DESIGNING AND IMPLEMENTING A WASTEWATER LABORATORY QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM

The consistent production of accurate, legally-defensible analytical data is the most important goal of a wastewater laboratory. Following the guidelines set forth in a comprehensive quality assurance (QA) program is the best way to insure that a particular laboratory achieves this level of competence. A thorough QA program is a written document which defines the policies, organization, activities, and quality control procedures required to produce defensible data of known precision and accuracy. This paper applies to small and medium-sized wastewater treatment plant laboratories that want to design and implement a comprehensive QA program. Topics covered are determining, designing, and implementing necessary components. Most of the discussion will center around the components to incorporate into the program, including: project description; organization and responsibility; sampling procedures and documentation; standard operating procedures (SOPs) for each analytical method; corrective action procedures; calibration of equipment; external quality assessment; data reduction, validation, and reporting; internal quality control; QA objectives for measurement data; and control graphs.