How to Meet the Analytical Requirements of NJ Low Level TO-15

Best Practices in Indoor and Outdoor Air Monitoring
Oral Presentation

Prepared by , G. Stidsen, T. Sprenkle, S. Kozel

Contact Information: [email protected]; 814-353-1300


ABSTRACT

The state of New Jersey determined that the U.S. EPA Method TO-15 was insufficient to meet the demands of their Site Remediation Program (SRP). Therefore, the New Jersey (NJ) Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) published their own variant of Method TO-15, which is the NJDEP-SRP Low Level (LL) USEPA TO-15 Method. For the most part, the NJ LL TO-15 Method follows the requirements of USEPA Method TO- 15 with the incorporation of the NJDEP modifications listed below. The main goal of NJ LL TO-15 is to “provide for a lower reporting limit and additional quality control requirements.” The following is a list, as identified in the method, of what modifications have been made to the U.S. EPA TO-15 in the NJ LL TO-15 Method:

Holding times
Canister types and regulators
Method detection limits
Reporting limits
Clean canister certification levels
GC/MS tuning and instrument performance check requirements
GC/MS techniques
Standard type and concentrations
Initial and continuing calibration standards
Laboratory control samples
Limitation regarding the source of make up air

Some of the aforementioned changes are straight-forward/self-explanatory; therefore, they are outside the scope of this presentation. Rather, this presentation focuses on the analytical side of the method and the issues commonly reported by laboratories struggling to meet the NJ LL requirements (e.g., calibrating from 0.2 ppbv to 40 ppbv).