Approach to quality assurance/quality control in the organic chemicals industry monitoring program

Abstract

The implementation of the 1977 Clean Water Act requires the development of guidelines for the control of specific toxic pollutants in industrial discharges. To meet this mandate, new analytical procedures have been required to determine the presence or absence of trace organic and inorganic materials in a wastewater matrix. The quantitation of the compounds of interest has also required the development of quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) programs that provide data on the precision and accuracy of the analytical results.

These QA/QC programs must be tailored to meet the needs of a specific data‐gathering project without exceeding the financial and man‐power resources available. This paper describes the program designed for the Organic Chemicals Branch of the Effluent Guidelines Division, showing the rationale of selection and the information provided by the data.

Key words:

• Quality Control
• Quality Assurance
• Regulation Development