ICPRB has recently published a new white paper, Considerations for Monitoring Microplastics in the Non-Tidal Potomac River.

The paper explores the feasibility of a microplastic monitoring program in the nontidal Potomac basin. It was written as part of ICPRB’s 2022 Clean Water Act Section 106 Potomac Basin Water Quality Improvement grant, which included an activity to “assist water suppliers in VA, MD, and DC in developing microplastic sampling and analysis methodologies and conduct field sample collection.”

Section 2 describes considerations for collecting and processing samples for microplastics analysis.

Section 3 provides a brief explanation of analytical methods and quality control recommendations for the detection, quantification, and identification of microplastics.