Water and sediments: proficiency testing and reference materials programs

About our programs

Interest in environmental research and protection heightened immensely after the first Earth Day in 1970. As more and more research and monitoring were being conducted by different laboratories, questions regarding the quality of the data began to emerge:

• If I send the sample to two different laboratories, will they get the same result?
• If I do that, and the results are different, which laboratory is correct?
• Can I compare the data from this laboratory to the data from another laboratory?

As research programs evolved, programs aimed at answering those questions and ensuring the quality of data evolved along with them. At Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), those answers came in the form of proficiency testing schemes and the generation of reference materials.

Proficiency testing schemes involve sending the same or similar sample to multiple laboratories and comparing their results to that of the whole group.

Reference materials are samples with known characteristics such that a laboratory is able to compare any measurement of the sample to known values to ensure they are producing accurate results.

The goal of all of these programs is to help laboratories to improve their performance in a safe environment so that we can be confident in the integrity of the environmental knowledge being produced.

Please note that these programs are not restricted to Canadian laboratories. Our programs have ongoing participation from laboratories located in several countries all around the globe.

ECCC’s Information and Quality Management (IQM) Group is accredited as a Proficiency Testing Provider (ISO/IEC 17043) and as a Reference Material Producer (ISO 17034) by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation. View the certificates of accreditation.

Proficiency testing

We provide accredited proficiency testing (PT) studies for a wide range of constituents (for example, mercury, metals, dissolved organic and inorganic carbon) in water and sediment on a semi-annual basis.

The goal is to assess the analytical performance of participating laboratories and improve the quality of environmental data through inter-laboratory comparisons. 

This program has contributed to a remarkable improvement in the data quality of participating laboratories. This improvement translates to increased reliability and accuracy of laboratory data, which in turn supports key research and monitoring programs.

The purpose of the program is to identify sources of measurement uncertainty and variation among analytical results. The program also provides information on overall data quality and reliability. Laboratories have two months to analyze and submit data once samples are received. The Department's PT Program provides a final data summary comprising all laboratory data at the end of the study.

Individual participants are assigned unique codes in order to preserve confidentiality.

Provided samples include:

• rain and soft waters (RN)
• major ions and nutrients (MI)
• trace elements in water (TE)
• total phosphorus in water (TP)
• turbidity in water (TU)
• trace elements in sediment (SED)
• low and high level total mercury in water (HG)

Custom proficiency testing schemes

We collaborate with various organizations to provide custom proficiency testing programs. These include the Northern Contaminants Program – Arctic Monitoring Assessment Program Quality Assurance/Quality Control (NCP-AMAP QA/QC) Program and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ Hydrocarbon Inter-Comparison Exercise (DFO HICE).

We have a history of working with various environmental matrix samples such as water, sediment, and biota and would be happy to discuss potential collaborations.

Please contact ec.eacoutume-custompt.ec@canada.ca if you are interested in collaborating with us to create a custom PT scheme.

Collaborative work

We collaborate with Proficiency Testing Canada (PTC), formerly the Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation [CALA], to provide several of the proficiency testing samples for the national environmental laboratory accreditation program. These PT activities are the basis of performance assessment and lead to the granting of accreditation to participating laboratories by [CALA].

Contact us

For program, pricing, and technical information, or to place an order, please contact:

ec.ptstudies.ec@canada.ca
Tel: 905-336-4926
Fax: 905-336-8914

Our PT Program includes two PT studies, scheduled in the summer and winter months.

• 25% discount for first-time participants
• 10% discount on second study of calendar year

Reference materials

Reference materials produced and distributed include natural waters and naturally contaminated sediments. These materials are natural matrix materials that are representative of whole samples from various locations across North America. They are essential to assess the accuracy and reliability of laboratory measurement processes.

Waters

Aqueous matrix reference materials are representative of Canada's many lakes and rivers, and include natural and acid rain water samples. Some reference materials, for example natural waters used as a basis for trace element reference materials, are fortified with artificial doses of the target constituent (boron, calcium and titanium, for example).

We provide a large repository of these materials to analytical laboratories and interagency programs. They are developed through comprehensive inter-laboratory proficiency testing studies. Candidate reference materials samples are submitted to laboratories throughout the world. These materials are excellent representations of various environmental conditions. They are uniquely useful for analytical environmental laboratories.

Sediments

We also provide reference materials from naturally contaminated sediment sources. These sediment samples originate from various locations in the Great Lakes basin and provide a wide range of sediment types and contaminant levels.

Contact us

For program, pricing, and technical information or to place an order, please contact:

ec.crmsales.ec@canada.ca
​Tel: 905-336-4653
Fax: 905-336-8914