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NRO PLANT LAB
The Dare County NRO Plant lab is
certified by the State of North Carolina for bacteriological
analysis of drinking water using state of the art lab equipment.
This certification is for two different types of bacteriological
analysis: qualitative
presence/absence for total and fecal coliform bacteria. These
methods are recognized by the state as acceptable in
determining if water is safe to drink from a bacteriological
viewpoint.
Compliance samples must be taken from
throughout our distribution system each month and analyzed for
bacteria content. The number of analyses required depends on the
size of the system. Dare County's water system serves a population
approximately 25,000, therefore, we are required to run 30
bacteriological analyses per month.
The NRO Plant lab also
performs numerous physical and chemical analysis on different waters
that we are concerned with. Analyses are performed on raw well
water, finished and distributed waters. We also monitor our
discharge waters according to a NPDES (National Pollution Discharge
Elimination System) permit.
The NRO Plant has two discharge
streams: a concentrate stream of 200 to 600 GPM and a feed water
instrument stream of .7 GPM. These discharge waters are monitored
weekly for turbidity, pH, Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and settable
matter. The TSS and turbidity tests are sent to a lab that is
certified by the State of North Carolina to run those tests. The
results are then forwarded to the North Carolina Division of
Environmental Management.
LAB
EQUIPMENT
The following is a list of lab
equipment used at the NRO Plant.
- Laboratory Fume Hood
- This item is used for the
protection of lab personnel from hazardous fumes, vapors, odors,
particles and contaminants.
- Hot Air Oven
- The Hot Air Oven is used for dry
content analysis, glassware drying and dry sterilization.
- Desiccator Cabinet
- This cabinet is used for
absorbing moisture and ensuring that moisture sensitive samples
remain safe without constant monitoring.
- Lab Incubator
- This instrument is used for
bacteriological tests, it maintains a temperature of 35 degrees
Celsius and maintains it throughout the test.
- Lab Refrigerator
- This refrigerator is used to
store any lab items that are high temperature sensitive such as
media and organisms.
- Analytical Balance
- This scale is used for exact
weighing and measuring of filters used for dry content analysis.
Resolution down to one ten thousandth of a gram
- Hach DR 3000
Spectrophotometer
- This is a
microprocessor-operated laboratory instrument pre-programmed
with calibrations for most water management test requirements.
- DRT 15CE turbidimeter
- The turbidimeter detects light
and provides an electrical signal that is proportional to the
turbidity of the liquid.
- Accumet pH Meter 915
- The basic principle of
electrometic pH measurement is a determination of the activity
of the hydrogen ions by potentiometic measurement using a
standard hydrogen electrode and a reference electrode.
- Corning Mega Pure
System - Still
- The Mega Pure still is a
compact, all glass unit with Teflon connectors designed to
provide one liter per hour of high purity distilled water.
Trace Detect Safe Guard (trace metals analyzer)
- This instrument is capable of measuring
metals into the single digit parts per billion (ppb) range with
limited operator interaction. With this instrument we can
monitor the effectiveness of the arsenic removal vessels that
were added to our process in November of 2005.
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