Scott Jacobs has decades of experience in laboratory testing and has collaborated with the task group that updated the current edition (2015) of Standard Methods 2540 – Solids. Photos by City of Modesto.
Attendees at Scott Jacobs’ presentation at the AC25 in Palm Springs this April can expect to learn what they need to do in their laboratories to make sure they won’t have any solids-related issues in their next ELAP audit.
“My presentation will cover many aspects of solids testing,” says Jacobs, who is the Senior Lab Analyst III for the City of Modesto, where he’s been working for 17 years. He adds that what is most important for those testing for various forms of solids in a California ELAP certified facility is the differences between the 2015 revision of the method and the previous version.
“With the ‘TNI minus 2’ quality system in full effect,” he explains, “any ELAP certified lab is now required to be performing versions of methods that have been embraced by the US EPA through their Method Update Rule. Wastewater solids fall in this category.”
Photos by City of Modesto.
Jacobs plans to discuss changes laboratories need to make in their SOPs before their next ELAP audit. He’ll also be covering techniques and principles that can be applied to assure high-quality results and minimize sample batch failures based on Quality system requirements. “I also address the preparation of your own QC standards for solids so you can avoid having to purchase QC standards from outside sources, which can be expensive,” he says.
The session will also cover techniques attendees can incorporate in their analyses to minimize time spent on each analysis and still generate quality data, and will give the audience a chance to participate in a new study Jacobs is initiating regarding the TDS test.
“I’m going to present what I hope to get adopted by Standard Methods as a better approach to the TDS test, which is less tedious, yet results in higher quality data,” Jacobs says. “The audience will be given the opportunity to participate in the study that will demonstrate the validity of my modification of the method (or not).”
Jacobs is uniquely qualified to lead this session. He’s gathered information through decades of work in laboratory testing and his experience with the task group that wrote the revisions to the current edition (2015) of Standard Methods 2540—Solids. He’s also responsible for the QC standards for TSS/VSS and TDS/FDS at his Modesto laboratory.
“I am mostly responsible for routine analysis of our plant and industry samples,” he explains. “However, I am currently setting up and getting certified our Ion Chromatograph for Nitrate, Nitrite, and Chloride analysis.” Prior to this work, he spent some eight months developing solids QC standards.
But his experience goes back even further—maybe even 40 years.
“I was raised by an analytical laboratory,” he says. “That is to say, my parents started and owned a full-service laboratory serving the chemical and microbiological needs of food, feed, and dairy producers as well as doing water and wastewater analysis for several municipalities and industries.”
He and his brother were put to work preparing samples and cleaning lab glassware. “My earliest lab memory – I was probably eight years old – is filling dilution water blanks for micro with 100 ml of purified water and getting them ready to be autoclaved,” he remembers.
Today, Jacobs holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from CSU Stanislaus and has a Grade 4 lab analyst certification from CWEA.
He says he saw that CWEA had extended the call for technical presentations for AC25 and thought, “Why not? It’s something new to me that I think I have an interesting perspective on that other lab analysts could use to make their work more efficient and rewarding.”
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