Quantitation Limits for Reference Methods 23, 26, and 29

In December 1996, dual- and quad-train sampling was conducted at a municipal waste combustor to establish the reference method quantitation limit (RMQL)-the concentration where method imprecision is ±30%-for Methods 23, 26, and 29. The 7% O₂-corrected RMQLs for International Toxic Equivalent dioxins are between 0.1 and 0.5 ng/dsm³, between 3 and 21 ng/dsm³ for total di-oxins and furans, 0.02-0.06 gr/dsft³ for Method 29 train front-half particulates, 35-90 mg/dsm³ for cadmium, 5001,900 mg/dsm³ for lead, 20-90 mg/dsm³ for mercury, and 130-220 ppm_dv for HCl. Since these RMQLs are 10 to 1,000 times higher than the associated analytical laboratory method detection limits, better precision will not be obtained by refining the laboratory methods. The analytical laboratory is not the primary source of uncertainty.