Wastewater Laboratory

The Wastewater Laboratory is located at Broomfield's Wastewater Reclamation Facility, 2985 W. 124th Avenue (a half-mile east of Lowell Boulevard). The Lab's mission is to provide accurate and precise data for the wastewater reclamation facility to ensure compliance with the Clean Water Act and the State of Colorado regulations.

The Wastewater Laboratory is responsible for conducting analyses to meet regulatory requirements and process control needs. The laboratory supports the wastewater reclamation facility, industrial pretreatment program, stormwater program, reuse irrigation program, biosolids program, drinking water treatment facility, utilities division, and the Big Dry Creek Watershed program. The advantage of an in-house laboratory is the ability to provide analytical results quickly and accurately.

The Wastewater Laboratory works in conjunction with the Environmental Laboratory to assure quality analytical results without duplicating efforts. Wastewater laboratories are not typically certified by the Colorado Department of Health or the Environmental Protection Agency. Broomfield's wastewater laboratory is certified by the state to perform drinking water metals analyses by inductively coupled plasma (ICP). This certification is obtained to avoid analytical duplication between the two Broomfield laboratories (water and wastewater).

The Wastewater Reclamation Facility is currently required to perform biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, and fecal coliform analyses three times per week on wastewater discharges to Big Dry Creek to meet the requirements of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. The frequency and number of required analyses will be increasing as the facility expands over the next few years.