Laboratory 

The Ann Arbor Water Treatment Plant's laboratory facility, constructed in 1994, has 4 full time staff under the supervision of the plant's Environmental Lab Supervisor, Wendy Schultz. The City of Ann Arbor’s drinking water meets or exceeds all state and federal regualtions.

Lab Certification

Certification by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (MDNRE) permits the performance of analysis for compliance with Safe Drinking Water Act Regulations. Successful analysis of annual performance evaluation samples for regulated contaminants and passing thorough on-site inspections by a MDNRE approved certification officer are some of the certification requirements. The education and experience of the lab staff are also critical to obtaining certification. Currently, all full-time lab personnel have at least a Bachelor of Science degree.

The Ann Arbor Water Treatment Plant has a combined, full service lab. In addition to drinking water samples, analysis is performed on wastewater and samples from local rivers and creeks at the laboratory facility. For example, sampling of phosphorus loading removed from water entering the Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) is performed at the laboratory; in 2008 they found that approximately 273,000 pounds of phosphorus were removed, equal to 90-95% of the phosphorus from the wastewater.

Lab staff and operators perform Calcium
Titration, one example of analysis run at
the Water Treatment Plant, which tests for
the amount of Calcium to determine the 
hardness of the water.