Summary
The 23rd. Norwegian intercomparison study for analysis of fresh water, designated 14-23, was organized in November-December 2014 with 54 participants. It comprised analysis of three sample sets of four samples (A-D, E-H, I-L), and two sample sets of two samples (M-N and O-P), made by adding known amounts of stoichiometric material to water from lake Himtjern and river Kvisla, which had been filtered through membrane filter with pore size 0,45 µm. The program included 32 different parameters: pH, conductivity, turbidity, colour, UV-absorption, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, hardness, alkalinity, chloride, sulfate, fluoride, total organic carbon, chemical oxygen demand (CODMn ), phosphate, total phosphorus, ammonium, nitrate, total nitrogen, aluminium, lead, iron, cadmium, copper, chromium, manganese, nickel, zinc, antimony and arsenic. The analysis was largely carried out according to Norwegian standards or equivalent methods (Table B1). The median of the participants' results, after outliers have been omitted, is selected as the "true" value. The acceptance limit is normally set to ± 20 % of the average real value for the two samples that form a pair. The results are presented graphically in a Youden diagramme, where a circle with the acceptance limit as radius is drawn. The result pairs within the circle are affected by a total error less than the limit and are hence considered acceptable (Appendix A). In total 76 % of participants' results in this intercomparison were acceptable, which is slightly better than for the previous one (Table 1).