Drinking Water Contamination Concerns and Laboratory Data Quality

There’s been a significant amount of interest lately related to the safety of our drinking water supply.  It seems that every day there is another news story about contamination concerns in drinking water from PFAS, lead,  TCE, and 1,4-dioxane. 

As chemistry professionals committed to providing high quality analytical testing services, we understand the important role environmental laboratories play in helping to protect our nation’s drinking water.  After all, our children, families, friends, and neighbors may be drinking the same water source that we are testing.  Which is one of the reasons Merit Laboratories continuously invests in the latest instrumentation, method development procedures, and training to provide the most accurate data. 

To support this commitment to protecting our drinking water supply, Merit Laboratories maintains certification for a diverse range of analytical parameters.  Merit also participates in numerous Proficiency Testing (PT) programs, routinely scoring high marks for quality.  The PT programs we participate in for drinking water include the NELAC Potable Water and Phenova Potable Water. Both of these drinking water PT programs are performed semi-annually.  Over the last five years, we have averaged 98.2% for all PT programs, including drinking water.  PT samples are quality assurance samples analyzed by testing laboratories as a tool for evaluating its ability to perform analytical testing for specific methods, parameters, compounds, and elements. 

Before you select an environmental laboratory to provide testing for your next drinking water project, we strongly encourage you to review their certifications and PT program results.  

Merit Laboratories is one of the leading environmental laboratories for drinking water testing. We routinely provide analytical testing for drinking water sources for schools, work facilities, homes, commercial businesses, and even the clean water plants that supply public drinking water. Please contact us to discuss your drinking water needs.