Preliminary Observations from California Support

Operational and Advocacy Issues Impacting the Environmental Laboratory Industry
Oral Presentation

Prepared by M. Miller1, C. Daigle2, N. Luedtke2
1 - NV5/Dade Moeller, 667 Emory Valley Rd, Suite A, Oak Ridge, TN, 37830, United States
2 - NV5/Dade Moeller, Suite A, Oak Ridge, TN, 37830, United States


Contact Information: mitzi.miller@nv5.com; 509.531.0255


ABSTRACT

The California Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP) has initiated a program to improve its process for assessing Drinking Water Laboratories within its purview. As part of this effort, NV5/Dade Moeller has been working with CA ELAP to provide support in the following areas:

• Mentoring and training California laboratory assessors
• Coordinating assessment criteria
• Providing approaches to make assessments consistent
• Conquering the challenges of and developing solutions for operating a large assessor core
• Dealing with multiple revisions of Standard Methods

This presentation discusses the complexity of performing Drinking Water assessments across the California ELAP laboratories while maintaining consistency and uniformity. The multiple challenges and lessons learned during the initial implementation of the improvement process will be presented and discussed.