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Description
The project is aimed at the achievement of obligations resulting from the national and European legislation. It is particularly concerned with a group of priority and other polluting substances including the monitoring of candidate substances for the list of priority substances under Directive 2008/105/EC, amending Directive 2013/39/EU, meeting the requirements of Directive 2009/90/EC on the quality of chemical analyses and water condition monitoring. In the analytical practice of water management laboratories, the task will especially involve introduction and optimization of analytical methods into routine practise for determining concentrations of selected micropollutants and their metabolites, primarily in concentrations at the environmental quality standards (EQS) level or in concentrations as close as possible to these limits according to the conditions mentioned in the documents cited above. The project is focused on the acquisition of suitable instruments, their accessories, and the necessary related laboratory equipment for analyses of micropollutants in water and possibly as well as in sediment samples.
Summary of project results
The aim of the project was to acquire highly sensitive analytical instruments. The acquired equipment allows to develop new analytical methods and to extend the range of target analytes. Another benefit is the possibility to reduce the limits of quantification (LOQ) for some analytes. Monitoring of priority and specific pollutants is a legislative obligation of the Povodí Vltavy, State Enterprise resulting from national and European directives.
The main activity of our project was the acquisition of a set of analytical instruments including accessories using a public contract, and their installation in the water management laboratory of the State Enterprise Povodí Vltavy in Pilsen. We purchased a liquid chromatograph with a mass detector working in high resolution (LC-MS-QTOF), which allows us to develop better analytical methods for selected analytes requiring higher selectivity and, thus, lower detection limits. We have also purchased and put into operation the FreeStyle Xana robotic system. This instrument is designed for solid phase (off-line SPE) and is capable to concentrate analytes into in the sample. This makes it possible to determine their limit values, and to reduce even more significantly their determinability limits.
We have installed a set of analytical instruments including accessories in the water management laboratory of the State Enterprise Povodí Vltavy in Plzeň in accordance with the terms of the contract. Selected laboratory operators are progressively trained in the basic and advanced analytical equipment. They learn to use all the exclusive features of the new analytical equipment, especially in the field of high-resolution mass spectrometry, and to operate other instruments. We have developed an optimised analytical method for the determination of the 8 analytes listed in Table 1 of Chapter 2.1 of the Ålesund Call and in accordance with the Project Application. The limits of quantification (LOQs) of this method meet the criterion of one third of the environmental quality standards in Directive 2009/90/EC, i.e. they meet the limit of quantification requirements of the Ålesund Call. These analytes (LOQs are given in brackets) are: ibuprofen (5 ng/l), diclofenac (5 ng/l), carbamazepine (2 ng/l), azithromycin (5 ng/l), erythromycin (2 ng/l), clarithromycin (2 ng/l), bisphenol A (5 ng/l) and triclosan (5 ng/l). This method will be used in routine surface water and wastewater monitoring programmes. We are also developing a new method for the determination of PFAS in drinking water using a robotic system for off-line SPE pre-concentration, which is also part of the new analytical technique. Prospectively, we plan to use the new instruments for the determination of other specific organics in water samples and solid matrices.
The project financially supported the efforts of water laboratories to upgrade their existing analytical equipment with new high-end instruments that are necessary to meet the requirements of European and national legislation for priority and specific pollutants. Microcontaminants are currently a critical water pollution problem. Specific organic pollutants penetrate surface and groundwater due to various anthropogenic activities and usually cause irreversible damage to the natural aquatic ecosystem and unique drinking water resources. Remediation activities and monitoring of their effectiveness can never be done without laboratory analysis. The Alesund project has enabled a further and long-term increase in the technical level of water laboratories in the field of trace organic analysis.