ICR Monitoring Enters the Homestretch!"
-E. Arcaro
ICR Update
Jim Walasek, Editor
Technical Support Center
December 1998
ICR Monitoring Ends!
ICR Update ISSUe Number 15 - This information sheet, the ICR Update,
is the fifteenth one to be issued by the Technical Support Center (TSC) of the Office of Ground
Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW). Future issues will be distributed as needed to maintain
information flow related to the ICR.
Editor's Note: As we enter into the homestretch of ICR monitoring another milestone is within
sight; the 18 months of ICR monitoring is winding down at the end of this month. From my calls
to various utilities over the last month, I realize that the completion of this phase of the ICR is a
much anticipated event. You have done a great job over these many months and I'm not
exaggerating when I say, "We couldn't have done it without you!" Now if we can just get
through the data entry and data validation phase, we will have some really valuable data. Data
validation will continue until near the end of next year, but with the sampling and analysis out of
the way, the burden should be niuch lighter on the utilities and labs alike. Thanks again for a job
well done.
"Not Approved for Standard Method" - Have you seen a message
like this recently? An incorrect error message was printed on some of the VA1 reports for the
July 1997 utility resubmissions and August 1997 initial utility submissions received from
Information Collection Rule (ICR) Production Control. These reports were sent in November
1998.
In cases where a sample should have failed due to missing laboratory quality control (QC)
data, the VA1 report showed an error message of, "Lab Not Approved for Standard Method" for
chemical analyses and "Analyst Not Approved for Standard Method" for microbiological
analyses.
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Please be assured that the laboratories and analysts you are using have not been disapproved
for ICR analyses. Instead, the above messages represent a software error that will be corrected in
the next version of the VA1 reports.
ICR Production Control apologizes again for any inconvenience (or panic) resulting from
this data validation error.
Data Validation StatUS - As you have probably already noted (see Editor's
Note), sample collection will end this month, but data validation will continue for some time.
Preliminary (as opposed to Final) validation reports and QC failure reports were distributed
in early November. Utilities received revised July '97 VU reports and new (first time) August
'97 VU reports. Laboratories received revised July and August '97 VL and "new" September
'97 reports. Both utilities and laboratories received VA1 reports (if results were failed).
Confused yet? It gets worse. Some utilities and laboratories received corrected report packages
(on colored paper, no less) in late November due to a problem that occurred at ICR Production
Control. Resubmissions were due to EPA on either the 11th or 18th of this month (depending on
report color).
EPA will process the resubmissions related to July and August '97 utility data and July,
August and September '97 laboratory data in late December '98. September '97 utility data and
October '97 laboratory data will be "processed" for the first time during December. (See, I told
you it \vould get worse.) The next report packages should then be mailed to utilities and
laboratories in early to mid-January 1999. These report packages will contain revised utility
reports for August '97 and new utility reports for September '97 while labs will receive revised
reports for September '97 and new reports for October '97. -Now I'm confused!
We (read EPA) expect data validation to occur throughout most of 1999. After the first 3
months of data validation is complete our plan is to conduct the validation processing in
"quarterly batches" with only one review opportunity per batch. Specifically, utilities will
receive Oct., Nov. and Dec. '97 reports and laboratories will receive Oct., Nov., Dec. '97 and
Jan. '98 reports no earlier than late February 1999. More on this in future ICR Updates or
official letters. We plan to complete data validation of the first quarter of ICR monitoring (July
'97 through September '97) in the second quarter of 1999 and complete validation of the rest of
ICR monitoring data by the last quarter of 1999.
As always, utilities and laboratories should carefully read the cover letters that accompany
each validation report package for important information about the validation process and
schedule changes. Of course, if you have any questions after reading the cover letters, contact
the assistance phone number(s) listed in each letter.
Finally, the data in ICR FED will be extracted into auxiliary (AUX) databases to facilitate
data analysis. Results from analysis of the data will contribute significantly to regulatory
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negotiations to begin this month for the Stage 2 Disinfectants/Disinfection Byproducts Rule and
the Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2ESWTR).
JVJLOrC IS til II TO \_^llCCK. ~ As you review your VU reports, this is your chance to
look at all the units, chemical formulas, and doses (when applicable) for the plant design and
operating parameters that you are reporting. This is also your chance to check on the units of the
sample analytical results and ensure that you are reporting the actual value in the required units
for the ICR Water Utility Database system. Sometimes there is a "disconnect" between the plant
staff (or labs) and the data entry people that leads to miscommunication of information. So now
is your chance to make sure that your reported doses represent the actual chemicals added and are
accurately expressed based on the feed chemical formulas. The following are some examples of
typical errors that have been found during data review:
Operational Parameters:
Alum: For information on the actual coagulant added in the plant, ask the plant staff for the
measurement formula of your coagulant. Look at the VTJ 3 Report (Monthly Plant
Chemical Parameters EPA Verification report) and check the measurement formula column
- do these match?
For example: The plant staff say that they added alum as A12(SO4)3 - but the VU report
shows the formula as A12(SO4)3 • 14 H2O. Check with the plant staff to determine what
chemical formula for Alum was actually added in the plant.
The presence or absence of water of hydration in the chemical affects the dose calculation.
A
B
C
Chemical Formula
A12(SO4)3
A12(SO4)3 • 14 H2O
A12(SO4)3« 16H2O
Molecular Weight
342
594
630
Dose (mg/L) of Compound
Equivalent to
30 mg/L as A12(SO4)3
30
52
57
Reported Sample Analytical Results:
Bromide: Remember that the units for bromide in the ICR data system are (mg/L) and not
Example: If the lab reports your bromide level at 35 (ug/L) - remember to convert it to
mg/L - i.e., report it as 0.035 (mg/L).
Total Hardness: Your reported total hardness values should be (mg/L CaCO3) - so if the
lab reports to you Calcium hardness (as mg/L Ca) and Magnesium hardness (as mg/L Mg),
make sure you report the total hardness as (mg/L CaCO3).
Example: Total Hardness as mg equivalent CaCO3/L = 2.497[Ca, mg/L] + 4. 1 1 8[Mg, mg/L]
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Ammonia: When the plant staff report addition of ammonia, make sure what form it is
added in - for example, is it ammonium hydroxide? Calculate the dose accordingly.
Units, chemical doses, and formulas are very important. Be sure that EPA has an accurate
representation of your treatment plant in ICR FED by reviewing and correcting your data during
the validation process-
Update: Analysis of Treatment Study Results -over the past
several months, water utilities have been working diligently to conduct bench- and pilot-scale
treatment studies under the ICR, and the results from these studies will provide valuable
information regarding the efficacy of GAC and nanofiltration for removing DBF precursors.
Additionally, the results of these studies will support the development of future DBP
regulations. EPA has been working in conjunction with contractors and volunteers from the
drinking water industry to develop an approach for analyzing these complex data sets.
Significant progress has been made on this data analysis effort, and this article summarizes the
highlights of the data management plan.
The objective of the data management plan is to organize the information from the
treatment studies hi a manner that will support higher level analyses of the data. Primarily, this
data will be used to support future DBP regulations; however, the data system should also be
flexible enough to support a wide array of analyses. To achieve these objectives, the data
management system will be divided into two components, an electronic data library and a
relational database.
To support a wide variety of uses and interpretations, the raw data must be provided in a
useable format. This will be accomplished by transferring the Final Treatment Study Reports to
an electronic Treatment Study Data Library. The data collection spreadsheets will be converted
to a standard Excel format while the Summary Reports will be converted to portable document
format (PDF). Both the spreadsheets and report will be protected and transferred to the
Treatment Study Data Library. A search engine containing general information for each study
will be included hi the data library to allow users to query and sort the studies according to
specific criteria.
The Treatment Study Data Library will make the raw data available to users; however, it
will not provide an optimal platform for higher level analyses. To support the regulatory
development process a base analysis will be performed on each study to extract common
information across all studies. The primary objective of this base analysis is to provide a
foundation for subsequent analyses that will produce information that will feed into the
development of future DBP regulations. The output from the base analysis will be managed in a
relational database that will allow related data to be joined within a study and allow similar data
elements to be queried across studies. This Base Analysis Database will maximize flexibility
and allow a range of high level analyses to be conducted on the data.
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Future ICR Update articles will provide more detail regarding the base analysis of GAC
and membrane data, and will describe the structure of the Base Analysis Database. Also, see the
November issue of Journal A WWA for an article summarizing the status of ICR treatment study
implementation.
Treatment Study Summary Report Spreadsheet- The
Final Treatment Study Report includes the ICR Treatment Study Data Collection Spreadsheets
and a Summary Report. The purpose of the Summary Report is to capture information not
included in the Data Collection Spreadsheets, such as background information for the full-scale
plant, QA/QC information and details of the experimental design. In order to streamline
reporting of critical information in the Summary Report, a spreadsheet tool was developed.
The Treatment Study Summary Report Spreadsheet, along with an explanatory letter and a
two-page Users' Guide, were mailed to all utilities conducting treatment studies on October 22,
1998. These spreadsheets are intended to simplify the data reporting process, clarify the
reporting requirements and facilitate upload of the data to the ICR treatment study database. The
spreadsheet is designed to complement the Summary Report and is not a substitute for it.
(However, the information reported in this spreadsheet does not need to be repeated in the
Summary Report.)
The information that will be reported in this spreadsheet includes the following:
• General treatment plant information including 1998 population and flow data.
• A summary of full-scale influent and finished water quality data.
• General information for laboratories conducting analyses in support of the treatment
study.
• QA/QC data for the analyses conducted as part of the treatment study.
If you are interested in obtaining a copy of these spreadsheets and the accompanying
documentation, or if you have questions about the application of these spreadsheets, please
contact the ICR Treatment Study Coordinator at 513-569-7131.
Spiking Program and Supplemental Surveys - AS with the
ICR 18-month monitoring, the spiking program will wrap up this month. The Supplemental
Surveys, on the other hand, continue to be delayed. Read on for more details.
Spiking Program - December marks the end of the ICR Lab Spiking Program. Many thanks to
all the plants and laboratories who have participated in this program! Presently, we have data
for the spiking conducted from May to September 1998. The current plan for data release is to
provide each utility the data for their two spiking events once the full 8 months of data are
available, thus allowing us to provide a context for the individual results. At that time, we will
make the complete data set available (while providing for anonymity of the results) and relevant
summary statistics to all the participants. If any utility needs or wants their individual data prior
to then, please contact Heather Shank-Givens to receive the summary sheets for your utility.
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ICR Supplemental Surveys - Presently, there are 47 large and 40 medium system plants
committed to participating in the supplemental surveys. EPA wants to sincerely thank all those
systems who expressed an interest in participating in the surveys. EPA would especially like to
thank those 87 utilities who are "on board" for their continued enthusiasm and patience. All
participant utilities have been notified by phone of a delay in the scheduled start date for the
surveys. We intended to start the surveys in November 1998 but encountered unforseen
contractual difficulties which impacted our ability to obtain sufficient laboratory support for the
surveys. We are presently working to rectify the situation. As soon as this difficulty is resolved,
we will be sending all the participating plants a letter providing the confirmed, new start date.
The goal at this time is to begin the surveys in February 1999. Plants will begin sampling on the
schedule agreed to previously and supplies will be shipped in advance of their first sample date.
We are also striving to initiate the Small System Survey. The program is undergoing
review by the Office of Management and Budget and, upon approval, we will be sending out
recruitment letters to 200 randomly selected small systems requesting their participation (from
which we will select 40 plants). The projected start date for the Small System Survey is March
1999.
For further information please contact Heather Shank-Givens at 202-260-0063 or at
GIVENS.HEATHER@.epa.gov.
ICR Web Page - The ICR Web Page (http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/icrJitml) has been
updated to highlight the pages of most interest, add new pages, and delete outdated pages. The
link to ICR Update has been moved to the top and the links to Fact Sheets and the FRN have
been moved to the bottom. A new link, "Status of Data Validation for ICR Utilities and Labs,"
will contain copies of letters that are mass mailed to ICR utilities and labs. Another new link,
"List of Utilities Participating in Microbial and DBP Monitoring," contains the ICR utility and
plant names plus the city and state. Also included is "Rule by Reference Manuals," which
contains a list of ICR manuals and ordering information. And as mentioned in last month's
edition, an index to the ICR Update is now up and running on the OGWDW website. This index
lists the topic headings for each issue and provides hyperlinks to the ICR Update of interest.
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