strategic approach to its workby targeting multiple villages and communities within clearly definedgeographic areas to have greater regional impact.

Water For People is making a big difference in people’s lives in thecommunities in which it works. But there is much work to be done.The scope of the global water crisis is astounding and Water ForPeople must build its own capacity to make a meaningful differenceto these problems. You can help. There are lots of opportunities to getinvolved—from offering your financial support to volunteering tofundraising to helping to spread the word.

For more information about Water For People and its work to providesafe drinking water, adequate sanitation, and health and hygieneeducation in the developing world, contact Kayser at 303-734-3476/jkayser@waterforpeople.org. Visit the Water ForPeople website at www.waterforpeople.org.

Women carry the burden of providingwater for their families,preventingthem from more productive activities.

Water For People strives to provide waterresources that are close to home.

Health and hygiene education, including hand-washing, play an important rolein the solution.

Environmental Express nowoffers two types of circulatingwater baths for fecal coliformtesting.

The Environmental Express 28L H5001model is designed specifically for coliformtesting. The controller for this water bathincorporates three preset temperature buttonswhich can easily be adjusted to commoncoliform test temperatures from ambient ±5°Cto 150°C. Bath temperature is displayed on thebright LED readout. A quick press of a knobdisplays set point and selects temperatureunits (°C or °F). For operational convenience,this model is equipped with a tilting, see-through poly-carbonate cover which drainsback into the bath when opened. An integral 2-speed (simplex) pump can be used tocirculate the bath liquid to other instruments.

All wetted components are corrosion-resistant 300 stainless steel. The outer case isprotected with a durable, easy-to-clean epoxypowder coating.

The 34L H1085 fecal coliform incubationcirculating water bath meets APHA and EPAtest specifications, and is designed especiallyfor fecal coliform testing and other applicationswhere circulation provides extra temperaturecontrol. This accurate, easy-to-use unit ismicroprocessor controlled with easy-to-readdisplays. Features include double-wall stainlesssteel construction, easy-to-clean polymer-coated bath tanks and air-jacketed heating. Arecessed heating element prevents burnout.Stainless steel covers are sold separately forthese models. The use of covers is suggestedsince they allow maximum temperature range and help maintain better temperatureuniformity.For completeinformation onour coliformsupplies, waterbaths, incubatorsand ovens, callus or visit ourweb site,www.envexp.com

3 • EXPRESS NEWS

We hope you find the articles in Express News to be interesting and informative. Please email yourcomments, suggestions or ideas for articles to: paulab@envexp.com. We welcome your input.

EPA Finalizes Methods Update Rule,

continued from page 1

- Method 200.9, Metals by StabilizedTemperature Graphite Furnace AtomicAbsorption.

- Method 218.6, Hexavalent Chromium byIon Chromatography.

- Method 300.0, Inorganic Anions by Ion Chromatography.

- Method 353.2, Nitrate and Nitrite byColorimetry.

- Revisions to Methods 180.1, 200.7, 245.1, 335.3, 350.1, 351.2, 353.2, 365.1, 375.2, 410.4, and 420.4.

The ASTM and Standard Methodsversions of many of these methods werealso approved.

Updated Versions of Currently ApprovedMethods

This rule approved about 200 updatedmethods, including:- An errata sheet for the whole effluent

toxicity manuals. - 74 newer versions of ASTM methods. - 88 newer versions of Standard Methods

from the 18th, 19th and 20th editions, butnot the 21st.

- 19 methods published in the 16th editionof Official Methods of Analysis of AOACInternational, 1995.

Method Modifications, AnalyticalRequirements, and ReportingRequirements

The final rule includes a new section tointroduce greater flexibility in the use ofapproved methods. The section describesthe circumstances in which approvedmethods may be modified and therequirements that analysts must meet touse these modified methods in requiredmeasurements without prior EPA approval.The rule also includes language to clarifythat analysts need only meet methodperformance requirements for targetanalytes when using multi-analyte methodsfor compliance monitoring purposes.

The 2004 proposal included language toclarify that a QC failure does not grant reliefof timely reporting of results to a regulatedentity, and that results be reported to thelevel specified in the method or required inthe permit, whichever is lower. In the finalrule, the EPA has clarified this language to

allow greater flexibility.In addition, the rule approves the

replacement of the mercuric sulfate catalystwith copper sulfate in methods approved for the determination of total Kjeldahl nitrogen, and approves the use of styrenedivinylbenzene beads and Hach StablCal asalternatives to the formazin standard forturbidity. The rule also approves the use of capillary GC columns with Methods 601-613, 624, 625, and 1624B.

Sample Collection, Preservation, andHolding Time Requirements

The rule includes many detailed changesto Table II, including: - The general sample preservation temp-

erature has changed from 4°C to < 6.00°C. - For metals other than boron, hexavalent

chromium, and mercury, the EPA will allowsample preservation with nitric acid 24hours prior to analysis. In other words,acid preservation in the field for metals isnot required.

- Clarification that the start of a holding timefor a grab sample would start at the time ofsample collection. The holding time for acomposite sample would start at the time the last grab sample component iscollected.

Withdrawal of Methods

The rule deletes Methods 612 and 625 as approved procedures for 1,2-dichlorobenzene, 1,3-dichlorobenzene, and1,4-dichlorobenzene, and withdrawsapproval for all oil and grease methods thatuse Freon-113 as an extraction solvent. Inaddition, the rule withdraws 105 methodscontained in the EPA’s Methods for theChemical Analysis of Water and Wastes forwhich approved alternatives published byvoluntary consensus standards bodies (i.e.,ASTM and Standard Methods) are available.

You will find a complete list of deletedmethods on our web site,www.envexp.com, under What’s New atEnvironmental Express.

Because the 20th edition of StandardMethods is out of print, the StandardsMethods Board is considering a specialpublication of their methods which are“equivalent” to the EPA methods listed above.

To view a pre-publication copy of the final rule, go tohttp://www.epa.gov/waterscience/methods/update2003/mur-pre-pubfinal.pdf

Laboratory Profile

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Express Newsis a publication of Environmental Express, Inc., Copyright February 2007, all rights reserved.For more information about our products or services, visit our web site, www.envexp.com, or call 1.800.343.5319.

New Issue February 2007:nEPA Finalizes Methods Update RulenWater For PeoplenCirculating Water Baths from Environmental ExpressnThe Center for Water and Environmental Analysis,

University of South Florida

ENVIRONMENTALEXPRESS

4 • ENVIRONMENTAL EXPRESS

February2007

Issue!T he Center for Water and Environmental Analysis is part of the

Department of Geology, University of South Florida, located inTampa, Florida. The Center for Water and Environmental Analysis

specializes in the determination of major, minor and trace elements inenvironmental samples, such as water, rocks, soil, and sludge,providing these analyses to the public, research institutions,government agencies and universities. Laboratory instrumentation iscomprised of the Dionex ICS 2000, a Perkin-Elmer Optima 2000 DVInductively Coupled Plasma - Optical Emission Spectrometer and twoPSA Excalibur Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometers.

The laboratory has earned an international reputation for thedetermination of arsenic. The resulting increase in sample volume ofsolid samples for arsenic called for a more efficient digestionprocedure, which led to the purchase of an Environmental ExpressHotBlockTM. The HotBlock allows the dissolution of as many as 54samples at once. This throughput capacity greatly facilitates researchprojects where the laboratory encounters a large volume of samples,but at the same time has to achieve a high level of analytical precision.

One such study was the Master’s Thesis of Ph.D. Candidate OlesyaLazareva. She used the Environmental Express HotBlock to dissolveup to 400 rock samples requiring a detailed determination ofoccurrence, abundance and association of arsenic for the HawthornGroup, Southwestern Florida. The results from her study are ofimportance for phosphate mining, as well as aquifer storage

and recovery (ASR) and provided valuablebaseline informationabout the distributionof naturally occurringarsenic in sedimentaryrocks.

To prepare samplesfor chemical analysesOlesya powdered themin an agate mortar andweighed approximately0.5 ± 0.001 g into adigestion vessel. This was followed by the addition of 10 mL “aquaregia”, a 3:1 mixture of hydrochloric (HCl) and nitric acid (HNO3). Thedigestion vessels were immediately capped with reflux caps to trapany arsine gas. The samples were heated in a HotBlock to atemperature of 95°C for 30 minutes. After digestion, the solutionswere cooled, diluted to 50 mL (5:1) with DI water, centrifuged, andfiltered using FilterMatesTM with a 0.45µm filter. The use of theHotBlock made it easier to maintain the consistency of the digestionprocedure in a safer, cleaner environment. To learn more about TheCenter for Water and Environmental Analysis and its work, please visithttp://shell.cas.usf.edu/~pichler/. n

The Center for Water and Environmental Analysis, University of South FloridaThe increase in sample

volume lead to the purchaseof the Environmental Express

HotBlock. The SC154HotBlock allows for the

dissolution of as many as 54

samples at once.