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 Company: City of Clearwater Water Pollution Control Laboratory
Clearwater, FL
www.clearwater-fl.com/gov
Business Strategy:
The Water Pollution Control Laboratory is a component of the City of Clearwater Public Utilities Department. The main goal of the department is to provide the community of 108,000 people with safe drinking water, proactive wastewater collection system, and a very high standard wastewater treatment, which will in turn be able to provide reclaimed water to our customers.
Company Profile:
The WPC Lab provides analysis and support for Water Pollution Control, Water, and Wastewater Collection divisions. The WPC lab is five years old and it is resultant from the consolidation of two smaller plant labs. Some of its responsibilities include providing data for trend analysis, wastewater and sludge characterization, process efficiency and permit compliance monitoring. It is comprised of a Laboratory Manager, a QA/QC officer and seven chemists. The lab tests drinking water, wastewater and solid materials for the wastewater plants and the reverse osmosis plant, performing approximately 41,000 tests annually. Among these tests, the WPC laboratory performs for the three wastewater treatment plants analyses for conventional pollutants, composite samples are analyzed for metals and other pollutants, nutrient and metals loading rates in sludge, conventional pollutant removal efficiency of each process, anaerobic digester activities. Tests are also done for the wastewater collection system and lift station monitoring. Analyses are done for the Industrial Pretreatment Program. Quality control, regulatory compliance analyses and monthly bacteriological analyses are performed for the community drinking water system.
Sample Master® LIMS at the City of Clearwater Water Pollution Control Laboratory:
When the laboratory opted for a LIMS, the objective was to find a system with the flexibility to import analytical data from a variety of instruments, technique wise and brand wise, as well as be able to be integrated with external systems, such as SCADA, required little customization, easy to use for a staff of average computer users. The goal was to go from a paper-based environment to a paperless one. Previously, tracking and maintaining data and supporting documentation required by regulatory compliance on every test was cumbersome and a challenge. It was also important for the laboratory to have trending capabilities, so that tracking the results and the supporting data allow us to identify potential problems and be proactive. In the past, the handling of samples, bench sheets and manual entry of data and report preparation was a repetitive process, which created a potential for transcription errors. Summarizing, the initiative was to enable the laboratory to reduce turn around time, and achieve efficiency goals. Sample Master® LIMS was chosen because it met all of the WPC Laboratory requirements and more.
ATL offers users the ability to integrate Sample Master® with numerous analytical instruments as well as portable hand held units. Sample Master® was integrated with the WPC Laboratory's following instruments: Varian Saturn GC/MS, Perkin-Elmer Optima 2000, Analyst 600 and FIMS 100, Dionex Reagent Free Ion Chromatograph, Man-Sci PC Titrate, Man-Sci BOD Assay, Bran-Luebbe TRAACS 800 and Teledyne TOC analyzer. Instrument integration has allowed WPC Laboratory staff to enhance productivity while increasing data quality.
Since implementing Sample Master® LIMS, the WPC Laboratory has achieved its goals; it has gone from a paper-based environment to a paperless one while reducing transcription errors, enhancing data quality and increasing efficiency.
"Sample Master® LIMS has been fulfilling everything ATL promised. The period of time from installation to "go live" was surprisingly short. Right away the staff was able to use the major modules. The instrument integrations had no major problems and the staff learned how to parse data easily. The support has been outstanding. Anytime we contact support the response is almost immediate and sometimes more than one person gets in touch with us."
Maria de la Cantera, Laboratory Manager
Water Pollution Control Laboratory
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