EPA Federal Register Approval of Ion Chromatography for Total Cyanide Analysis

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to add new and revised methods published by the EPA, voluntary consensus organizations such as ASTM International, and other commercial entities, for use in water quality monitoring. These changes and additional methods will provide increased flexibility to the regulated community and laboratories in their selection of analytical methods for use in Clean Water Act programs.

Dionex (USA) is pleased to announce that as part of a joint EPA/ASTM task force, Dionex has worked to implement new updates to expand choices available to laboratories for achieving compliance monitoring. This joint task force was created to simplify CN sampling and testing methods that sometimes result in false positives and false negatives in complex matrices.

The EPA is proposing to add ASTM D2036-09 Standard Test Methods for Cyanides in Water, Test Method A Total Cyanide after Distillation. “The inclusion of ion chromatography and gas diffusion separation with amperometric detection as determinative steps (D2036-09, sections 16.5 and 16.6) will give users additional options to measure cyanide after distillation. Furthermore, these
determinative steps can be used to mitigate interferences that have been associated with conventional colorimetric test methods.”