The Evolution to a New LaboratoryWhat I know now- that I wish I knew then

Sherrie Elliott Public Works Supervisor

Chad Bradley Public Works Technician

How to plan for a new laboratory

• Think of your new lab as a blank page.

• Think outside the box .

• If using the same space, think where is everything relocated.

• If adding space, what are you going to do?

• Are you adding new equipment?

Rethinking the space- What is the focal point of your building

What do you what?

• Lab

• Bathroom- 2

• Conference Area

• Locker rooms

• Storage

What do you have?

• Lab

• Bathroom/ locker room

• Polymer room

• Office

• Electrical room

• Lunch /conference room

• SCADA office

• Chemical

room.

• Sample room

• Electrical room

• Office area

• SCADA office

Who should you involve?

• Your Engineer

• Architect

• Electrical Engineer

• IT Department

• Operators

• How do you work the space?

• What do you need for power?

• Do you want additional storage?

• Do you need data ports?

• Do you need or want surge

protection?

Other things to think about.

• Ventilation

• Fume Hoods

• Outlets

• Data Ports / Data Screens

• Gas- Air-Vacuum ports

• Communication devices

• Charging stations (cellphones or

USB sites)

• Colors- Texture- DURABILITY

• Are you keeping the same

furniture or buying new?

• Are you adding file cabinets?

• Are you adding work stations?

• How many safety eye washes or

showers are needed?

Space -The final frontier

• Visualize where you think you

want your lab equipment.

• Measure your lab equipment!

• Measure the space for your lab

equipment

• Re-measure your equipment

We had 6

different

floor plans

before we

found the

one that

worked

best for us.

And we still

modified it!

How do you meet compliance with the NPDES while the new lab is being built?

• Lab on wheels.

• Expensive

• Utilize another part of the building

as the lab.

• Keeping temps

• Ventilation

• Area to do lab work

• Outsourcing the work.

• What equipment can you keep or

what can go into storage?

• Where can items be put in safe

storage.

• Good time to clean the old lab of

unused equipment.

• Think about new lab equipment

for the new lab.

Staying in Compliance with both labs

Wastewater

• Wastewater NPDES Permit

• What analysis is staying on site.

• Inform the MDEQ( EGLE) of the

transition.

• What equipment will be in storage?

• How do we replace the function of stored equipment?

• What is our lab back - up plan?

Drinking water

• Informing our customers of the upcoming construction.

• Informed our customers of other locations for sample analysis.

• Finding another location for our BT sampling.

• What about positive samples?

• Notifying MDEQ Greg Lundy of our plans and maintaining our program.

What about our SCADA Operation ?

What was SHE thinking?????

• Getting the lab packed up.

• Going through the lab

equipment.

• What was that used for?

• Stuff we have never seen or

used!

• Deciding what to pack for the

temporary lab.

• Figuring how to temporary

move SCADA and WHERE.

Cleaning out the lab

• We started early knowing we had

to do it.

• Tried to evaluate what we would

need.

• What would be in short term storage?

• What went into long term storage.

• Lab equipment, furniture and files were in different locations.

• Called other facilities regarding our

surplus.

Planning • From Lab 1- 427 square feet

• To Lab 2 -163 square feet

• NPDES permit testing

• BOD5

• Suspended Solids

• Total Phosphorus’

• Ammonium Nitrogen

• pH, D.O., fecal coliform, process

control, and VAA.

• DMR studies to content with.

• Water Sampling samplings

• WS studies.

• SCADA in the room

Tiny Lab living

• Two operators- Lab and Operations

• Keeping both the WWTP and Water

System going.

• Maintaining temperature in lab

• Dust with construction in the room

next to our lab.

• Started early to get lab done while

dealing with the construction.

• Administration is separate trailer.

Our Lab Layouts- Decision making. What goes where?

Lab 1

• All probe work

• All wet chemistry

• All water chemistry

• Water Lab- BT station

Lab 2

• All solids tests

• pH probe

• VAA test

Moving Back • Set-up a few pieces of equipment each day.

• Put supplies near equipment.

• Have one person set-up lab equipment , for

consistency.

• Test equipment as it is set into place.

• Pick an official start date.

What would we do differently?

• One central battery back up.

• Not have ventilation duct work

over lab benches or near critical

test or lab equipment

• Still working on computer SCADA

update.

• Structure how many drawers to

cabinets.

• Update lab water system. To a

RO system, in lab 1 and lab 2.

• Pick a different HVAC system

for both the lab and the

treatment plant

Questions

We can be reached at

(231)-347-2500.