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And They Said It Couldn’t Be Done: A Brief History of Environmental Water Monitoring
Oral Presentation
Prepared by W. Telliard
USEPA (Retired), 33404 Edwardsville Dr., Glen Allen, VA, 23060
Contact Information: watelliard@comcast.net; 804-756-7515
ABSTRACT
The US Environmental Protection Agency was founded in 1970; but the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, however, had been in existence in 1965. Environmental monitoring, however, actually dates to at least the turn of the last century. The U.S. Geological Survey, formed in 1876, was responsible for early water monitoring efforts. The ASTM D-19 Committee on water monitoring was created in 1932 and the first edition of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewaters was published in 1906. Another entity, the Nation Sanitation Foundation, was established in Michigan in 1944.
Congress enacted the Clean Water Act in 1972 and the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974. Both require EPA to provide analytical methods for use in water monitoring and research. EPA’s initial response to these monitoring needs was to draw on existing methodologies. As a result, in the 1970s the industry was measuring via milligram per liter (mg/L). As environmental science progressed and as a result of litigation, there was a need for methods to monitor compliance with national industrial wastewater limits, and new methods for this were published in 1979 (40 CFR 136). And now, many of these methods could measure to the microgram per liter level.
As environmental work progressed, EPA worked with instrument manufacturers, standards vendors, and research and commercial laboratories to refine and validate these new methods. By the early 1980s, measurements of pollutants in the low part-per-billion range was commonplace. By the end of the 1980s, concerns over the presence of dioxin in pulp and paper discharges lead EPA to develop high resolution GC/MS procedures that could measure down to part-per-quadrillion levels (the femtogram level on instrument). Instrument manufacturers responded to this need with equipment that can provide stable, reliable performance at these measurement levels. Standard vendors have developed and provided high-purity reference standards for many regulated analytes, and also provided customized mixtures of reference standards and materials such as isotopically labeled compounds--the compounds needed to support such monitoring.
We would like to discuss some of the water environmental issues of the last 43 years and the subsequent analytical techniques that have been developed to deal with the problems.
Oral Presentation
Prepared by W. Telliard
USEPA (Retired), 33404 Edwardsville Dr., Glen Allen, VA, 23060
Contact Information: watelliard@comcast.net; 804-756-7515
ABSTRACT
The US Environmental Protection Agency was founded in 1970; but the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, however, had been in existence in 1965. Environmental monitoring, however, actually dates to at least the turn of the last century. The U.S. Geological Survey, formed in 1876, was responsible for early water monitoring efforts. The ASTM D-19 Committee on water monitoring was created in 1932 and the first edition of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewaters was published in 1906. Another entity, the Nation Sanitation Foundation, was established in Michigan in 1944.
Congress enacted the Clean Water Act in 1972 and the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974. Both require EPA to provide analytical methods for use in water monitoring and research. EPA’s initial response to these monitoring needs was to draw on existing methodologies. As a result, in the 1970s the industry was measuring via milligram per liter (mg/L). As environmental science progressed and as a result of litigation, there was a need for methods to monitor compliance with national industrial wastewater limits, and new methods for this were published in 1979 (40 CFR 136). And now, many of these methods could measure to the microgram per liter level.
As environmental work progressed, EPA worked with instrument manufacturers, standards vendors, and research and commercial laboratories to refine and validate these new methods. By the early 1980s, measurements of pollutants in the low part-per-billion range was commonplace. By the end of the 1980s, concerns over the presence of dioxin in pulp and paper discharges lead EPA to develop high resolution GC/MS procedures that could measure down to part-per-quadrillion levels (the femtogram level on instrument). Instrument manufacturers responded to this need with equipment that can provide stable, reliable performance at these measurement levels. Standard vendors have developed and provided high-purity reference standards for many regulated analytes, and also provided customized mixtures of reference standards and materials such as isotopically labeled compounds--the compounds needed to support such monitoring.
We would like to discuss some of the water environmental issues of the last 43 years and the subsequent analytical techniques that have been developed to deal with the problems.