Technical And Environmental Services
We strive to provide an extensive range of the technical and environmental services you expect, with the quality you deserve.
Acculab performs routine collection, analysis and reporting for both Article III and NPDES Permits. In addition to these services our company conducts both pre-mining PHC and BWQ studies, and for Phase Release of the Article III Permits for post mining conditions as well.
Additional field related services include water quality monitoring and treatment, rapid response pond “shocking” services for excessive solids, groundwater surveys, residential well pump down and recharge service, borehole camera logging, environmental audits, containment inspections, and water quality consulting.
Testing parameters consist of inorganic compounds such as but not limited to acidity alkalinity, ammonia, conductivity, cyanide, mercury, mineral content, nitrates, phenols, pH, Sulfur, solids, and trace metals such as aluminum, iron and manganese.
Most of the above test are analyzed using a wide array of wet chemistry methods. Minerals and trace metal testing consist of using atomic absorption units of graphite furnace analysis to measure pollution concentrations.
Solids testing involve the weighing and evaporation of a sample after passing through a filter and drying oven. Samples are then placed in desiccators to cool before weighing.
pH is a measurement of the hydrogen ions of solutions using probes. Acidity and Alkalinity relates to pH but involves the titration of specific volumes of acidic and basic solutions.
Cyanides and Phenols are acquired by adding reagent to a solution and then these samples are tested on a special distillation instrument to achieve analysis results.
Organic compounds such as oil and grease use an extraction process where reagent are added to the testing apparatus and if the reagents adhere to the oil or grease compounds then they are measured for concentration . Samples that are collected so diesel or gasoline range organics are sub-contracted to another facility.
Microbiological samples are collected and all the analytical testing apparatus and containers are sterilized with alcohol during preparation. Then each individual sample is administered a special broth of reagent and incubated for 24 hours to promote bacterial growth. After this period the colonies in the cultured sample are counted.
At the end of each calendar month a Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) is prepared for the client and results are also forwarded to the Water Quality Division of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. This DMR contains the analytical data that was generated by our company during the laboratory testing process. DMRS are generated by data entry by our clerical staff.
If during the month a sample tests either above the monthly average or the daily maximum limits that are assigned by the NPDES then the client is notified and depending on the parameter a pond treatment schedule may be implemented in order to bring the discharge into compliance.
