PREPROPOSAL STATEMENT OF INQUIRY
Subject of Possible Rule Making: Revision of chapter 173-50 WAC, Accreditation of environmental laboratories, the amendments will add accreditation for matrices other than water, accreditation for drinking water laboratories, granting NELAP accreditation, make changes to the fee schedule, and add accreditation for physical tests.
Statutes Authorizing the Agency to Adopt Rules on this Subject: RCW 43.21A.230.
Reasons Why Rules on this Subject may be Needed and What They Might Accomplish: Chapter 173-50 WAC needs to be expanded to include granting accreditation for tests on matrices other than water, for physical tests, and for drinking water tests and allow collecting fees for these services. The amendments also include language for the department to become an accrediting authority within the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP). The primary objective of this rule revision is to allow fee collections to balance program expenditures.
Other Federal and State Agencies that Regulate this Subject and the Process Coordinating the Rule with These Agencies: The Drinking Water Laboratory Accreditation Program, a federal (EPA) program, which is administered in Washington by the Department of Health. Through a memorandum of understanding, ecology will assume the drinking water lab accreditation mission from health in October 2002, coinciding with the planned effective date of this WAC revision. Health will be kept informed on all actions relative to this revision process and will be invited to all meetings of a citizens advisory group and to the public hearings.
Process for Developing New Rule: This rule-making process will include advisory groups, stakeholder forums, workshops, public hearings, and mailings (some of which is described below).
Interested parties can participate in the decision to adopt the new rule and formulation of the proposed rule before publication. Interested parties will be invited to participate in rule development and will be informed of all compliance requirements though various media including a citizens advisory committee meetings, two public hearings, mass mailings, and association newsletters. Implementation will have statewide implications. Those public and private entities submitting water quality data to ecology and drinking water data to health, are affected by laboratory accreditation. These include publicly and privately owned water utilities and wastewater treatment plants that submit data in accordance with their discharge permits. Also included are commercial labs (whose business is to analyze environmental and/or drinking water samples) serving the wastewater dischargers and other ecology and health clients requiring support by analytical labs. Academic labs (e.g., those operated by state universities) having grants from ecology are also affected.
Ecology point of contact is Perry Brake, Lab Accreditation Unit Supervisor, Environmental Assessment Program, (360) 895-6149, fax (360) 895-6180, pbra461@ecy.wa.gov.
December 4, 2001
William H. Backous, P.E.
Environmental Assessment
Program Manager