Information about our  Water And Wastewater Laboratory

OUR LABORATORY

DEYACh Water and Wastewater Laboratory was founded in 1991 to cover the needs of Municipality of Chania. Initially and up to 1995 it functioned in the installations of Central Water Reservoir of Agios Ioannis and from the summer of 1995 and on it has been operating on the grounds of Chania Wastewater Treatment Plant in a building of 200 square meters, divided in three autonomous laboratories: Water, Wastewaters and Microbiological with infrastructure and equipment for the analyses of waters and wastewaters while the specifications of manufacture have followed the latest technical standards.

PERSONNEL-EQUIPMENT

The personnel of the laboratory

Laboratory personnel consists of a chemical engineering, a chemist, a food technologist and a laboratory technician. Almost in permanent base it occupies also in undergraduated students of Technological Educational Institutes for their six-month practical exercise and at summer months students of University for practical exercise or for their thesis.

The equipment of the laboratory

The equipment includes a gas chromatographer, an atomic absorption spectrophotometer , two UV-VIS spectrophotometers, hot air ovens for dry-heat sterillization, autoclave, incubators, membrane vacuum filtration equipment, analytical balances, precision balances, microscope with phase contrast and display, incubators for BOD and COD, oxygen meter, nitrogen digestion and distillation units, pH-meters, conductivity meters, photometer for residual chlorine monitoring, nephelometer, water deionisers and water distillers, muffle furnace and various basic instruments (refrigerators, freezers, thermometers, heated stirring plates, etc)

Sampling equipment includes a car used exclusively for this, portable refrigerators for the transport of samples and portable instruments for field measurements: chlorine, oxygen, temperature, conductivity, pH

LABORATORY ACTIVITIES

The activities of laboratory include:
The monitoring of drinking water of Chania in the network and the water resources according to the chemical and microbiological standards set by the legislation.
Τhe monitoring of the operation of WWTP with analyses in all stages of treatment and the monitoring of environmental standards compliance.
The monitoring of microbiological quality of bathing waters in the city and in the neighbouring to the WWTP coasts.
The monitoring of quality of water in points of high sanitary interest (Hospital of Chania, State Swimming pool, etc).
Samplings and analyses of potable water in a lot of municipalities of the Prefecture of Chania via programmatic conventions.
Analyses of water for customers of the private and public sector
Collaboration with other laboratories: Technical University of Crete, Technical University of Athens, University of Crete, General Chemical laboratory of State and with privately accredited laboratories for the implementation of analyses that we do not have the possibility to develop because of their complexity and the small number of samples annually and for the implementation of research programs.
Participation in research programs 
STRIDE HELLAS 1991-93 “Qualitative control and rational use of aquatic dynamic of Western Crete” with collaborating institutions DEYACh, Technical University of Crete (Department of Mineral Resources, General Department) and OADYK (Organisation for the Development of Western Crete).
PAVE 1994-95 “Determination of volatile organic compounds as by-products of chlorination in potable water ” with collaborating institutions DEYACh and the Laboratory of Technology and Management of Environment of Technical University of Crete
EQUASE 1996-99, 2000- 2005 European program of external Quality Control of microbiological Laboratories for potable and marine waters with the National Faculty of Public Health (ESDY), as the Greek National Coordinator.
From the beginning of 2006 in collaboration with the laboratory of DEYA
Heraklion we participate in a three year project for the monitoring of surface
and underground waters in the region of Crete via the Operational Program “Environment” of Y.PE.HO.DE. (MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT PLANNING AND PUBLIC WORKS) in meter 1.1. “Water quality monitoring”

SAMPLING – ANALYSES

Sampling

The Laboratory with a car exclusively used for this, and with all necessary equipment (refrigerators, portable instruments) and personnel conducts all the sampling of potable water in the network, the resources and the reservoirs of DEYACh, of nearby bathing waters, of certain nearby municipalities etc.
All the samples are coded and registered before their entry in the Laboratory.
In 2004 we realised 3040 samplings for microbiological and chemical analyses of waters and 1217 samplings of waste waters from the WWTP

Analyses

From the moment when the sample enters the laboratory it is assigned a code number, in order that the analyst does not know its origin and so we ensure the objectivity in the handling of the sample.
The analyses are conducted with methods which conform with the legislation and the international standards for analysis of water (ISO, “Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater”).
The Laboratory conducts all the microbiological analyses of water and the greatest part of chemical analyses (physiochemical parameters, basic anions – cations, routine metals, organic by-products of chlorination) – for analyses of certain heavy metals, pesiticides and polyaromatic hydrocarbons it collaborates with ISO 17025 accredited and academic laboratories.
It also conducts all the routine testing for WWTP.
Ιn 2004 we realised 3630 laboratorial analyses of water in 470 samples of potable water of network and resources, 3773 analyses of wastewater in 1217 samples from the WWTP as well as 2104 checks for residual chlorine in water supply network.

QUALITY CONTROL 

External quality control or quality assesment

Microbiological analyses

The laboratory participates in the European program EQUASE that is coordinated for Greece by the National Faculty for Public Health from 1997 until today. In this program, in a European network of 183 laboratories (36 Greek water laboratories) 12 to 15 samples are analysed annually . The samples are of unknown content in microbiological indicators (total coliforms , fecal coliforms , E.COLI , enterococcus , total plate count in 22°/37°C, pseudomonas aeroginosa and clostridium perfringens), then the results of various laboratories are collected and statistically processed and each laboratory “is placed” concerning the divergence that it has from the mean of results and is marked as for the “receptibility” of its results. The results of DEYACh are always found in the acceptable region, and very close to the target values.

Chemical analyses

For external quality control we take part in the LEAP scheme (England) for the parameters fluorides, active and total phosphorus, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, chloride, sulfates, alkalinity, hardness, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, pH, turbidity, conductivity, permanganate index, trihalomethanes, tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene and from 2005 for routine metals (iron, coper, manganese, zinc, aluminium etc)

Internal Quality control

The internal quality control is based on the evaluation of the ability of each analyst, on the regular analysis of reference samples, on the analysis of blank reagents, on the frequent calibration of methods, on the realisation of duplicate samples and on the construction and follow-up of control charts

The Laboratory of DEYACh having already incorporated quality control is going to start in 2006 the process of accreditation according to ISO 17025