Alaska Tribal Air Projects & QUALITY ASSURANCE PROJECT PLANS

When are QAPPs Needed?

EPA Region 10

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What are QAPPs?

Why are Quality Assurance Project Plans needed?

When are they needed?

How are they done?

Then…what do you do with them?

Overview

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The purpose of QA is to help you (1) get the data you need

(2) Answer questions you have

(3) as cheaply and quickly as possible

QA, done right, does save you time and money

Why QA?

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◦Plan ahead

◦Ensure everyone agrees to Goals and equipment to be used What their jobs are The schedule Who reports what to whom when

QA Makes You

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Category 1 projects are to compare against the NAAQS standard, and require all 24 elements

Category 2-3 projects include looking at air pollution transport, air toxics, exploratory studies, or evaluating whether further measurements should be made, and require fewer of the 24 elements of a QAPP

Category 4 projects are education and outreach and may make a few qualitative measurements and only require 6 elements of a QAPP (see example on course website)

Graded Approach for Air Monitoring

Important Decisions

Less Important Decisions

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Anyone expecting the data to be respected must have some form of quality system (remember a QAPP is just good management plus documentation)

Anyone receiving grant funds from a federal agency must have a quality system

Even one-person programs can have legally, scientifically defensible data by following these guidelines

What this means for us

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Bank balances: the goal of our personal quality system is to not bounce checks

QA are the activities of depositing checks, checking bank balances every week, planning ahead about what bills to hold off on paying

QC is routinely balancing our checkbooks and calculating whether checks written or online payments are going to bounce

Example of QA/QC in daily life

Quality Objectives

Why are we collecting data?

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Why are we making these measurements?

How will collecting data help manage air pollution and health risks?

Can air pollution and health risks be managed without having data?

Project Objectives

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Quality Management Tools

Planning QA Project Plans

Doing QA Project Plans Standard Operating Procedures QA Annual Report and Work Plans

Checking Management Assessments Technical Assessments Data Quality Assessment Data Validation and Verification

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QA Project Plans (QAPPs)

Purpose To document type and quality of data for

environmental decisions; a blueprint for

the requirements for collecting and accessing

data

Responsibility Organization performing activity

Documentation Turbo-QAPP

EPA Requirements for Quality Assurance Project Plans

(QA/R-5)

Guidance for Quality Assurance Project Plans (QA/G-5)

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QA Project Plans (QAPPs)

Explain how environmental data collection activities are planned, implemented, documented, and assessed (checked)

QA Project Plans are required when environmental data operations occur for

◦Contracts, work assignments, delivery orders

◦Grants, cooperative agreements

◦ Interagency agreements (when negotiated)

◦Tribal-EPA agreements providing funding

◦Responses to statutory or regulatory requirements and to consent agreements

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Common Elements in All Systematic Planning ApproachesQuestions

◦Who is making the decision based on the data?

◦Why are data being collected?

◦What data are needed to make the decision?

◦Why does the decision maker need that type and quality of data? Is it the right data?

◦How does the decision maker plan to use the data to make a defensible decision?

◦What are "measures of success" for the project?

Get the type, quantity, and quality of data necessary

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Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Written documents that clearly describe what you will do

Detail who will do what when things go wrong

If different people do it, but follow the same SOP, it should result in the same answer

You can print out once, then revise in pen and photocopy if different people do the work

Can be short, even ONE PAGE or less

An integral part of QA: Data Management

“if you didn’t write it down, can you prove it happened?”

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1) Data processing (WHAT)

2) Data end use (WHY)

3) Data access (WHO)

4) Data distribution (WHERE)

5) Data storage and retrieval (HOW)

6) Data disposal (WHEN)

Six Elements of Data Management

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Anyone expecting the data to be respected must have some form of quality system (good management plus documentation, in a QAPP)

Anyone receiving grant funds from a federal agency must have a quality system

Even one-person programs can have legally, scientifically defensible data by following the guidelines

Conclusions

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A. Anytime you collect data with EPA funding

B. Anytime you want to have data that can be used for the purposes for which you monitored

C. Any time you want to plan a successful project that will be used to make a decision

D. All of the above

When is a QAPP Needed?

Quality Assurance =Good Planning =

Successful & Useful Projects!

Thanks!

Mary Manous, EPA R10AK Tribal Air

Management Anchorage, AK

April 2011