Sensible Water Use With WaterSense

Here at WETLAB Western Environmental Testing Laboratory, water quality is our business. It effects everybody - from healthy drinking water to a healthy environment. But today everybody also needs to think about water quantity, not just water quality.

Water shortages are growing larger and becoming more frequent. The World Bank reports that 80 countries are experiencing water shortages and more than 2 billion people don’t have access to clean water, according to The University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

The problem is the inevitable consequence of a growing world population - doubling the demand on water every 21 years, according to the University.

Most of us use know the basics of using water wisely - from not running the tap while brushing your teeth to making less water intensive choices when landscaping. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is aiming to up your knowledge on how to save water through easy education and simple guidelines, available at  www.epa.gov/watersense/.

Educational tools great for the whole family include a quiz titled “ Test Your WaterSense,” a calculator will let you figure out how much you can save at home, a guide shows you local rebates for saving and more.

Their guidelines for flushing, for example, could reduce toilet flush rates by 20 percent and urinal flush rates by 50 percent, according to the Green Education Foundation.
“If one in every 10 homes in the United States were to install WaterSense labeled faucets or faucet accessories in their bathrooms, it could save 6 billion gallons of water per year, and more than $50 million in the energy costs to supply, heat and treat that water,” according to the EPA.

Those fixtures and appliances have been independently tested for efficiency and performance to meet the EPA WaterSense standard.

And it’s already working, saving 125 billion gallons of water and $2 billion in utility bills in the last five years, according to Stephanie Thornton, as quoted by the Green Education Foundation.

Here in Northern Nevada, the Truckee Meadows Water Authority also offers guidelines for saving water and implementing assigned day watering for landscaping.
We’re in a high desert environment, subject to the snow pack of the Sierra Nevada, so while last winter may have left our region relatively flush, we never know what Mother Nature has in store for us in the next year.

In Southern Nevada, the Las Vegas Sun has set up a count down to when Las Vegas could theoretically run out of water (2021!) if water usage isn’t changed.

Wetlab Expands into Las Vegas

Viva Las Vegas!  As for Vegas, the lease is completed and we're currently setting up and going through the certification process for the test we will perform in Vegas. We will perform locally Total Coliform, Quant Tray, Fecal Coliform, pH and BOD5.

The address is 3230 Polaris Ave. Unit 4, Las Vegas, NV 89102.
For additional information please contact Nick Ross at (775) 355-0202.

26th ANNUAL MINING EXPO

MINING EXPO

Lake Tahoe Snowmelt

Lake Tahoe snowmelt floods water sampling labs, hydrologists with work

A web of agencies and scientists work day and night each spring to monitor the aquatic health of one of North America’s most majestic alpine lakes

In the world of water quality monitoring, there is perhaps no more majestic setting or no more intense industry epicenter than Lake Tahoe.

Twenty-two miles long, more than 1,500 feet deep — and surrounded by vacation homes, ski resorts, casinos and lodges — Tahoe is the perfect mix of jaw-dropping, crystalline natural treasure and highway- and home-ringed recreation Mecca that has fueled an intense, long-term web of water quality monitoring programs to gauge the lake’s aquatic health.

Over the span of more than 50 years, scientists have deployed all throughout the year, all across the lake, to gauge sediment loading, nutrient concentrations and water clarity.

But one time of year — when the mountains of snow that ring that lake begin to slowly succumb to the spring’s long days and warm sun — brings of a flood of water quality monitoring work to sampling labs, scientists, non-profit groups and regulators.

The few weeks when spring runoff intensifies — swelling streams and filling the lake with fresh snowmelt — is one of the most critical annual cycles for the clarity of the lake. It is then that agencies can gauge if BMPs (Best Management Practices) are filtering road grime and sediment from construction sites, driveways and roadways. It is then that the effects of the millions of dollars that are regularly invested in catch basins, filtration ponds, and stream and wetland restoration are calculated.

Hydrologists, volunteers and laboratories are flooded with work, literally working day and night to pinpoint the effect of stormwater drainage on one of the world’s most studied bodies of water.

“If [runoff peaks] at 12 o’ clock at night on Christmas day, you go out a monitor then because you don’t want to miss that. Often you are out there in the middle of the night or on weekends,” said John Reuter, associate director of U.C. Davis’s Tahoe Environmental Research Center.

While the waters of Lake Tahoe have been monitored since 1958, agencies have only recently been examining the precise effects of stormwater drainage on Lake Tahoe’s water quality. In 2003, in conjunction with the EPA-mandated Total Maximum Daily Load program, agencies began sampling 16 stormwater sites around the lake. The results confirmed that 70 percent of the fine particles that end up clouding Lake Tahoe’s clarity are coming from urban sites.

Lake Tahoe’s three pollutants of concern — Phosphorous, Nitrogen and fine sediment — are tested and gauged by agency and private labs in the region. Phosphorous and nitrogen stimulate algae growth in the lake, which clouds the lake’s clarity, and sediment that is five times less thick than a human hair, gets suspended in the water, also impairing Tahoe’s famed crystalline waters.

Laboratories like nearby Sparks, Nev.-based WETLAB brace for the flood of laboratory work that each spring runoff season brings.

WETLAB’s state-of-the-art lab was built in 2006 to accommodate the increasing monitoring workload of water analysis from nearby agencies, mining regulators and environmental non-profits. The lab’s business, built on all types of regulatory compliance and environmental restoration work — from Lake Tahoe water testing to environmental testing around mining sites — has boomed in the past year. WETLAB has grown revenue by nearly 30 percent in the last year and hired over 11 full- and part-time employees.

“WETLAB braces for spring each year, knowing that snowmelt means our busy season is here,” said Michelle Sherven, president of WETLAB. “We have even added services, like a dedicated shuttle between our lab and Lake Tahoe, to help busy agencies and non-profit complete important water tests on time during the tense runoff months.”

The precision of the water quality testing is incredibly important as the results guide heavy federal, state and local investment in the environmental future of the lake.

Some of the fixes to the stormwater pollutants that run off of roads, driveways and roofs are simple and common — street sweeping to catch sediment before it is washed into the lake or filtration basins. But when dealing with very fine sediment and minute particles that wash swiftly from shoreline urban areas into the lake, some unique, cutting-edge solutions to Lake Tahoe’s stormwater pollution are being considered, said Reuter.

Ideas like a “pump-and-treat” system — where stormwater is pumped uphill to a man-made filtration area or a natural watershed where the sediment can slowly filter out of the water before it reaches the lake — are being talked about.

Whatever direction the efforts to maintain and restore Lake Tahoe’s famed water clarity take, springtime will continue to be a critical season for scientists, regulators and laboratories to gauge the condition of one of the nation’s most treasured natural wonders.

Meet Michelle Sherven

Michelle Sherven is the owner/operator of WETLAB - Western Environmental Testing Laboratory.

WETLAB is a company that has shown tremendous growth over the past year. Michelle took this company from a small start-up to a well established business with overflowing clientele and an increase in revenue and hiring. WETLAB’s revenue increased 29% over the past year, showing enough promise for Michelle to add 4 new full time employees and 7 part time employees. WETLAB started with a total of seven employees. As any entrepreneur knows, creating jobs in a “down” economy is a feat in itself, yet Michelle comfortably made the decision to add to her team because she not only could, but had to. In addition to adding team members, WETLAB was able to expand their working space and equipment list.

WETLAB purchased a new building to conduct business in, adding 11,000 sq ft to their offices and labs. WETLAB also added additional office spaces outside the Reno/Sparks area, purchasing a location in Elko. Along with the extra space, WETLAB’s finances were so stable that Michelle added several new pieces of cutting edge technology testing equipment to the labs, making WETLAB one of the most innovative businesses in their field today. WETLAB solidified that reputation for being on top of their industry by certifying four new test methods to properly provide the scientific data in their water quality tests that governments, mines, environmental restoration organizations and more use on a regular basis to make important development decisions.

Want to talk expansion? WETLAB’s services, sales, and marketing went from being a one state gig to covering a majority of the West Coast in 2010, expanding to California, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado. Michelle now has the team, locations, and resources to provide the most innovative water quality testing to whoever her clients may be and wherever those clients are located.

Michelle’s focus on community well being also contributes to her professional notoriety, both for her and WETLAB as a company. Michelle successfully implemented a paperless billing system for in house client reports, receivables and payables systems. Being in the field she is, environmental standards rate high on Michelle’s priority list, and she’s striving to switch as much of her business as possible to a paperless system. She also strives to keep her lab under a full, 100% recycling program, not letting anything go to waste, from tools and toss away equipment to her team’s lunch leftovers.

WETLAB also gives back to the community by volunteering at the Northern Nevada Food Bank, packaging food to go out to needy families. As a dedicated volunteer group, WETLAB was nominated as one of the top companies that volunteer at the food bank.

As a business and community leader, Michelle takes pride in the fact that she puts the well being of her employees, partners, surroundings, and company first. Her top notch standards ensure that her practices are going to stick around for decades to come. And her revenue figures are impressive for a female in a typically male dominated industry.

High standards go hand-in-hand with owning and operating a Testing Laboratory. Michelle's ability to maintain her high standards are reflected in the growth and popularity of her Lab. WETLAB is known for their precise analytics and high standard of customer service.  This offering a uniquely client-oriented lab environment.

Michelle is a type of person that knows immediately  what attribute is the most influential in regard to the success of WETLAB.  Based on my several years as a business owner and entrepreneur, Michelle has discovered that at the very top of the list is the distinguishing quality of integrity. Michelle believes that integrity is at the helm of her company. Michelle defiantly places  integrity present throughout the deepest layers of her company and not just at its surface.  She wants integrity to be the heart and soul of the company's culture in order to run a company that succeeds and not company that falters.

As a wife and mother of two, Michelle's continued commitment to her family and company has always amazed me.  She has very strong determination to be successful as she have proven this determination through her ability to maintain harmony through her personal and business life.  Without this ability I am not sure any entrepreneur would survive.

Michelle is not only committed to her friends, family and company but she has created a new standard for how companies should represent themselves throughout the community.

A great example that comes to mind is WETLABS ongoing volunteering efforts at the Food Bank of Northern Nevada (FBNN).  The entire WETLAB staff volunteers their entire evening once a month to the FBNN packaging food.

Cyanide methodologies

On January 11^th, 2011 The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Mining Regulation and Reclamation (BMRR) issued a statement clarifying the acceptable methods for the analysis of Weak Acid Dissociable, or “WAD”, cyanide. The statement listed two acceptable methods: ASTM D2036-082 and SM 4500CN I.

Keep in mind this concerns only compliance monitoring samples that are being reported to BMRR. The issued statement doesn’t cover any sample that is not for compliance, or is being reported to any other agency.

Both acceptable methods are manual distillation methods that use a weak acid (glacial acetic acid) to break up easily dissociated cyanide complexes, capture the free cyanide in solution, and then analyze the solution using a few different techniques. These two methods have long been thought to be the most reliable techniques for the quantification of cyanide in waters. BMRR stated that only data obtained using one of these two methods would be acceptable for compliance monitoring.

Western Environmental Testing Laboratory (WETLAB) has been using SM4500CN I for the analysis of WAD cyanide for many years and is currently certified by the State of Nevada, Bureau of Water Quality Planning. Just like any method or technique that WETLAB wishes to use for compliance monitoring sample analysis, we have gone through a rigorous certification program that includes an on-site audit and the analysis of “blind” QC samples.

Over the last decade new techniques have been developed for the analysis of the easily dissociated cyanide complexes that WETLAB hopes become acceptable for BMRR reporting. One specific method is known as Flow Injection Ligand Exchange or F.I.L.E. cyanide. WETLAB is already certified and equipped to use this more efficient and environmentally sound testing method, which would provide clients with quicker turn-around time for results. Should BMRR choose to accept data generated from this technique, WETLAB will contact clients to inform them of our wish to change methodologies.

As always, if you have any questions regarding the information contained in this blog, don’t hesitate to call (775) 355-0202.

Andy Smith

QA Manager

WETLAB

Expansion into Elko area helps testing facility grow revenue stream

WETLAB - Western Environmental Testing Laboratory featured in the Northern Nevada Business Weekly on Monday, January 24, 2011.

Nevada Rural Water Association 2010 Annual Training and Technical Conference

Western Environmental Testing Laboratory will be presenting at the 2010 NvRWA Annual Training and Technical Conference.  Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 8:15 am, Andy Smith and Nick Ross will give a presentation explaining lab reporting terminology and method detection limits (MDL's).  The relationship between reporting limits and MDL's will be examined, how reporting limits are determined and how client needs affect reporting limits. 

Please join us at the Grand Sierra Resort, Tuesday, March 10, 2010 at 8:15 am.  We look forward to seeing you there!