Bottle orders and sampling kits, drafted from the client's analyte list.

Today a sample control tech or project manager reads the request, matches every method to a line on the bottle chart, counts bottles per location, adds volume for the lab's own QC, puts blanks in where volatiles or PFAS travel, and writes up the coolers, ice, labels and custody forms for bottle prep. A plan that leaves out the matrix or whether the water is chlorinated means a phone call before anything is packed.

In the proof of concept, AI reads copies of the same requests, plans and bottle chart and drafts the kit order line by line: location, method, container, size, preservative, count and holding time, then the blanks, coolers and forms. Each line names the chart row or method it came from, and every open point goes on a question list. Nothing is packed, shipped or sent to the client.

One analyte, a different bottle in each program. For a wastewater permit, Table II in 40 CFR 136.3 has cyanide raised above pH 10 with sodium hydroxide, plus a reducing agent if an oxidizer is present, and held 14 days. For a public water system, 40 CFR 141.23 has cyanide brought to pH 12 at collection, and nitrate held 48 hours, or 14 days if the sample is chlorinated and left unacidified. Hexavalent chromium in wastewater sits at pH 9.3 to 9.7, and its 28-day hold depends on the ammonium sulfate buffer named in EPA Method 218.6. Oil and grease goes only in glass. So the draft first settles which program each sample is for, and asks when the plan doesn't say.

Trace work changes the bottle itself. Low-level mercury by EPA Method 1631 needs fluoropolymer or glass bottles, bromine monochloride or hydrochloric acid within 48 hours, and analysis within 90 days. PFAS in drinking water by EPA Method 537.1, version 2.0, goes in a 250 mL polypropylene bottle with a polypropylene cap, with Trizma added as a solid at 5.0 grams per liter before the bottle leaves the lab, and must stay at or below 10 °C for the first 48 hours. Every set needs a field reagent blank: reagent water filled at the lab and a second bottle holding only preservative, poured together at the site, with the same preservative batch as the samples. Method 533 uses ammonium acetate and holds 28 days instead of 14. The draft adds those blanks to every PFAS set and notes the batch for bottle prep.

Volatiles bring vials, blanks and a choice about acid. SW-846 Chapter Four, revision 6 from December 2018, recommends three 40 mL vials with PTFE-lined septum caps for water, acidified below pH 2 and held 14 days, but no acid and 7 days when MTBE or other fuel oxygenates are expected and a high-temperature preparation will be used. Chlorinated water goes first into a 125 mL container already dosed with sodium thiosulfate. Vials from different samples are bagged apart, and a trip blank of organic-free reagent water travels with them through sampling, shipping and storage. The chapter calls its table guidance, not an EPA requirement, and defers to the project's data quality objectives, so the draft follows your chart and the client's plan and lists any place they disagree.

Shipping and the clock. Table II says a sample sent by common carrier or mail must meet DOT's hazardous materials rules in 49 CFR part 172, the shipper is responsible, and DOT has found those rules don't reach dilute acid or sodium hydroxide preservative below set strengths. Water for metals may travel without acid if acid goes in at least 24 hours before analysis, and soil and sediment need none. For SW-846 holds of 7 days or more, a May 2020 letter from EPA's Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery counts a Tuesday sample as on time through the end of the following Tuesday, and says states can be stricter. The draft states each bottle's hold in its program's terms and leaves dates and rush calls to your desk.

Kits for people who aren't samplers. As 40 CFR 141.86 now reads, a lead and copper tap sample is one liter, drawn after the water has stood at least six hours, in a wide-mouth bottle whose mouth is at least 40 mm across. At lead service line sites in the first two tiers it becomes a first-liter and fifth-liter pair from five numbered bottles filled in order. The instructions may not tell residents to remove the aerator or flush first, and acid can be added up to 14 days later so they never handle nitric acid. The draft takes each address's tier from the water system's site plan, never guessing it. Your reviewer will check every bottle, preservative, count, blank, hold, cooler and form against the kit your desk packed.

Once your reviewer finds the drafts meet the success criteria, new requests get a draft kit order the same way for about 30 days.

Sample control checks each order before bottle prep starts, and your team still packs, labels and ships every cooler and answers every client question.

Scoring runs all month in the same side-by-side. A second job waits until this one is judged, and it gets its own price.