Durham Region: Inside the lab that keeps your tap water safe

The York-Durham Regional Environmental Laboratory in Whitby tests municipal drinking water, wastewater and environmental samples to verify they meet provincial safety standards, the Region of Durham says.

Jointly owned and operated by York and Durham Regions, the state-of-the-art facility is accredited by the Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 and licensed by the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

Lab technician Charu Aggarwal, who works in the lab's Organics Department, describes the journey of a sample: the Lab Administration team reviews the sample and its documentation, each sample is entered into the laboratory information management system and tracked from arrival to final reporting, samples are held in a walk-in fridge, and testing is done within acceptable hold times.

Testing is only part of the process, the Region says. Quality control checks, data reviews and verification steps run throughout, to make sure results meet rigorous standards before they are released.

Some instruments can detect contaminants at concentrations as small as parts per billion, Aggarwal says, roughly equivalent to finding a single drop of water in a large backyard swimming pool.

The lab's analysts span inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry and microbiology, supported by a Lab Administration team and a laboratory information management system and technology team. Environmental samples such as groundwater, surface water, stormwater and industrial wastewater are also analyzed to support environmental monitoring and help identify potential sources of contamination.

Residents can learn more about how the Region treats and distributes safe drinking water at durham.ca/water, the Region says.