Gas Chromatographic/Electron Capture Detection Method for Determination of Chlorinated Acids in Water: Collaborative Study

Abstract

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) interlaboratory method validation study was conducted on USEPA Method 515.1, "Determination of Chlorinated Acids in Water by Gas Chromatography with an Electron Capture Detector." This method is one of the 6 pesticide methods developed for the USEPA National Pesticide Survey (NPS). Method recovery and precision for analyses of sub-ppb to low-ppb concentrations of chlorinated acids were determined in reagent water and finished drinking waters. The analytes evaluated in the study included the 12 pesticides that were quantitatively measured in the National Pesticide Survey (bentazon, 2,4-D, 2,4-DB, 3,5-dichlorobenzoic acid, DCPA-diacid, dicamba, dichlorprop. 5-hydroxydicamba, pentachlorophenol, picloram, 2,4,5-T, and 2,4,5-TP) and 5 pesticides (acifluorfen, chloramben, dalapon, dinoseb, and 4-nitrophenol) that were only qualitatively assessed in the National Pesticide Survey because of recognized method imprecision. The study design was based on Youden's nonreplicate plan for collaborative tests of analytical methods. The waters were spiked with 17 chlorinated acids, each at 6 concentration levels, prepared as 3 Youden pairs. Eight laboratories extracted the spiked test waters at pH < 2 with ethyl ether, performed a solvent exchange with methyl tert-butyl ether, prepared methyl esters of the extracted acids using diazomethane, and analyzed an aliquot of each derivatized extract by gas chromatography with electron capture detection. The submitted data were analyzed using a USEPA computer program, which measured recovery and precision for each of the 17 compounds and compared the performance of the method between water types. Method 515.1 was judged acceptable for the 12 NPS analytes recovered quantitatively; mean percent recoveries at 10-15 times the method detection limits ranged from 79 to 105% in reagent water and from 75 to 123% in finished drinking water. In reagent water, overall precision (reproducibility relative standard deviation, RSDR) ranged from 9.6 to 34.2% and in finished drinking water, the RSDR ranged from 11.9 to 37.0%. Single-analyst precision (RSD for repeatability, RSDr) ranged from 5.8 to 17.7% in reagent water and from 4.6 to 27.9% in drinking water. Results for the 5 other NPS analytes were too inaccurate or imprecise and, for these compounds, supported use of the method for qualitative measurements only; the 5 compounds are not included in the adopted method. The method has been adopted first action by AOAC INTERNATIONAL for determination of residues of 12 chlorinated acids in finished drinking water.