Special Report No. 79-01: Experience with EPA's Priority Pollutants Sample Handling and Shipping Protocol

In an effort to provide some quality control and quality assurance in the effluent sampling and analytical program to be carried out on a wide array of industrial effluents for 129 compounds or classes of compounds, a protocol was developed by EPA. This protocol, "Sampling and Analysis Procedures for Screening of Industrial Effluents for Priority Pollutants, April, 1977," was hurriedly assembled so that EPA could proceed with the effluent sampling and analytical program carried out under the time constraints of the Flannery Settlement. Under the circumstances, the document was assembled from investigative experience and judgment rather than subsequent to an investigation of all the elements of such an extensive sampling, sample handling, and analytical program, as should have been the case. This is evidenced by the fact that an array of EPA contractor efforts are now just getting underway to more closely examine several facets of the analytical protocol. As a result of NCASI's previous experience, and more recently its interaction with EPA's contractor and regional field teams in the screening and verification phase of priority pollutant sampling and analysis, the staff has experience which complements the instructions and cautions set forth in EPA's document referenced earlier.