QUALITY ASSURANCE AND QUALITY-CONTROL FOR DRINKING-WATER LABORATORIES

Soon after the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) was formed i n 1972, agency administrators realized that in order to make appropria te decisions for environmental regulation, they must be assured that d ata being generated by the agency and the 50 states were valid and leg ally defensible. Thus in 1979, USEPA established a mandatory quality a ssurance (QA) program for all data generated by or for the agency. QA responsibilities were assigned to the Office of Research and Developme nt. QA guidance in water chemistry and microbiology was assigned to th e Environmental Monitoring Systems Laboratory (EMSL) in Cincinnati, Oh io, and QA guidance in water radiochemistry became the responsibility of the EMSL in Las Vegas, Nev.