| Quality Control
The Laboratory's Quality Control (QC) Program is designed
to assure the production of high quality data that is of known accuracy
and precision that is legally defensible. QC policies, procedures,
and objectives are documented in the Laboratory's Quality Assurance
Plan (U.S. EPA approved) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
manual.
The Laboratory's Quality Assurance
Plan is in PDF
format.
QA Plan
Laboratory SOPs:
All procedures used at the Laboratory are documented in Laboratory
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Lab users may request the
most recent SOP for lab methods.
Quality Assurance Project Plans:
If a project is funded in whole or in part by the U.S. EPA, includes
sampling and analysis activities, the U.S. EPA requires that a
satisfactory quality assurance project plan be submitted to EPA's
Quality Assurance Office. The Department of Environmental Conservation
(DEC) supports this policy and requires that projects funded by
state funds have acceptable quality assurance project plans. The
information in these Quality Assurance plans will allow EPA and
state project officers to determine the quality and defensibility
of the data generated by the project.
The Laboratory's Quality Assurance Plan is designed to assist Laboratory
users in preparation of Quality Assurance Project Plans. Department
of Environmental Conservation Programs needing to meet EPA/state
requirements for a QA Project Plan can reference the Laboratory
QA Plan and will only need to submit to the EPA project officer
and/or the DEC project officer a description of the project including
its goals, its sampling program, and its relationship to the DEC
Laboratory.
Guidance in developing a project plan can be found in U.S. EPA
quality assurance project plan preparation aids. At the present
time the Region I Quality Assurance Office is using two national
EPA guidance documents for most non-Superfund and non RCRA projects:
Miscellaneous:
EPA Requirements for Quality Assurance Project Plans EPA QA/R-5,
Interim Final, November 1999.
The Volunteer Monitor's Guide to Quality Assurance Project Plans
EPA 841-B-96-003. September 1996.
Region 1, EPA-New England Compendium of Quality Assurance Project
Plan Guidance, Draft Final, September 1998 (Attachment A.).
Contact: Chris
Russo
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