EPA New England Regional Laboratory (Office of Environmental Measurement and Evaluation)

Biology Laboratory

The Biology Laboratory is a state-of-the-art laboratory which provides a variety of biological analyses and services including:

• Microbiology: conducting bacterial analyses to measure drinking water and surface water quality; inspection and certification of state and tribal drinking water laboratories

• Aquatic toxicity testing: testing the toxicity of surface waters and treatment plant discharges

• Sediment toxicity testing: testing sediments from lake and river bottoms for toxicity

• Polymerase chain reaction: a DNA splitting process used for identifying and differentiating between likely sources of human verses non-human (ducks, beavers, etc.) bacterial pollution in surface waters

• General biology: a main biology lab for fish processing, invertebrate identification and other assorted activities