To all of our friends and partners in California impacted by the devastating wildfires, Merit Laboratories is here to support you. When wildfires ravage communities, natural landscape, and places we call home, the impact is major. Lives are interrupted while homes, schools, and businesses are destroyed. Another significant impact of wildfires is environmental contamination.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to address the growing concerns over PFAS by adding nine new compounds to the Toxics Release Inventory. This move aims to improve transparency and provide better data on the presence and release of these persistent chemicals in the environment.
The analysis of PFAS by EPA 1633A and ASTM D8421 is part of the U.S. EPA’s Methods Update Rule (MUR) Rule 22. The action will promulgate EPA into 40 CFR Part 136. Also part of this action, PFAS method ASTM D8421 is proposed to be codified.
To support its Department of Defense (DoD) program, Merit Laboratories will be attending the 2018 Environmental Monitoring & Data Quality (EMDQ) Workshop. The 2018 EMDQ Workshop is being held in Orlando, Florida from April 9-12 and is organized by the DoD Environmental Data Quality Workgroup. Merit Laboratories’ Quality Assurance Officer, Barbara Ball, will be representing Merit Laboratories at the DoD conference.
As a leader in environmental laboratory testing, Merit Laboratories’ team of project managers and client service professionals takes pride in providing guidance to clients when setting-up projects that require analytical services. We’ve recognized that sampling for vapor intrusion and indoor air projects often lead to the most questions from environmental consulting clients.
Here are some key questions and points to consider to successfully set-up a TO-15 air sampling project:
The Interstate Regulatory Technology Council (ITRC) just published three new fact sheets on Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) along with one updated fact sheet. The four fact sheets address important topics related to PFAS remediation technologies, sample collection, laboratory methods, environmental fate and transport, and more. These four PFAS updates from ITRC are the most current guidance available and will provide environmental professionals with detailed information on PFAS
The presence of PFAS at sites throughout Michigan have prompted the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) to require Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) with an Industrial Pretreatment Program (IPP) to address this emerging contaminant. In a letter to WWTPs dated February 20, 2018, the MDEQ is requiring several actions be taken to ensure that all IPPs are prohibiting discharges of PFOS and PFOA. By June 20, 2018, the MDEQ is requiring WWTPs with an IPP to complete the following:
Because of their prevalence in industrial manufacturing applications, many of our environmental consulting and industrial clients find themselves requiring wipe sampling guidance for PCBs. Merit Laboratories provides its clients with PCB wipe sampling kits to support field sample collection activities. The Merit PCB wipe kits are typically used for the wipe sampling of machinery, equipment, flooring, and other surfaces within industrial manufacturing facilities.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) has released the final Incremental Sampling Methodology and Applications reference guide. The MDEQ guide can be used by environmental professionals as a technical reference for using incremental sampling method (ISM) techniques to evaluate contaminated land while managing risk and future use. ISM is also known as Multi-Incremental Sampling (MIS), Incremental Composite Sampling (ICS), or Incremental Sampling Methodology (IS).
The DoD Environmental Data Quality Workgroup recently issued a fact sheet on detection and quantitation to assist project managers and data users of laboratory data for DoD projects. The EDQW guidance sheet is geared to assist project manager or other decision-makers that use environmental laboratory data to accomplish one or more of the following tasks for a DoD project:
The term summa canister is trying to go the way of other product names that have become generic titles for their intended purpose, like Kleenex and Band Aids. The term summa canister is used in the environmental industry by many professionals to describe the sampling media used for air sampling prior to laboratory testing. There is, however, inherent risk in believing that summa canister is an acceptable term that defines all air sampling media for TO-15 projects.
