Seventh annual waste testing and quality assurance symposium By Dovid Friedman On July 8-12, 1991, EPA and ACS will again sponsor the Waste Testing and Quality Assurance Symposium in Washington, DC. EPA sponsors the symposium series to improve communications between the Agency, the regulated public, environmental testing lahoratories, and other regulatory officials involved in implemeuting and complying with the nation’s hazardous waste management program. The conference will deal with new developments in waste and environmental media sampling and testing methods, as well as issues and procednres related to quality assurance. This year’s program contains more than 100 presentations a n d will highlight quality assurance and new methods for sample preparation. The symposium will include (I) an exposition of new developments in laboratory instrumentation, equipment, information management systems, and standards: (2) a series of EPA-sponsored workshops on environmental monitoring; and (3) the initiation of a series of discussion groups dealing with laboratory methodology. Quality assurance Highlighting the Quality Assurance Session will be a series of papers and an interactive panel discussion on Automated Data validation. Both EPA and the private sector have increasingly been Views are insightful commentories on timely environmental topics, represent on author’s opinion,and do not necessarily represent o position of the society or editors. Contrasting views are invited.
turning to computer evaluation of laboratory data as a means of dealing with the ever-increasing volume of data being generated in environmental laboratories. Presentations will include Anderau’s look at a software approach to totally automating inorganic quality control protocols for the Superfund program; Hopper’s view of using a computer to assist in technical data quality evaluation; Miller’s approach to building quality into the management of environmental data; and Robertson’s presentation concerning whether automated data validation is the panacea many have said it is. Sample preparation Whether the problem is determining the presence or concentration of an organic compound in a clean matrix such as ground water or in a dirty
This article not subjea to U.S. copyright. Published 1991 American Chemical Society.
one such as soil, or whether the elemental composition of an ash or sludge is of interest, generally the most time-consuming and errorprone phase of the analysis is separating the species of interest from the matrix. The quest to lower the cost of analysis while improving the quality has led to the introduction of new sample preparation techniques. In the symposium papers and in the exposition several such techniques will he highlighted. In the organics area, a technique of tremendous potential is Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE).As a preparative tool SFE is relatively rapid, has great flexibility, and is an excellent candidate for automation. Although SFE is finding increased application and acceptance, many problems remain before its potential is fully realized. Presentations by Ashraf-Khorassani, Beckert, Bruce, Craig, Hsu, Jones, Levy, Myer, and Pospisil will provide up-to-date information on advances in the SFE technique. Other new techniques for separating organic compounds have not been neglected. Techniques as different as those Bruce will present on azeotropic microdistillation for separating volatile organic compounds from aqueous samples and those Kelly will discuss on efficiently extracting aqueous samples using emulsion-phase adsorhents for separating organic compounds will be described. Several presentations covering inorganic sample preparation are also planned. One technique that will be highlighted is microwave-assisted digestion. Subjects to be discussed range from Kingston’s overview on environmental applications of the microwave technique to Grillo’s look at robotics for automated digestion of environmental samples. Environ. Sci. Technol.. Vol. 25, No, 6, 1991 1007
ond session is designed for laboratory personnel and will cover laboratory performance issues in depth. The BIF Rule, promulgated February 21, 1991, brings all facilities that burn hazardous waste for energy recovery or treatment under RCRA regulation for the first time. Experts from EPA's Waste Treatment Branch will describe affected industries and discuss compliance guidelines.
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Surfaces ere is an ovemiew of the ppwerful spectroxopic methods in use today for char. actenzing crystal structuw. chemishy. norphology and excited states of minerals. Mth a triple focus. this new summary of the atest techniques emphasizes:
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me rtructuraiand phplal pmpma of minerals mat have t e n misted wlth pronwtbm of
chemkai reactions on their surfaces B the fact that most naturally acuning minerals
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nore ei&mni( enecw in quantnie?suf8cient to significantly alter =me oftheir pmprtie?. and the rpctrotrowopicmeam by which bioiogidly deposited minerds can be dirtinguished from geoiogirally deparned ones
knty.three chapters dexrik a variety of new applications of mineral spectroxopy to letermine composition. purity. interaction nith energy, characterization of actiie centen. and adwrbate interactions.A discussion of nonoptical methods includes instruction on how to dexrik a mineral and its surfacebefore studying t. Other chapters focus on energy storage within minerals. A section on active centers uses clays as a model. because in spite of its complexity. it is one of the most important clams of natural reactive minerals. If you are a physicist. chemist. geologist. or fuel, soil. agricultural, and environmentalxientist interested in interfacial chemistly of gealcgical surfaces. this book will stimulate your thinMng and inspire you to try these new characterization methods. Lelia M. Cope. Editor. San Jose State Uniwnfl Stephen W.S. McKewer. Edffor. ONahoma State University David F. Blake. Editor. NASA-Am6 Research Center h i o p e d trom a symposium rponrored by tk Dm. sion of GKckmistrj of the American Chemka Wet! ACS symposium Series NO. 415 492 pages (1989) Clothbound ISBN 0-8412-1716-5 LC 89.27755 $94~95
American Chemical Scdety Distrlbuhon M c e . Dept. 56 1155 Suteenth St.. N.W. Washington. DC 20036
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Workshops The series of free short-course workshops initiated last year received an overwhelmingly positive reception. This year the series will he expanded and will include: the new quality assurance requirements and guidelines being promulgated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRAl statistical aspects of waste testing and environmental monitoring choosing the right analytical method the Boilers and Industrial Furnaces Rule (BIF). The quality assurance workshop will review the new requirements outlined in chapter 1 of EPA's SW846 [ I ) . It will describe what is required, using as examples various waste management scenarios. The course will help generators of RCRA data comply with the new data quality and documentation requirements. As a follow-up to last year's successful course, EPA's john Warren will again teach a workshop on statistical aspects of monitoring. This workshop is intended to give analysts, engineers, scientists, and managers insight into some of the most widely used statistical methodologies in waste testing. The workshop will examine some commonly used statistical tests of significance with demonstrations of the incorrect conclusions that can be obtained when the "usual" assumptions are violated. The workshop will be as nontechnical as practicable, and specific questions on the use of statistical techniques will be considered as time permits. "Choosing the Right Method" has been expanded and will be offered in two sections. One session is designed for nonlaboratory personnel who order analytical data. The sec-
1008 Environ. Sci. Technoi., Voi. 25, No. 6, 1991
Discussion groups As part of EPA's efforts to improve communication with users and developers of monitoring methodology, the Agency is forming a series of discussion groups dealing with new and existing methods. The groups will help facilitate the introduction of new measurement techniques into EPA's regulatory programs. Although they are being held in conjunction with this symposium, the discussion groups are part of the Agency's program to integrate its monitoring methods and to facilitate the introduction of new measurement techniques. The discussion will thus cover all media and regulatory applications and will be held on Friday, July 12. Subjects to be discussed include: Supercritical fluid extraction Inductively coupled plasma spectrometry Solid phase adsorbents. The meetings are open to all interested persons: a highlight of the ICP meeting will be a discussion of the draft-integrated ICP-AES method being developed by EPA. For further information on the conference, contact Michele Gandy (ACS) at (202) 872-4608. For information on the discussion groups, contact David Friedman (EPA) at (202) 245-3535. Reference (1)
"Test Methods for Evaluating Solid Waste, SW-846": Office of S o l i d Waste. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Washington, DC. 1991.
David Friedman has worked in environmental testing for 18 years, uith the Food ond Drug Administration and, for the past 1 4 years, with EPA. He now works at EPA's Office of Research and Development helping establish a set of testing methods for use in 011 environmentol monitoring programs. Friedman eorned his B.S. and M.S.degEes in chemistry from Brooklyn College and Lehigh University, respectively.
