General Information: Laboratory/Proficiency Testing

The Authority maintains a fully equipped laboratory at its Brush Run treatment plant for the purpose of analyzing not only samples for process control, but for analyzing parameters that must be reported to both the PA DEP and the US EPA. Reporting of these results is what is referred to as self monitoring, in which we must report the results monthly on a Discharge Monitoring Report and report and explain any violations to our NPDES permit that may have occurred.

The laboratory has been registered with the PA DEP as required, and also holds a US EPA lab code number. The Authority's laboratory is required to participate annually in Discharge Monitoring Report Quality Assurance Studies (DMRQA). This is done by purchasing samples from an approved provider and then the laboratory technician must analyze certain analytes of an unknown concentration and report the results to the regulatory agencies. Upon completion of the study, the Authority is given a "report card" of how well they have done in analyzing the samples. Anyone receiving an unacceptable result must determine the cause and develop a plan to ensure that the cause has been eliminated. The Authority has been participating for the last two years, and has received an acceptable rating for all analytes, see attached chart of those results.

There is current legislation that will require all laboratories performing any type of environmental sampling and testing used for reporting purposes to become "accredited" by the state of PA. The regulations are expected to become final sometime during 2005. It is expected that there will heavy emphasis placed on quality assurance/quality control as well as educational qualifications and training for laboratory supervisors and staff.