develop consensus standards for use by TNI's programs. This group has a support role in assisting other programs with activities such as guidance and standards interpretation.
fosters the generation of data of known and documented quality is through the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program, or NELAP. The purpose of this program is to establish and implement a program for the accreditation of environmental laboratories.
is to establish and maintain a national PT program to support TNI’s National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program, and other activities.
Field Activities Program (NEFAP) Executive Committee is to establish and implement an accreditation program for field sampling and measurement organizations (FSMOs).
Audit Sample Program is to develop consensus standards for the manufacture and analysis of audit samples for source emission testing.
on a variety of topics of interest to the environmental measurement community. TNI also hosts two regularly scheduled meetings per year, typically in January and August. Both are a week long and involve open meetings of TNI committees as well as training courses and other special sessions.Combined Interpretations of the 2003, 2009, and 2016 Standards that apply to Volume 1 of the 2016 TNI Standard
Question: Regarding microbiological samples and especially the potentially reduced frequency of checks for absence of chlorine residual for potable water sources (including source water): What are the definitions of "source" and "source water" in this context? TNI Response: "Source water" is defined by EPA as "Untreated water from streams, rivers, lakes, or underground aquifers, which is used to supply private and public drinking water supplies" Question: Regarding microbiological samples and especially the potentially reduced frequency of checks for absence of chlorine residual for potable water sources (including source water): What constitutes a unique "source"? Some considerations are: TNI Response: It is the intent of the standard to verify removal of chlorine residual from all samples that may have been chlorinated. This check is made on sample containers received by the laboratory, regardless of how they were collected. A definition of source was added in 1.3.1 of the 2016 standard and section 1.7.5.2 was extensively revised. Question: Regarding microbiological samples and especially the potentially reduced frequency of checks for absence of chlorine residual for potable water sources (including source water): What constitutes sufficient documentation or objective evidence that "the laboratory can 'show' that the received sample container are from their laboratory?" For example, IDEXX containers provided by various laboratories to customers are indistinguishable, unless a laboratory marks the containers to show they came from a specific laboratory in a large nationwide chain of laboratories. TNI Response: This question is a business decision as to how a lab would like to prove the bottle came from their laboratory and therefore not a question of clarity with regard to the standard.
MODULE 5: MICROBIOLOGY TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
Section: 1.7.5
a. A water body (stream or lake) as a source vs. discrete segments (i.e., random or recurring sampling locations) of the water body as unique sources of source water.
b. Individual wells producing source water.
c. A common aquifer with multiple wells producing source water from that aquifer.
d. A water distribution system as a source vs. individual sampling locations specified in the sampling plan for the distribution system as unique sources.
It seems like the intent of this section was to perform checks to verify removal of chlorine residual from samples from all new potable water sources and random checks for routine samples submitted by long-term customers whose samples satisfy all four conditions in 1.7.5.b.i to iv.
