New certified reference materials for the quality control of groundwater monitoring

Abstract Routine monitoring of groundwater is currently performed by a number of laboratories worldwide to control the level of contamination by major or trace elements. A proper evaluation of the contamination levels and compliance with regulations imply that analytical data should be accurate, which requires the availability of representative certified reference materials (CRMs) as a tool for quality control. This article describes the preparation and certification of a series of six groundwater reference materials which were certified for the major and trace element contents, within the framework of two separate EC-funded projects (SMT programme). Besides information on the production of the CRMs, a description of the analytical techniques used by the certifying laboratories is given.