Water Quality Lab: Available Tests

Instruments and Analytical Methods

Below you'll find a list of equipment and tests available through the KWI Water Quality Lab. We continue to add capacity and equipment, so please contact the WQL for more information or to ask about a test not shown here.

Physical and Chemical Parameters

  • pH
  • Dissolved org. carbon (DOC)
  • Conductivity
  • Total org. carbon (TOC)
  • Alkalinity
  • Microbiology Tests (E.coli, Coliforms)
  • Hardness
  • Turbidity
  • Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)
  • Total Suspended Solids (TSS)
  • Total Solids (TS)

Some tests are performed by collaborating with the K-State Soil Testing Lab, Isotope Mass Spec Lab, Food Safety and Public Health Lab, and Konza Prairie Ecological Research Lab.

 

Dionex ICS-6000 System

  • Quantify inorganic anions (F-, Cl-, Br, SO42-, PO43, NO3-, and NO2-)
  • Cations (Ca2+, Na+, Mg2+, K+, NH4+, and Sr2+)
  • Surface water, ground water, and drinking water
  • EPA 300.1 method
  • Can measure acetate and formate in high-purity water used for semiconductor industries

Gallery Discrete analyzer and SKALAR Flow analyzer

  • Colorimetric assays
  • Nutrient analysis
  • Gallery – measures a very low level of nutrients in water
  • SKALAR - NO3-, NO2- andNH4+
  • Water and soil extractions

Thermo Scientific iCAP PRO DUO-ICP OES

  • Analysis of metals and minerals
  • Water, soils, plants, grains
  • Detection limits to sub-ppm level
  • Shared with K-State Soil Testing Lab

Fully Automated Kjeldahl Nitrogen Analyzer

  • Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen in water/wastewater​
  • Proteins, ammoniacal nitrogen, urea​
  • Animal feed, fertilizer, ​sludge, biosolids ​

Agilent 1260 Infinity III LC coupled with Agilent 8900 ICP-MS/MS

  • Measures trace elements​ -water, soil, plant material, biological tissue, urine, serum, insects, nanoparticles, and fertilizers​
  • Powerful technique to quantify trace elements at the ppt level​
  • Speciation of trace elements (As, Br, I, Se, Sn, Hg)

Agilent 6425 TQ-LC-MS/MS and Waters Absolute TQ LC-MS/MS

  • Trace levels of organic contaminants​
  • Polar and non-polar pesticides/herbicides​
  • Mycotoxins, antibiotics, algal toxins, and pharmaceutical residues
  • PFAS – EPA 1633A
  • Method development services for researchers​​

Agilent 8890 GC coupled to tandem MS/MS

  • Volatile organic compounds​, including volatile PFAS compounds​
  • Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)
  • Organophosphorus Pesticides​