It’s easy to get comfortable in our own labs. We know where everything is, we know our methods inside and out, and we’ve figured out workflows that make sense for our team. Once an analysis has gone through development and is finalized, we often don’t think about optimization. But sometimes that comfort can also limit us. We don’t always realize there’s a better way to do something until we see it in action somewhere else.

The City of Thornton’s Water Quality group recently had the chance to visit the new City of Aurora laboratory at the Binney Water Purification Facility. I was most interested in seeing how they had setup for extracting and running PFAS samples. We were in the process of obtaining an automated solid-phase extraction system and wanted to see how it ran and the workflow they had developed around it. Seeing and learning how the extractor worked really solidified for us our need for obtaining the system due to its ease of use and time saved for analysts. Walking through their process and talking with their PFAS analysts was a great reminder of how much we can learn just by observing and asking questions.

One thing that Aurora Water Laboratory Supervisor, Susan Oster shared with us, was their use of positive displacement pipettes for working with methanol. Most of us have dealt with the frustration of using standard air-displacement pipettes with volatile solvents. Methanol doesn’t always behave well in a regular tip. It can drip, lose volume, or just feel inconsistent. Aurora’s team showed us the positive displacement pipettes they use, and the difference was obvious. No dripping. Better precision. More confidence in the volume being delivered. It’s such a simple piece of equipment, but it solves a real problem in organic prep work. I wouldn’t have known about another pipetting option if I hadn’t seen it in the Aurora lab.

That visit reinforced something I think we sometimes overlook: RMWQAA is full of this kind of practical knowledge. Across our member labs, there are countless small improvements, clever workarounds, and hard-earned lessons that don’t always make it into formal presentations or written guidance. They live in conversations, walkthroughs, and side discussions during tours.

Reaching out to another lab for advice shouldn’t feel like a last resort, it should be normal. Whether you’re setting up a new method, troubleshooting QC issues, or trying to make a workflow more efficient, chances are someone in this association has already been there. Taking part in lab visits, technical sessions, and even just informal conversations helps all of us raise our game.

There’s also real value in the relationships themselves. When you’ve met someone in person and talked shop for an hour, it’s much easier to pick up the phone later and ask, “Hey, have you run into this before?”

We all work toward the same goal: producing high-quality, defensible data to protect public health and the environment. Sharing what we’ve learned openly and generously, makes that work stronger across the region.

If you haven’t visited another member lab recently or attended one of our monthly events, I’d encourage you to consider it. You might come back with a small idea that makes a big difference.