  |
|
|
Managers responsible for ordering lab services through regulations, permits, or contractual agreements will ensure that accredited laboratories perform the analyses. Applicable environmental data include, but are not limited to, results from analysis of water, sediment, sludge, air, soil, plant and animal tissue, and hazardous waste Applicable analyses include chemical, physical, biological, microbiological, radiological, or other scientific determinations which provide recorded qualitative and/or quantitative results.
Chapter 173-220 Washington Administrative Code (WAC), National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit Program, required use of accredited labs for all major NPDES permittees by July 1, 1992. Chapter 173-216 WAC , State Waste Discharge Permit Program, and Chapter 173-226 WAC, Waste Discharge General Permit Program, require all other permitted dischargers to use accredited labs by July 1, 1994. Refer to WACs 173-220-210, 173-216-215, and 173-226-090 for the specific language in each rule.
All monitoring data submitted to Ecology must come from accredited labs, with specific exceptions. Those tests which need not be done by an accredited lab are:
- All tests which are done for process control only.
- Flow, temperature, and settleable solids.
- Conductivity and pH, if the lab operated by a discharger is not required to be accredited for any other tes.t
Chapter 173-340 WAC, Model Toxics Control Act [MTCA] Cleanup states that "all hazardous substance analyses shall be conducted by a laboratory accredited under chapter 173-50 WAC, unless otherwise approved by the department." Refer to WAC 173-340-830(2)(a) for the specific language.
All monitoring data Ecology approves except for flow, temperature, pH, total residual chlorine, and other exceptions, must come from an accredited lab.
In observation of Ecology's Executive Policy 1-22, the Puget Sound Estuary Program (PSEP) advised all labs supporting Dredged Material Management Program (DMMP) projects in a June 28, 1991 letter that they would need to be accredited for the specific parameters using Appendix D of PSEP Protocols (referred to as PSEP App D), or SW-846 methods indicated.
Ecology programs may require use of accredited labs, even though the accreditation may be for methods somewhat different than those used by that program. For example, a program for which soil analyses are required for a given analyte may require use of a laboratory accredited to analyze for that analyte in a water matrix. Government agencies other than Ecology, and any other lab client, are also likely to require use of an accredited lab.
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
