Safe Drinking Water Act & Clean Water Act – What is it?

Safe Drinking Water Act

The Safe Drinking Water Act reflects the primary drinking water regulation. Drinking water here means finished drinking water from the plant and the distribution lines. But the Safe Drinking Water Act covers also the ground water sources for raw water and the surface water sources for Raw Drinking Water.

Clean Water Act

The Clean Water Act reflects the wastewater analyses. But it is not only the wastewater. The Clean Water Act covers also the Storm Water, the Surface Fresh Water like Rivers, Lakes and Streams. Also, the Marine Water with the control of the bays, the Estuaries and the Beaches are covered by the Clean Water Act too.

Documents for Safe Drinking Water and Clean Water Act

We continue to expand the portfolio of products to support the testing needs of environmental labs in the US for both Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act testing.  A major component of this expansion is the validation and reporting of the spectrophotometric test kits used for analytes of interest. This page contains all of the documentation and reporting needed by any lab to satisfy auditors of adequate quality control and product suitability.

In some cases, products were issued approval letters by the USEPA in the past.  Due to policy changes at the USEPA, approval letters are no longer provided and instead vendors and labs have to provide adequate documentation of equivalency. For those products where equivalency documentation is required, we have provided certificates of compliance, single laboratory validation and a helpful checklist for labs to comply with the guidelines established in the 2007 EPA Memo from Richard Reding.

We will continue to add and expand the product reports on this page as they become available. Please contact us if there is a specific product you would like more information on.

Approvals / Equivalency Documents

Available for the following parameters:

• Ammonia (Ammonium)
• Chlorine
• Chromate (Chromium VI)
• COD
• Cyanide (not available in North America)
• Nitrate
• Nitrite
• Phosphate
• Sulfate

We are working to provide you more.

USEPA Documentation for Spectroquant^® Test Kits

Ammonia (Ammonium)

			USEPA Equivalency for
Product No.	Spectroquant® Test Kits	Measuring Ranges	Clean Water Act	Safe Drinking Water Act
1.14558	Ammonium Cell Test	0.20 – 8.00 mg/L NH4-N 0.26 – 10.30 mg/L NH4+ 0.20 – 8.00 mg/L NH3-N 0.26 – 9.73 mg/L NH3	Yes	Yes*
1.14544	Ammonium Cell Test	0.5 – 16.0 mg/L NH4-N 0.6 – 20.6 mg/L NH4+ 0.5 – 16.0 mg/L NH3-N 0.6 – 19.5 mg/L NH3	Yes	Yes*
1.14559	Ammonium Cell Test	4.0 – 80.0 mg/L NH4-N 5.2 – 103.0 mg/L NH4+ 4.0 – 80.0 mg/L NH3-N 5.2 – 97.3 mg/L NH3	Yes	Yes*
1.14752	Ammonium Test	0.010 – 3.00 mg/L NH4-N 0.013 – 3.86 mg/L NH4+ 0.010 – 3.00 mg/L NH3-N 0.013 – 3.65 mg/L NH3	Yes	Yes*
1.00683	Ammonium Test	2.0 – 150 mg/L NH4-N 2.6 – 193 mg/L NH4+ 2.0 – 150 mg/L NH3-N 2.6 – 182 mg/L NH3	Yes	Yes*

* Safe Drinking Water Act uses methods in 40 CFR part 136 Clean Water Act. The Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Equivalency documents covers all pack sizes, cells and citation units mentioned in the insert sheet of the test kit.

Chlorine

			USEPA Equivalency for
Product No.	Spectroquant® Test Kits	Measuring Ranges	Clean Water Act	Safe Drinking Water Act
1.00595	Chlorine Cell Test (free chlorine)	0.03 - 6.00 mg/L CI2		Yes
1.00598	Chlorine Test (free chlorine)	0.010 - 6.00 mg/L Cl2		Yes
1.00602	Chlorine Test (total chlorine)	0.010 - 6.00 mg/L Cl2	Yes	Yes
1.00597	Chlorine Cell Test (free and total chlorine)	0.03 - 6.00 mg/L Cl2	Yes	Yes
1.00599	Chlorine Test for (free and total chlorine)	0.010 - 6.00 mg/L Cl2	Yes	Yes

Chromate (Chromium VI)

			USEPA Equivalency for
Product No.	Spectroquant® Test Kits	Measuring Ranges	Clean Water Act	Safe Drinking Water Act
1.14552	Chromate Cell Test (Chromium VI)	0.05 - 2.0 mg/L Cr	Yes

COD

			USEPA Equivalency for
Product No.	Spectroquant® Test Kits	Measuring Ranges	Clean Water Act	Safe Drinking Water Act
1.14560	COD Cell Test	4.0 - 40.0 mg/L COD	Yes
1.01796	COD Cell Test	5.0 – 80.0 mg/L COD	Yes
1.14540	COD Cell Test	10 - 150 mg/L COD	Yes
1.14895	COD Cell Test	15 - 300 mg/L COD	Yes
1.14541	COD Cell Test	25 - 1,500 mg/L COD	Yes
1.14691	COD Cell Test	300 - 3,500 mg/L COD	Yes
1.14555	COD Cell Test	500 - 10,000 mg/L COD	Yes
1.01797	COD Cell Test	5,000 – 90,000 mg/L COD	Yes

Cyanide

			USEPA Equivalency for
Product No.	Spectroquant® Test Kits	Measuring Ranges	Clean Water Act	Safe Drinking Water Act
1.14561	Cyanide Cell Test (free cyanide)	0.010 - 0.500 mg/L CN	Yes

Nitrate

			USEPA Equivalency for
Product No.	Spectroquant® Test Kits	Measuring Ranges	Clean Water Act	Safe Drinking Water Act
1.14542	Nitrate Cell Test	0.5-18.0 mg/L NO3-N	Yes
		2.2 – 79.7 mg/L NO3
1.14563	Nitrate Cell Test	0.5 - 25.0 mg/L NO3-N	Yes
		2.2 – 110.7 mg/L NO3
1.14764	Nitrate Cell Test	1.0 - 50.0 mg/L NO3-N	Yes
		4 – 221 mg/L NO3
1.00614	Nitrate Cell Test	23-225 mg/L NO3-N	Yes
		102 – 996 mg/L NO3
1.09713	Nitrate Test	0.10-25.0 mg/L NO3-N	Yes
		0.4 – 110.7 mg/L NO3
1.14773	Nitrate Test	0.2-20.0 mg/L NO3-N	Yes
		0.89 – 88.5 mg/L NO3
1.01842	Nitrate Test	0.3-30.0 mg/L NO3-N	Yes
		1.3 – 132.8 mg/L NO3
1.14556	Nitrate Cell Test  in seawater	0.10-3.00 mg/L NO3-N	Yes
		0.4 – 13.3 mg/L NO3
1.14942	Nitrate Test in seawater	0.2-17.0 mg/L NO3-N	Yes
		0.9 – 75.3 mg/L NO3

Nitrite

Product No.	Spectroquant® Test Kits	Measuring Ranges	USEPA Equivalency for
			Clean Water Act	Safe Drinking Water Act
1.14547	Nitrite Cell Test	0.010 – 0.700 mg/L NO2-N 0.03 – 2.30 mg/L NO2	Yes
1.00609	Nitrite Cell Test	1.0 – 90.0 mg/L NO2-N 3.0 – 295.2 mg/L NO2	Yes
1.14776	Nitrite  Test	0.002 – 1.00 mg/L NO2-N 0.007 – 3.28 mg/L NO2

Phosphate

			USEPA Equivalency for
Product No.	Spectroquant® Test Kits	Measuring Ranges	Clean Water Act	Safe Drinking Water Act
1.14543	Phosphate Cell Test	0.05 – 5.00 mg/L PO4-P	Yes	Yes
	(orthophosphate ad Total phosphorus)	0.2 – 15.3 mg/L PO4
1.14729	Phosphate Cell Test	0.5 – 25.0 mg/L PO4-P	Yes	Yes
	(orthophosphate ad Total phosphorus)	1.5 – 76.7 mg/L PO4

Sulfate

			USEPA Equivalency for
Product No.	Spectroquant® Test Kits	Measuring Ranges	Clean Water Act	Safe Drinking Water Act
1.14548	Sulfate Cell Test	5 - 250 mg/L SO4	Yes
1.14564	Sulfate Cell Test	100 - 1,000 mg/L SO4	Yes