Full Description

Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)(1996) require the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to publish a list of contaminants that are known or anticipated to occur in public water systems, and which may require regulation under the SDWA. In response to this requirement, and after extensive consultation with the scientific community, USEPA published a Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate List (CCL) of fifty chemicals and ten microorganisms in March 1998. One of the chemicals listed on the CCL is hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine, also known as Royal Demolition Explosive (RDX). Before a regulatory determination can be made concerning RDX, USEPA must assess the extent of its occurrence in public water systems. This will be accomplished through a nationwide monitoring program of drinking water utilities. A new analytical method is being developed by the National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) for monitoring RDX and other explosive compounds in drinking water. In addition to RDX, 16 other explosives and related compounds of environmental interest are being evaluated for inclusion into the analytical method. This new method uses solid phase extraction with a reverse phase sulfonated styrene divinyl benzene disk to isolate and concentrate the target analytes from 1L water samples. The elution solvent is ethyl acetate. The concentrated extract is analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) with programmed temperature vaporizing (PTV) injection. Data from replicate reagent water samples fortified at 5 ug/L (n=5) show recoveries of 86-111% for 15 target analytes. Excellent precision is obtained, with relative standard deviations (RSDs) less than 8%. Detection limits (DLs) range from 0.02 to 0.18 ug/L. Minimum Reporting Levels (MRLs) range from 0.1 to 1.0 ug/L. Includes 16 references, tables.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 01/01/2001 Number of Pages: 8 File Size: 1 file , 210 KB