th
8:30-9:15
8:15-8:30 Welcome & Introduction
(Greg Hudson, VA AWWA/VWEA LPC Chair)
Laboratory Certification and Continuous Quality Improvement
(Cathy Westerman, VA DCLS)
DCLS will present information that looks at the objectives of laboratory certification, with the perspective of long-term benefits to laboratories, laboratory customers, and the data users.
Information from VELAP’s “first round” of assessments will be presented along with the program’s
9:15-9:45 current focus. DCLS will share some lessons learned in the laboratory community in the first in the first 18 months of the program’s establishment and program goals moving forward
TNI Proficiency Testing Changes – Working Draft Standards
(Shawn Kassner, Phenova)
The Laboratory Proficiency Testing Committee (LPTC) is the committee within TNI that writes all of the requirements for proficiency testing in the TNI standards. The LPTC has been working on the next revisions of the TNI Standards. The LPTC has made many modifications to the all of the sections of the TNI standards in an effort to alleviate problems that developed with the implementation of the 2009 TNI standards.
This presentation will review the TNI 2009 standards and the issues that were raised with its implementation. Then we will examine the TNI working draft standards, the changes that were made, and how these changes will impact laboratories seeking TNI accreditation once the standards are voted on and approved.
9:45-10:15 BREAK
10:15-11:30 Forward Through The Ages, In Unbroken Line: Going Above And Beyond Regulatory
Requirements (Dr. Andrew Eaton, Eurofins Eaton Analytical)
Traceability is one important key element of laboratory analysis. It is axiomatic that “if it is not documented, it wasn’t done”. This presentation will talk about the kinds of documentation and traceability steps you can (and should) implement in your lab to assure that your laboratory can defend data that has been questioned. Furthermore, traceability is a useful tool to figure out any problems when something does go wrong in order to initiate a corrective action plan. We will review our own experience as a NELAP accredited laboratory as we have enhanced our own programs over the years. While NELAP and the Laboratory Certification Manual for Drinking
Water both provide a basic framework for good lab practices, there are a myriad of steps one can take that are not covered in those documents that help to ensure good data and solid traceability.
11:30-12:00 Green/Sustainable Investment for Water Utilities
(Walter Higgins, US EPA)
Green projects, like energy use reduction and water conservation, are ideal investments for our

water utilities. Operators play a significant role in developing green ideas. They also assist in the implementation and monitoring of these projects. Operators are on the front lines of these projects and are key to the success of green projects.
Topics to cover:

Highlight the EPA Region 3’s Environmental Science Center, which houses the Office of
Analytical Services and Quality Assurance, which has implemented numerous green projects.

Note some Energy Efficient and Reuse WW and DW projects that the VA DEQ & EPA have
funded recently.
Highlight EPA’s WaterSense program. Water Conservation promotion to public and businesses
1:00-1:30 40 CFR Part 136 Method Update Rule QA/QC Additions
(Stacie Metzler, HRSD)
The updates to Guidelines Establishing Test Procedures for the Analysis of Pollutants Under the
Clean Water Act; Analysis and Sampling Procedures (40 CFR Part 136) or the Method Update Rule
1:30-2:00
2:00-2:30
2:30-3:00
(MUR) were effective June 18, 2012. This presentation will focus on the 12 QA/QC elements added to the MUR and will summarize additional information provided by EPA addressing the intent of this addition. This information is of value to wastewater treatment operators because analysis performed by wastewater operators must meet these new regulatory items.
Five Keys Considerations in Selecting a LIMS
(Christine Pasko, ATL)
The attendees of this presentation will learn about key considerations in the selection of a LIMS, but also why laboratories need a validated secure system to organize, track and manage their data and information. Considerations will include a discussion and a review of technology, the firm’s history, and total costs of ownership, usability, features, and security.
The presentation will also cover the benefits of automation and how it can not only lead to a reduction in transcription errors, increased efficiency but also the ability to complete more work with fewer resources. Attendees will also learn how a formal Laboratory Information
Management System can promote processes, standardization and facilitate regulatory compliance goals (such as NELAC, A2LA, and ISO 17025).
BREAK
A Systematic Approach to Methods Development and Validation
(William Telliard, US EPA)
In the early 1930s and 1940s, a number of industrial and trade association recognized the need for the development of standardization--across the many diverse industries and government regulatory agencies. This effort resulted in a number of performance standards to cover various industrial and professional organizations. Today, there are approximately 6,500 voluntary, consensus standards printed in the US Federal Register. Three thousand of those standards were authored by the American Society of Testing Materials International. This presentation will cover the procedures and operations utilized by this consensus-standard organization in its development of methods for the support of governmental regulatory needs and industrial operation. This includes technology selection, voting procedures and balloting, and the resolution

of negative votes. Transparency, openness, impartiality and relevance are the basis for ASTM standards.
3:00-3:30 Using an ELN for Corrective Action, Preventive Maintenance, and Troubleshooting
(Cecilia Vernaci, UOSA)
The Upper Occoquan Service Authority’s laboratory serves a 56 MGD water reclamation plant located in Centreville, VA. The laboratory, consisting of 14 staff members, conducts numerous daily tests and must maintain accurate records on all analytical instruments. Recent practice has been to document all preventive and corrective maintenance in hardbound logbooks. However, it is difficult if not impossible to sort or search a hard bound logbook to spot trends or track down similar historical problems thus making existing data of limited use. In many cases, the writing is illegible or incomplete.
In 2011, staff members began developing an initial version of an electronic logbook for the lab’s two Lachat auto analyzers used for simple and complex nutrients. Using MS Excel, staff members developed a multi-tab, macro-enabled workbook in which daily instrument status entries are made. Routine maintenance notifications pop up automatically. Additionally, calibration standard responses and reagent ID numbers are imported from the instrument or from the preparation and analysis datasheet respectively. Various tabs provide information on corrective and preventive maintenance, standard charting, and reagent tracking. The e-logbook was put into use in May of 2012.
This technical presentation will not only describe the reasons for and challenges in developing the e-logbook but also highlight its many features that improve record-keeping, ease of daily-data review, provide regular maintenance notifications, and assist in trouble-shooting instrument problems. There will be a demonstration of the e-logbook.
1:00-1:30 Managing Taste and Odor Events From Algae Blooms
(Chris Volk, VAWCO)
This study describes an extreme taste and odor (T&O) event, and the implementation of an integrated water resource management plan to mitigate future T&O issues.
In the summer of 2010, Site VA506 received numerous customer complaints related to strong musty taste and smell. Lab testing revealed that the T&O event was related to MIB, a T&O causing compound produced by several Cyanobacteria species. MIB leads to detectable T&O at levels above 10 ng/L. MIB levels peaked at 1200 ng/L in the river, and 200 ng/L in the plant effluent.
Water was not aesthetically drinkable during this event that lasted approximately 3 months. The current treatment facility was not designed to remove such high MIB levels. MIB removal averaged 65% after adsorption with PAC and GAC.
An integrated water resource management plan was implemented to prevent future T&O events.
The plan included (i) forming a stakeholder advisory group with public officials to raise community awareness and get public support for a treatment solution, (ii) surveying customers to determine if they are willing to pay more on their monthly water bill to install a treatment option that would eliminate future T&O issues (rate increase), (iii) finding the origin of the problem by installing a river monitoring station to monitor changes in river water quality, and predict algae blooms, (iv) implementing operational solutions by optimizing the existing treatment process (use of various
PAC products, GAC media replacement program), (v) looking at engineering solutions by adding new treatment step(s) such as advanced treatment with ozone or UV and peroxide, (vi)

1:30-2:00
2:00-2:30
2:30-3:00 implementing regional/environmental solutions (including various watershed protection initiatives). A pilot study using UV and hydrogen peroxide (UV + H2O2) was completed in 2011-12.
The pilot study revealed that advanced oxidation with UV+ H2O2 was a viable solution to prevent the re-occurrence of severe T&O issues related to algae blooms at the studied site. Biological GAC filtration was critical to remove the excess of H2O2 remaining after UV reaction and mitigate side effects of oxidation (nutrient production).
Algae blooms are becoming more common; they can lead to severe T&O events. When faced with
T&O issues, it is critical to react quickly (public notification, treatment adjustment) to mitigate the problem, and identify permanent solutions if the problem re-occurs in the future.
Implications of Measuring at the Ultra-Trace Level in UCMR3
(Dr. Andrew Eaton, Eurofins Eaton Analytical)
Over the last 30 years, measurements of chemical contaminants in drinking water have gone from ppm/ppb levels to routine ppt levels, particularly for emerging contaminants such as hormones, personal care products, nitrosamines, and even CVOCs. In UCMR3, USEPA began requiring utilities to conduct extensive monitoring of hexavalent chromium, five metals, six perfluorinated compounds, seven volatiles, and seven hormones with reporting limits (MRLs) in the sub-ppb to sub-ppt level. Even prior to the UCMR3, there was extensive data on some of these compounds, notably hexavalent chromium and some of the other metals, indicating that occurrence will be widespread. This is in marked contrast to UCMR1 and UCMR2, which largely resulted in nondetects. In UCMR1, only perchlorate was detected frequently (in ~5% of systems).
Measurements at the sub-ppb range suggest that had UCMR1 MRLs been lower, it would have been detected much more frequently. In UCMR2, NDMA (with 2ppt MRL) was detected in more than 25% of systems. The high likelihood of significant numbers of detects due to the extremely low UCMR3 MRLs raises two issues. 1) Careful field collection protocols, along with proper care in the lab to prevent false positives that will be costly and 2) proactively developing an effective communication message to utility customers and the general public. The experience of the drinking water community in having to develop responses to public concern over public information on significant detection of “unexpected” contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products in 2008 by the AP and hexavalent chromium in 2010 by the EWG, demonstrates the importance of being prepared for responding to public concerns about
“unusual” detects in drinking water, even if concentrations are below known health reference levels. Frequent detections of some of the UCMR3 analytes will likely generate similar concern.
Examples include hexavalent chromium, total chromium, and also for strontium (which may be confused with strontium-90), molybdenum, and vanadium. To a certain extent geochemical abundance information from the literature can be used to put occurrence data in perspective, at least for the inorganics. This presentation will draw on existing data sets, including data from the first six months of UCMR3 monitoring, to discuss the likelihood of detection of these contaminants and their sources and provide some potential communication strategies that utilities should be considering prior to general publication of the UCMR3 data in Consumer
Confidence Reports or from public (and press) access to the UCMR3 data in the National
Contaminant Occurrence Database (NCOD)
BREAK
LIMS Without Limits: Field Electronic Data Collection
(Joe Yorke, Fairfax Water)

3:00-3:30
In the age of smartphones, tablets, and increased wireless accessibility in the field, laboratories are finding new and innovative ways of using mobile technology for everyday tasks. By going digital, laboratories are able to increase productivity and quality of service while still satisfying the needs for traceability and documentation. The Fairfax Water - Water Quality Laboratory has recently implemented an electronic system for collecting sample data and measurement data as they occur in the field. Data is collected via a tablet and is wirelessly shared with the database at the laboratory in real time. What was once documented by hand on loose sheets of paper or in bound notebooks is now captured electronically.
In our presentation, we will discuss the benefits of going digital. We will discuss how productivity has increased, costs have decreased (in the form of decreased man hours), and how data quality has improved. We will address the process of determining our needs, choosing a system that would work with our existing systems, and implementing that system taking into consideration database connectivity issues and network security. We will also discuss the unanticipated benefits of using electronics in the field.
The Revised TCR from a Microbiological Perspective
(Gil Dichter, IDEXX Labs)
What is the TCR - How is it different from the present TCR – What are the parameters for microbiological testing - How to prepare for the changes before 2016
1:00-1:30 Ammonia Nitrogen Analysis at a Wastewater Treatment Facility
(Miles Mangrum, City of Richmond DPU)
In the wastewater field we are concerned with several forms of nitrogen: ammonia, organic, nitrate, and nitrite. Under the right conditions, each of these forms is biologically convertible to one of the other forms. This creates certain challenges in the treatment of nitrogen in wastewater. Approved methods for wastewater compliance monitoring of ammonia levels include colorimetric, titration, and ammonia –selective electrode. The colorimetric method for ammonia determination can be either by nesslerization or phenate method.
This presentation will explore the phenate method in detail
1:30-2:00 Trace Organic Compounds at a Wastewater Treatment Facility: A First Assessment of Spatial and Temporal Variation in a Regional Collection System
(Chris Burbage, HRSD)
Concern over trace organic compounds (TOrCs) produced as a result of industrial, domestic, and or agricultural processes is rapidly growing due to potential negative impacts on water quality.
Some TOrCs are referred to as emerging contaminants (ECs) because they are thought to negatively affect human health or the environment. Establishing a list of these compounds is difficult due to the rapid development of new chemicals being produced and the dynamic nature of the compounds themselves. The types of ECs can generally be broken down into several groups (Poly Fluorinated Compounds, Steroids/Hormones, Pharmaceuticals, Flame Retardants, and Pesticides). In this presentation we will briefly describe these different groups of ECs and their abundance in the RWI at treatment plants in the Hampton Roads Sanitation District area of operation.
2:00-2:30 BREAK

2:30-3:00 A New Method for Total Nitrogen & Total Phosphorus using Ion Chromatography
(Dr Richard Jack, Thermo Dionex)
The current methods approved for total nitrogen, Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen, has been approved for compliance monitoring for many years. This method has several drawbacks, 1) health and safety risks posed by concentrated acids, toxic reagents (mercury), and high temperatures (370°C); 2)
Nitrate is not measured, 3) propensity of acidic digests to trap and become contaminated by ammonia vapors in ambient laboratory air; and 4) laboratory reporting limits (0.1 mg-N/L; 0.04 mg-P/L) higher than those of other inorganic nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing species, which limit the precision of mass balance estimates. Here we report the use of an alkaline digestion method using alkaline persulfate which is less toxic, more sensitive, and more accurate than TKN.
Though many determinative steps have been demonstrated, we chose ion chromatography because it allows the determination of total nitrogen (as nitrate) and total phosphorous (as
3:00-3:30 phosphate) simultaneously with one injection.
Where the Lab Fits in with Operations
(Audrey Brubeck, City of Richmond, DPU)
Laboratory personnel often concentrate solely on producing data of a known quality in a timely manner. This alone can consume a majority of laboratory time. However, the lab’s product, data, is just one piece of a puzzle that contributes to the operations of a plant. Knowing how data is used and what it means can not only help the analyst produce better data, but can aid the facility by early detection of problems, trend observations, and general support of operations. This presentation will consist of several examples of using data in support of operations
CPE Credits pending for water and wastewater operators