United
States
Office
of
Water
EPA­
821­
F­
04­
014
Environmental
Protection
(
4303T)
November
2004
Agency
Fact
Sheet
Guidelines
Establishing
Test
Procedures
for
the
Analysis
of
Pollutants;
Procedures
for
Detection
and
Quantitation;
Notice
of
Document
Availability
and
Proposed
Rule
Withdrawal
Summary
EPA
is
withdrawing
its
March
2003
proposal
to
revise
detection
and
quantitation
procedures
used
in
CWA
programs.
EPA's
decision
to
withdraw
the
proposal
is
based
on
the
divergent
views
on
the
proposed
revisions
and
a
desire
to
improve
the
procedures
through
a
possible
stakeholder
dialogue.
EPA
is
also
releasing
a
revised
assessment
document
on
detection
and
quantitation
procedures.

What
is
the
EPA
doing
today?

The
EPA
is
withdrawing
its
March
2003
proposal
to
revise
detection
and
quantitation
procedures
used
in
Clean
Water
Act
(
CWA)
programs.
EPA
is
also
releasing
a
revised
assessment
document
entitled,
"
Revised
Assessment
of
Detection
and
Quantitation
Approaches."
This
revised
assessment
incorporates
public
comment
on
the
February
2003
draft
assessment
document.
These
actions
complete
the
terms
of
a
settlement
agreement
with
industry
Petitioners.

What
is
detection
and
quantitation?

Detection
indicates
the
presence
of
a
pollutant
in
a
sample.
Quantitation
indicates
how
much
pollutant
is
in
the
sample.
Detection
and
quantitation
procedures
apply
to
all
chemical
analytical
methods
under
the
Clean
Water
Act.
The
procedures
are
a
way
to
calibrate,
or
pretest
laboratory
instruments
to
confirm
that
they
accurately
measure
a
specific
chemical
pollutant
in
a
water
sample.
The
procedures
allow
the
lab
to
determine
how
well
the
instrument
detects
(
the
presence
of
a
pollutant)
and
quantifies
(
the
amount
of
that
pollutant)
a
chemical
in
a
water
sample.

Why
is
EPA
withdrawing
the
proposed
rule?

EPA's
decision
to
withdraw
the
proposed
rule
is
based
on
public
comments
on
the
proposed
changes.
Comments
represented
many
divergent
views
and
conflicting
suggestions
on
the
proposed
revisions
to
detection
and
quantitation
procedures.
Commenters
also
included
new
procedures
for
EPA
to
consider.
Rather
than
making
changes
to
the
existing
Agency
procedures,
EPA
will
get
better
results
if
it
continues
the
dialogue
with
individual
stakeholders
to
resolve
the
many
complex
technical
and
policy
issues
that
were
raised
in
public
comment.

What
is
EPA
doing
to
continue
the
dialogue
with
Stakeholders?

In
a
Federal
Register
Notice
published
on
September
15,
2004
[
69
FR
55547],
EPA
announced
the
beginning
of
the
design
of
a
process
for
dialogue.
A
neutral
party
is
interviewing
stakeholders
to
assess
the
feasibility
of
a
process
to
bring
a
broad
group
of
stakeholders
together
to
define
and
address
concerns
about
the
way
detection
and
quantitation
values
are
calculated
and
used
to
support
CWA
programs.
The
Agency
will
publish
the
results
of
this
feasibility
assessment
at
www.
epa.
gov/
waterscience/
methods.

Additional
Information
and
Copies
You
can
get
more
information
by
contacting
William
Telliard
at
the
EPA
Office
of
Water,
Engineering
and
Analysis
Division
(
4303T),
1200
Pennsylvania
Avenue,
NW
Washington,
D.
C.
20460;
(
Email:
Telliard.
William@
epa.
gov)

You
can
view
and
download
the
complete
text
of
the
Federal
Register
notices
by
visiting
the
Internet
at
/
www.
epa.
gov/
waterscience/
methods.
You
can
also
get
copies
of
the
notice
and
other
documents
by
calling
the
Water
Resource
Center
at
202­
566­
1729.
