Nutrient Section

Our Nutrient Analysis section is a multi-users, central laboratory located in GLIER. Water samples collected from aquatic bodies, including, lakes, rivers, natural ponds, and stormwater ponds, can be analyzed for the following parameters & tests:

• Soluble Reactive Phosphate as Phosphorus, Total Dissolved Phosphate as Phosphorus, Total Phosphate as Phosphorus, Nitrate-Nitrite as Nitrogen, Nitrite as Nitrogen, Ammonia Nitrogen, TKN (HACH method), Chloride, Sulfate, Silica, Fluoride (HACH method)

• Total Organic Carbon, Inorganic Carbon, Non-Purgeable Organic Carbon, Total Carbon, Total Nitrogen

• Total Suspended Solid (TSS), Total Dissolved Solid (TDS), Alkalinity, pH, oil & grease

• Chlorophyll a, Cyanopigments, Organic matter

• Excitation Emission Matrices (EEMs). 

  • The Horiba Aqualog is capable of generating a matrix file of excitation wavelength, emission wavelength and fluorescence intensity providing a unique fingerprint characteristic of the chemical components in the sample.  EEMs are typically generated on a filtered water sample within the same day of collection.  Using multivariate statistical approaches, the EEMs can be used in environmental applications related to tracking dissolved organic carbon species present in tributaries, water mixing zones, wetlands and other source signature profiles. 

Equipment:

• SmartChem 170 Direct Read Discrete Analyzers with Nitrate modules  

• Shimadzu TOC-L with Total Nitrogen (TN) and Solid Sample (SS) modules

• AquaLog from Horiba Scientific

• Fully automated Spectrofluorometer

Organic Section

Since 1997, the Organic Analytical section has been accredited for Organochlorine Pesticides and PCB congeners from the Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation (CALA). We have conducted analytical tests for governmental agencies and educational institutions within North America and throughout the world. We perform a wide range of analyses for organic pollutants from environmental samples such as:

• Chlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) including planar & non-coplanar

• OC Pesticides

• PAHs, PBDEs

• Dioxins/Furans

• Volatile Organic Halogens

The following method for organic analyses of tissue samples is accredited by CALA to the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 Standard.

• Chlorobenzenes (CB)/Organochlorine Pesticides (OCP) Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) - Biological Tissue GC/MS

• a-Chlordane; Heptachlor epoxide; Mirex; trans-Nonachlor; p,p’-DDE

• PCB 28; PCB 31; PCB 33; PCB 44; PCB 49; PCB 52; PCB 87; PCB 99; PCB 101; PCB 105; PCB 110; PCB 118; PCB 128; PCB 138; PCB 149; PCB 153; PCB 132; PCB 180; PCB 183; PCB 194; PCB 201; PCB 206

Equipment:

• Agilent 7890B GC System with 5977B MSD

  • Most sensitive and robust instrument that can positively identify and quantify chemicals in trace levels in real samples. Inert Plus MSD Turbo EI/CI includes Extractor EI Source. MassHunter is the operating software.

• Inert Plus MSD Turbo EI/CI includes Extractor EI Source, CI Source.

• Agilent 7890A GC System

  • FID, Micro ECD, capillary columns, Windows based data system (Agilent CHEMSTATION software)

• Agilent 6890 GC System

  • FID, Micro ECD, capillary columns, Windows based data system (Agilent CHEMSTATION software).

• Agilent 6890 GC System with HP 5973 MSD

  • Electron ionization (EI) full-scan mode and selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode with quadrupole analyzer, operates Windows based data system (HP CHEMSTATION software)

• EI/CI sources, an Agilent 6890 GC and accurate mass capabilities