Section 149.19. Requirements for certification in the drinking water matrix.

  This section applies to laboratories analyzing drinking water for compliance with the safe drinking water program and that analyze drinking water samples in support of the compliance monitoring required by ch. NR 809 .

(1)   General requirements.

(a) The minimum criteria and procedures for certification in the drinking water matrix are specified in Chapters III and IV of the "Manual for the Certification of Laboratories Analyzing Drinking Water", EPA815-R-05-004, fifth edition, EPA, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, January 2005, except that:

1. The department may not grant provisional certification to laboratories.

2. The department may not grant interim certification to laboratories.

3. Laboratories shall analyze drinking water replicates or matrix spike duplicates at a frequency of one pair per preparation batch or one per 20 analytical samples in an analytical batch.

(b) Laboratories shall follow any additional criteria and procedures identified in this chapter applying to drinking water analyses.

(2)   Requirements for inorganic contaminants. To receive certification to conduct analyses of inorganic contaminants, the laboratory shall achieve the method detection limits specified in 40 CFR 141.23 (a) (4) (i) and 40 CFR 141.89 (a) (1) (iii) or 10% of the MCL, for contaminants having an MCL, whichever is greater, for each method of analysis.

(3)   Requirements for vinyl chloride. To receive certification to conduct analyses of vinyl chloride, the laboratory shall achieve a method detection limit of 0.0003 mg/L for each method of analysis.

(4)   Requirements for other volatile organic compounds. To receive certification to conduct analyses of volatile organic compounds, excluding vinyl chloride, but including trihalomethanes, the laboratory shall achieve method detection limits of 0.0005 mg/L for all regulated compounds for each method of analysis.

(5)   Requirements for synthetic organic contaminants. To receive certification to conduct analyses of synthetic organic contaminants, the laboratory shall achieve the method detection limits specified in 40 CFR 141.24 (h) (18) or 10% of the MCL, whichever is greater.

(6)   Exclusions from required certification. Certification is not required to perform any of the following analyses:

(a) Fluoride analysis required under ch. NR 809 .

(b) Analysis for free chlorine residual and total chlorine residual required under s. NR 809.563 (2) Table R.

(c) Analysis for pH required under s. NR 809.113 (1) Table A 21.

(d) Analysis for turbidity required under s. NR 809.113 (1) Table A 27.

(7)   Notification to affected water supply facilities. Laboratories certified under this chapter for the drinking water matrix shall notify water supply facilities that an MCL exceedance has occurred no later than 48 hours after completing analyses whenever compliance samples exceed an MCL for any regulated analyte under ch. NR 809 .

History: CR 06-005 : cr. Register April 2008 No. 628 , eff. 9-1-08; corrections made in (6) (b), (c), (d) made under s. 13.92 (4) (b) 7. , Stats., Register April 2011 No. 664 .