On February 26th Gunpowder RIVERKEEPER® took the next steps toward achieving Tier 3 water quality monitoring accreditation by passing our state approved proficiency test for our bacterial monitoring program. Tier 3 is an important benchmark from the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative (CMC) because it allows our data that we gather to be used by the state of Maryland for regulatory assessments.
While Brady Bayne has been working his dorsal quadrant off to prepare the QAPP: Quality Assurance Project Plan for the monitoring program, we also had to prove to the CMC that our instruments and equipment could accurately measure how much bacteria is in the water. We ordered our proficiency test from the certifying lab and waited eagerly for our box of bacteria to arrive in the mail.
Once we received the test, all we needed to do was the same thing we did every week all summer: run the sample through the EPA approved IDEXX Method to determine the most probable number (MPN) which where on MPN is equal to one colony forming units of bacteria. We set up the test sample, sealed it in a Quanti-tray, incubated it for 18 hours, and placed it under an Ultra Violet light. The cells on the Quanti-Tray that were florescent (as seen below) indicated that bacteria was present within them. By counting up the florescent cells we used our reference sheet to determine the amount of bacterial in MPN present in the water sample.
It only took a few more days for the lab to get back to us that we had accurately calculated the MPN within the margin of error to become certified! While we still have a few more steps to complete on our Bacterial Monitoring QAPP and a few more after that for our Tidal Monitoring QAPP, we are very excited to have passed this checkpoint in the Tier 3 accreditation process.
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