Natural Environment Monitoring 2013, No 14, 55-65
THE QUALITY ASSURANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL SYSTEM OF POLLUTANTS MEASUREMENTS IN WET DEPOSITION AT THE PUSZCZA BORECKA STATION
Krzysztof Skotak, Anna Degórska, Zdzisław Prządka, Tomasz Śnieżek
Summary
Despite the improvement of air quality in Europe, some pollutants (including ozone, particulate matter, benzene and contamination identified in deposition) remains a significant problem. Results of measurements carried out under the State Environmental Monitoring System in Poland shows acidic precipitation (pH less then 5,6). For ensure good quality environmental monitoring results and making possibility its comparison, establishing the quality assurance and quality control system is necessary (QA/QC). This requires a lot of efforts including implementation of specified procedures and activities for systematization of measurement methods and assessment of uncertainty results.
This paper presents QA/QC system for pollutants measurements in wet deposition at the Puszcza Borecka Station. Identification and quantification the main components of uncertainty in elements of the measuring chain were done. Result shows, that most important elements affecting the uncertainty in the wet deposition measurements included precipitation sampling and measurement, using laboratory methods for the pollutant analysis and deposition rules calculation. Obtained results of calculating expanded uncertainty in 2008–2011 period for individual pollutants for load in precipitation (including ions, heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) were discussed. Uncertainty results confirmed meeting European Union and Polish quality requirements at Puszcza Borecka Station. Genially the lowest values of the uncertainty measurements in wet deposition were observed for ions (about 15%), and highest for heavy metals (25%). The largest fluctuations in uncertainty (between 15–45%) for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were observed.
