April 2009 :
Don't forget to register for the May 15 ORELAP-OELA Workshop in Salem. This year's program will feature Marlene Moore and will cover the most recent developments from The NELAC Institute and the Oregon Environmental Lab Accreditation Program.

Click here for OELA 2009 Workshop Program.pdf
Click here for OELA 2009 Registration Form.pdf

February 2009
OELA News 0209 (PDF)

January 2009

The Performance Based Method System (PBMS) is out as the new approach is “Flexible Approaches to Environmental Measurement”. The Federal Register sometime around April will have an announcement regarding Method Flexibility. There will also be a new website by March detailing the different programs and what they are doing. I do not have that site name available yet. You can e-mail Lara Autry at autry.lara@epa.gov if you are interested in pilot participation in flexible analysis.

All EPA programs are putting together a compendium and toolbox for method detection limits and calibrations. Hopefully will be finished by August and be available for review. Leonard Schantz, the Small Lab Advocate, also gave a presentation on what he is trying to do. I volunteered to be on his committee and anyone else interested is also welcome as he would like as much help as possible to meet the needs of the small lab community. Since there is no clear definition of a small lab he has come up with the following ideas and feels that there is no need to have a rigid definition. Many of these are from municipal or capture labs as that is the aarea he is familiar with and was able to get some data.

The labs will have limited staff (no numbers given) Just a few methods i.e. micro and DW non-metals fairly targeted and simple Sample locations are routine, typically compliance monitoring Many times just one customer Confidentiality a non issue as these are usually public entities Support plant distribution and operations.

As an educated guess he felt there may be approx 5000 nationwide and the number would be much higher if the commercial labs are included. He wants to begin working on the following issues: Document requirements; Level of QC; Frequency of PT’s; Scalability of the TNI Stds; better tools, templates and guidance documents. He also wants to facilitate feedback from the small lab community, establish the Small Lab Advocacy Groups (That’s where the volunteers come in) and have a forum to raise and discuss small lab issues. He gave the following reasons to participate in the process: Like people standards are not perfect. The consensus process is guaranteed with your input. Standards should have known and documented benefits. If you have a comment it is then addressed. You can e-mail Leonard ant lgs@cityofrochester.gov. Of course I hope everyone has seen the TNI Lab Survey results. The Field Activities Committee met and continued planning their future course. They may add a separate board to TNI and their needs are different than the lab community. They have 3 accreditation bodies looking at assessing to ther standards and are moving forward an o voluntary basis. There are several entities that use the TNI Field Standards as requirements to follow though there is no requirement for accreditation yet. I know much more went on at the meeting and much of the information can be accessed on the website and hopefully Bennett can fill in with his report also. Jan Wilson, Cammia Environmental