Sometimes managing the ICR
can be a real balancing act!
ICR Update
Jim Walasek, Editor
Technical Support Center
October 1999
Data Analysis Underway!
ICR Update ISSUe Number 19 - This information sheet, the ICR Update, is the
nineteenth 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: Twelve months of ICR data have now been verified and final reports have been sent to
ICR utilities and labs. They have also received a CD-ROM containing the first six months
of validated ICR monitoring data. The ICR data will be used to .support regulatory impact
analysis and to validate the water treatment plant model.
Speaking of data analysis, the ICR data analysis team is hard at work going over the first
year of validated data. See the article, Where's the Data? in this issue for more details.
ICR Utility Data Validation Packages for Sampling Periods 13,14, and 15 (July, August, and
September 1998) have been sent out for review. Resubmission diskettes were due back to EPA by
October 15th. Following the upload and validation of the resubmission diskettes, final validation reports
will be produced and mailed out in mid-November.
"Straggler" diskettes have been on the increase lately. These are diskettes that are received too late
to be validated during the normal validation cycle. We are now trying to validate these straggler diskettes
and get reports out to the utilities and laboratories.
Remember, we are still uploading three months of data at a time for validation. The current set of
reports that you received were for July, August, and September 1998. Initial reports for the last three
months of data (yippee) from the ICR project (October, November, and December 1998) will be printed
and sent out to utilities and labs in early November. Once again> you will only have one opportunity to
review the three months of data and resubmit diskettes (if needed). Also, if you haven't yet sent in your
Final Design diskette try to do so as soon as possible. Thanks.
One more time...as we near the end of the ICR project, I have noticed that there have been personnel
changes, reorganizations, moves, area code changes, etc. that have affected the information we have in the
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"Official" ICR files here at TSC in Cincinnati. Therefore, I want to remind you folks at the utilities to
please update your ICR contact, address, phone/fax information (for both the Technical and Official
Contact) when data items change. All you have to do is drop us a note on your letterhead. Besides, who
knows, it may speed up the arrival of the next ICR Update. Remember, utility validation reports are sent
to the name and address listed on the data transfer diskette. So, even if you send in your contact person
changes to Cincinnati, we can't guarantee that the validation reports will be sent to the new contact
and/or address unless the correct information was on the "last" transfer diskette that was loaded into the
system. (This is not a problem for labs because TSC controls the lab addresses that are used by ICR-
FED.)
the Data? - Twelve months of data have been extracted from ICR Fed into the
Aux 1 database and are being analyzed to support the development of the Stage 2 D/DBP Rule and the
LT2ESWTR. This work was introduced in "Just the FACA, Ma'am" in ICR Update. No. 18.
Because of your efforts in reviewing the data, correcting data entry errors and ensuring that the data
accurately reflects the reported monthly status of your treatment plant, this is the largest data set of such
quality that can be used to support rule development. At the September Technical Workgroup (TWO) and
FACA meetings, the TWG expressed their satisfaction with the high quality of this large data set that they
are working with.
The TWG that assists the stakeholders, chartered under the FACA, have been meeting monthly (face
to face) and even more frequently on conference calls to speed up the analysis process. Many utility
representatives are working diligently, along with AWWA representatives, EPA staff, consultants,
industry representatives, and other state and federal agencies to statistically analyze the data. Some of
these analyses statistically describe the distribution of the DBF precursor concentrations of the ICR plants.
Other analyses show the microbial distribution in treatment plant influents and DBF occurrence in both
finished waters and distribution systems. The preliminary results are evaluated by the TWG and data
summaries are presented to the FACA committee.
The next TWG meeting is scheduled for October 25 - 26, 1999 and the stakeholders meeting (FACA)
follows on October 27 - 28, in Washington, DC. The data analysis, using 12 months of ICR data, will be
used to provide the baseline for the status of the ICR plants at the time of monitoring under the ICR, and
this will be presented to the FACA. If you are interested in viewing these presentations, you can log on to
the TWG web site: www.ecradlab.com/twg. A user ID (GUEST) and password (USERNAME) are
required. Type in the generic word "GUEST" for the user ID and the generic word "USERNAME" for
the password. Neither user ID, nor the password is are case sensitive. The presentations are uploaded to
the website as quickly as possible after the meetings.
The other auxiliary data bases (Aux 2 - 6) are in various development stages. Aux 3 - Enhanced
Coagulation, Aux 4 - Sludge Production, Aux 5 - Washwater Return, and Aux 6 - Distribution System
Analysis of DBPs are ready to be used for data analyses and have either 9 or 12 months of ICR data
extracted into them. Aux 2 - CT and Disinfection Decay and the Query Tool are ready for beta testing and
Aux 8, which is to support the Wate.r Treatment Plant model, is still in production. These data bases, and
their respective uses, were explained in the ICR Update, No. 18. Copies of these databases can be
downloaded from the above mentioned web site. EPA has already sent you a CD ROM of the 6 months of
ICR data that was extracted into Aux 1 and plans to send the utilities another copy with the 18 month data,
once it is available, after validation and review.
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The TWO is now working in subgroups to manage the workload of data analysis using these auxiliary
databases and to incorporate ICR data with non-ICR data for the FACA. There are 17 subgroups.
Examples of these subgroups are: ICR Data Analysis, Impact Analysis Assessment, Microbial Treatment,
Technology Costs, and Treatment Studies. A number of participants in each subgroup have expertise to
support the subject data analysis.
Just as your comfort level with the data entry and review process has increased over time—as you
review more of your ICR data, so has everyone else's. This is the first TWO and/or FACA meeting where
TSC received no data validation complaints - it is a record and we are ecstatic. Thanks to everyones hard
work, the TWO now has manageable databases populated with most of the ICR data to continue the
analyses. Keep up the good work, we are almost there - It really is the home stretch.
Envirofacts ICR Data Website Announced-
Recently, ICR utilities were sent information by fax, phone, email or snailmail
announcing a new public Internet site established by EPA's Office of Ground
Water and Drinking Water. The Envirofacts (Data Warehouse and Applications)
website is a single point of access to select U.S. EPA environmental data. The
address of the new site is www.epa.gov/enviro/html/icr ., On this site you will find Snailmail Version
data collected by large drinking water systems for the ICR. The data presented
includes concentrations of Total Trihalomethanes, 5 Haloacetic acids, Bromate, Chlorite,
Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Viruses, Total Coliforms, Fecal Coliforms, and E. coli.
Currently, six months of data are on the Internet and within the next month, twelve months of data
are scheduled to be online. In addition, some changes are being made to the site in response to comments
that have been received from a few water systems. Thanks to the water systems for their diligent review.
For more information call the Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 800-426-4791 or provide feedback
regarding the website on the Internet feedback form.
The Jury'S Still Out - The EPA Technical Support Center has provided two rounds of
protozoan performance evaluation (PE) samples to laboratories interested in evaluating their
performance for Giardia and Cryptosporidium analyses using an outside source of materials. Ten
laboratories participated in the first round and 19 laboratories participated in the second round of testing.
Laboratories are initially sent eight samples and then three samples every three months. In the first round,
recoveries for Method 1623 were slightly higher than for the ICR method and precision was substantially
better for Method 1623. However, in the second round, no significant differences were seen between the
two methods. At this point, it is too early to make a judgement about the relative merits of the two
methods. Many laboratories are just beginning protozoan analyses and have very little experience. We
believe that a year of testing data should provide adequate information to make a reasonable judgement
about the methods and the laboratories. A summary report for the first two rounds of testing is available
by faxing your request to Mary Ann Feige, 513-569-7191. To receive a copy of the individual laboratory
results, you must contact the laboratory directly.
R.A.I.D. Tracks Down BugS - As data transfer disks continue to be uploaded onto
ICR-FED, issues arise from time to time regarding the successful operation of the system. Although
many of the original "bugs" have been cleaned up, EPA continues to find new glitches in the validation
process. These issues may involve data entry, data validation, or generation of reports containing ICR
data. Consequently, in order to better understand and remediate problem issues, the Technical Support
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Center has developed an issues tracking database called "Resolving Abominaible Issues Database" or
R.A.I.D. The database is used to track QC issues such as missing extraction batches, calibration check
standard failures among optional analytes, and missing reject reasons. After the discovery and
remediation of these issues, TSC routinely checks subsequent validation runs by ICR-FED to see if the
issues have been resolved and can be "closed" in the tracking database. As an illustration of the issue
remediation process, consider the problem of "missing reject reasons" on reports. Through a thorough
review of reports generated by ICR-FED, TSC staff noticed that a handful of samples were being rejected,
but had no associated reject reasons. Upon discovery, TSC then constructed "queries" from ICR-FED
tables. These queries help to determine the number of samples rejected without reasons. After running
the queries, TSC then determines if the samples should have been rejected and if so, what reject reason
should be assigned. All labs, batches, samples, and analytes impacted by the reject reason issue are then
entered into R.A.I.D. Once issues are entered into R.A.I.D. and new reports are generated, TSC can
check the reports against the issues in R.A.I.D. to determine whether glitches/bugs in ICR-FED have been
eliminated.
YOU Got Our Number? - The ICR Data Validation (aka Chemistry)
Hotline number has changed. The new number is 703-676-8496. Please use this new number for
questions you may have about validation of your ICR data. If you have questions about ICR software
problems, please note that the number for the ICR DMS Hotline remains the same (703-292-6170).
TSC Support Group! - Or maybe I should
say, TSC/OGWDW staff will bend over backwards to
help. This photo was taken at a. recent staff retreat where a
magician requested four people to assist him in a
demonstration of teamwork. He had them sitting on chairs,
90 degrees to each other, had them lean way back, and then
pulled out the chairs! There just might be something to this
teamwork approach.
United States
Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (MS-140)
Cincinnati, OH 45268
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use
$300
BULK RATE
POSTAGE & FEES PAID
EPA
PERMIT No G-35
EPA815-N-99-001d
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