2023-10-03_REVISION - M1977344 (22)

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Red Creek Quarry Baseline Water Investigation Section 4 4-7 DRAFT for review purposes only. Use of contents on this sheet is subject to the limitations specified at the end of this document. Laboratory deionized water, devoid of all dissolved ions, was generated by SGS Laboratories. Commercially available distilled water is produced through boiling then condensing water to remove ions and impurities. A sample of the commercially available distilled water used to generate the equipment blank was collected during the May 2023 sampling event to evaluate the level of constituents in the commercially available distilled water for comparison with the equipment blank results. The distilled water blank was field filtered, preserved, analyzed for the same suite of constituents as the equipment blank sample. Results from the equipment blank and distilled water analysis indicate the commercially available distilled water contains low concentrations of ammonia, boron, magnesium, sodium, and manganese (Appendix E). The concentrations of these metals/metalloids in the distilled water are either orders of magnitude below water quality standards or no standard exists for the analyte. Results from the field blanks indicate low concentrations of ammonia, barium, boron, iron, fluoride, sodium, manganese, zinc and total dissolved solids (TDS). Analytes detected in the equipment blanks are flagged as estimated due to the very low concentrations detected between the method detection and reporting limit. Low concentrations of constituents in the equipment blanks may be due to residual groundwater on the water level meter after decontamination or the water used to clean the equipment. The low concentrations in the equipment blank samples compared to the groundwater well samples indicate the decontamination processes used were affective at preventing cross contamination between groundwater wells. 4.5.3 Data Validation and Data Review Procedures Laboratory analytical data were reviewed for completeness and validated as described in the QAPP. Data were validated according to the protocols and QC requirements of the specific analytical methods, including a review of the following criteria: • Data completeness • Holding times and sample preservation • Field duplicate accuracy • Surrogate recoveries • Laboratory control sample recoveries • MS and MSDs • Method and field blank contamination • Initial and continuing calibration summaries • Compound quantitation • Reporting limits • Sample comments and laboratory quality control summaries Results qualified as estimated (J flagged) or rejected as unusable (R flagged) were assigned reason codes to indicate any QC parameter that did not meet the data objectives. Data qualified as estimated are considered usable for the intended purpose; however, the reported result may not be accurate or precise. Sampling results, including data qualifiers, are discussed further in the data validation reports (Appendix E).