Guidelines Establishing Test Procedures for the Analysis of Pollutants Under the Clean Water Act; National Primary Drinking Water Regulations; and National Secondary Drinking Water Regulations; Analysis and Sampling Procedures

This rule modifies the testing procedures approved for analysis and sampling under the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. EPA proposed these changes for public comment on August 18, 2003 and April 6, 2004. The Clean Water Act changes adopted in this final rule fall into the following categories: new vendor-developed methods as well as EPA and voluntary consensus standard bodies (VCSB) methods, updated versions of currently approved methods, revisions to method modification and analytical requirements, withdrawal of certain outdated methods, and changes to sample collection, preservation, and holding time requirements. This rule also changes regulations under the Safe Drinking Water Act that establish drinking water sampling and analysis procedures. The changes include approval of vendor-developed methods, new EPA and VCSB methods, updated VCSB methods, and approval of a modification to the test kit used with Syngenta Method AG-625 that restricts its use in certain circumstances. The addition of new and updated methods to the wastewater and drinking water regulations provides increased flexibility to the regulated community and laboratories in the selection of analytical methods.