Review of the methods of the US Environmental Protection Agency for bromate determination and validation of Method 317.0 for disinfection by-product anions and low-level bromate

In recent years several methods have been published by the United States En vironmental Protection Agency (EPA) which specify bromate as a target analy te. The first of these was EPA Method 300.0. As technological improvements in ion chromatographic hardware have evolved and new detection techniques h ave been designed, method detection Limits for bromate have been reduced an d additional procedures have been written, including EPA Method 300.1, 321. 8 and, most recently, EPA Method 317.0. An overview of the evolution of the se bromate methods since 1989 is presented. The focus is specific to each o f these respective procedures, highlighting method strengths, weaknesses, a nd addressing how these methods fit into EPA's regulatory agenda. In additi on, performance data are presented detailing the joint EPA/American Society for Testing and Materials multilaboratory validation of EPA Method 317.0 f or disinfection by-product anions and low-level bromate. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.