Dorothy Walker and Ralph White are coordinating this program. Jon Raese is the new technical publications editor and reports specialist for NWQL, and is responsible for the newsletter. Ann Watterson is responsible for parts of the catalog and for the parameter and laboratory codes. Sherry Gee, secretary, holds all the pieces together, and Nancy Driver, chief, stirs up the pot most of the time. The QMG is in a stage of growth.
Customer feedback is encouraged as the QMG strives to improve services and meet client needs.
The previous method for determination of total alkalinity had a detection limit of 0.5 milligram per liter as CaCO 3 in water having a conductivity of 100 microsiemens per centimeter or less. Unfortunately, determinations by this method required up to 2 hours per sample, and false end points occasionally were obtained for certain types of samples. The new method is designed so that the conductivity of a given sample is used to customize or adjust instrument sensitivity to match the expected alkalinity. The instrument uses three levels of sensitivity to accurately detect inflection points for samples with total alkalinities ranging from 0.2 to 100 milligrams per liter as CaCO 3 . The increased instrument sensitivity makes it possible to automatically control the sample dose rate, titrant addition rate, curve smoothing, gain, and relative background noise.